Kobo Clara HD

[Derf]

Just wanted to share some tidbits about my new Kobo Clara HD.

1) the back cover is hard plastic. This often gets knocked as one of the complaints about the device. But then, I've seen many of the Kobo back covers get knocked. The main issue with the Clara is that it has a strange stippling pattern for grip, but isn't that grippy, especially when your hands get sweaty.

Well, I found a solution. PlastiDip. If you have the cojones, take off the back cover, and lay down a couple coats of black Plastidip. PlastiDip usually peels right off things like clearcoat on cars, or metal wheels, but on a plastic cover it adheres very well. It gives the cover a nice rubbery, tactile feel.

2) The built in SD card is a Sandisk Edge 8GB.

I don't have crystaldiskMark, since I'm on a Mac, but I have a similar program. Here is the speed test results for the Clara.


It isn't that great.

I replaced it with a 32GB Samsung Evo Plus card, that has faster speed tests.


From off, the Kobo boots up faster now. I've got my eyes out to see what else might be faster too.

3) the battery is a 1500mah 2.8mm x 54mm x 83mm 3.7V lipo. So far it is getting great battery life, but it may be possible to actually fit a larger battery.

4) there is a woman who posted a great fix for the Clara HD. Search youtube for 'kobo clara fix'. She describes putting electrical tape on the sides of the screen. And I've heard from others that this works!... I was anticipating having to do this too, but I found that actually, if you just take off the back cover and press the backside of the screen against the front bezel, the side lighting disappears. It seems that the double sided tape there just needs a little more help. So, I don't even need to wrap my screen in electrical tape. Just one other possibility for those inclined to try to fix the issue.

[Atilla]

Congratulations on your new Clara HD and welcome to mobileread.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Derf

Just wanted to share some tidbits about my new Kobo Clara HD.

Thank you, especially for 1 and 4!

[timeisart]

great idea about the plastidip, going to try that soon.

I'd like to do the memory card upgrade as well, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it on a mac (I've only found windows tutorials). I know you can use disk utility to make an image of the original card (clone it) but then how do you extend the partition on the new card to make use of all the new available space? Does disk utility do this as well? If not, what program did you use?

Thanks for any help.

[kakinc]

I had mine upgraded to 64GB...
copied my books (4000ish books) to the device... not able to finish the import...
ended up only import books I am currently reading... maybe its a bit too much for it to handle all at once...

*thought of upgrading the battery too when I saw so much space inside. But gave up the idea when battery life is already very good. And it would just add unnecessary weight to it.

[Barbara1955]

....4) there is a woman who posted a great fix for the Clara HD. Search youtube for 'kobo clara fix'. She describes putting electrical tape on the sides of the screen. And I've heard from others that this works!... I was anticipating having to do this too, but I found that actually, if you just take off the back cover and press the backside of the screen against the front bezel, the side lighting disappears. It seems that the double sided tape there just needs a little more help. So, I don't even need to wrap my screen in electrical tape. Just one other possibility for those inclined to try to fix the issue.

**Just a thought ... seems like its the High Temps causing this Sticky Problem Hopefully when I order mine the problem will be solved by Kobo or the Temps going down.

...2. The built in SD card is a Sandisk Edge 8GB.

**Anything else needed done for the switch to work?

[Mrs_Often]

A quick tiny off-topic:
Hi Barbara,

Little tip: if you quote (part of) someone's post, it would make your own post a lot easier to read and understand if you used the quotation functionality...

You can either use the "quote" button (or the little cumulative quote button next to it for quoting multiple posts) at the bottom right of a post; or you can copy paste as you have done, and add
[ quote]
before the text and
[ /quote]
after the text (without spaces).

[Barbara1955]

When I hd to Add SDcard to my Aura 6" I tries the 4 gig [4 speed I think] Was very sluggish. When I changed to 16 gig (10) turning pages is Fast. Not really sure if it the SDcard or something else.

[issybird]

A rude post and several responses have been deleted. "MYOB" is not appropriate to MR, most especially when someone is being helpful. Nor is "Bossy." Enough with the name-calling and insults, please.

[timeisart]

just did the plastidip mod, decided to do both the back and the front.. loving how grippy it is now, thanks again for the tip!





I already had the nobiggi strap applied before I did the plastidip so I had to mask that off with painter's tape beforehand. ended up doing 4 coats total, figured that was enough but considered getting some clear plastidip or even the glossifier to go on top as well.

[Barbara1955]

timeisart .... Good Looking Great Job! Makes me want an Clara even more

[Derf]

Originally Posted by timeisart

great idea about the plastidip, going to try that soon.

I'd like to do the memory card upgrade as well, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it on a mac (I've only found windows tutorials). I know you can use disk utility to make an image of the original card (clone it) but then how do you extend the partition on the new card to make use of all the new available space? Does disk utility do this as well? If not, what program did you use?

Thanks for any help.

I'm on a mac too. You can copy the original card image over to a replacement card with mac disk utility of CLI using diskutil, but a mac cannot dynamically resize a fat32 partition. I tried one piece of software (see my post at the end of the magic memory upgrade thread) that says it can resize the partition, and although it shows it resized it, after every attempt the Kobo wouldn't even boot. So I'm just using a 32GB card as an 8GB card at the moment.
At this point I am likely to bring it to work and use gparted to fix it on a windows computer. I don't have more than 4000 ebooks, so I'm not dying for the space at the moment, but I don't want to NOT use it if its there. Other options include installing a virtual machine on the mac with windows. Or get a live cd/usb of linux. Both those operating systems should resize the FAT32 partition without issue.


I should take some pictures of my back cover with the PlastiDip. Its less glossy and subtly more grippy. You can hear the sound difference too when you run your fingers nails over the surface. It does seem to attract more dust though, but it also blows off pretty easily. I only did the back cover on mine, not the front frame, but that isn't a bad idea and looks pretty good. So far mine has lasted several days without any peeling, but I saw two tips on prep to make it last better : one is that you should clean off any dirt/oil on the surface with alcohol, the other is put the spray can in a pot with very warm water for a few minutes to warm up the rubber before spraying. It makes it spray better and less globby. Also the first coat I went light, but the 3 subsequent coats I went heavy.


The light issue may be heat related, I'm not sure. I do notice that I've re-pressed down in those areas again to fix the light leak, so pressing is only a temporary solution. I may open it again this weekend to do the electrical tape mod, which seems more permanent, but pressing is no biggie to fix the problem for a reading session.

I did all the 'mods' to the current firmware that I wanted. I'm really enjoying this little eReader.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by timeisart

just did the plastidip mod, decided to do both the back and the front.. loving how grippy it is now, thanks again for the tip!

Thank you for sharing! Looks very good. I'm not familiar with PlastiDip. A quick Google gives me a site with many cans in all sorts of colours. What colour did you use? Black?

[s](I also saw PlastiDip is vinyl, not rubber, which is good as I'm allergic to latex/rubber.)[/s]
EDIT: This doesn't seem to be true...

Originally Posted by Derf

I should take some pictures of my back cover with the PlastiDip.

I'd be very interested!

Its less glossy and subtly more grippy. You can hear the sound difference too when you run your fingers nails over the surface. It does seem to attract more dust though, but it also blows off pretty easily. I only did the back cover on mine, not the front frame, but that isn't a bad idea and looks pretty good. So far mine has lasted several days without any peeling, but I saw two tips on prep to make it last better : one is that you should clean off any dirt/oil on the surface with alcohol, the other is put the spray can in a pot with very warm water for a few minutes to warm up the rubber before spraying. It makes it spray better and less globby. Also the first coat I went light, but the 3 subsequent coats I went heavy.

Thank you for the extra info! Very helpful.

[timeisart]

Originally Posted by Derf

I did all the 'mods' to the current firmware that I wanted. I'm really enjoying this little eReader.

I love how moddable kobos are after coming from kindle. What I love the most is the night mode mod (white text on black background) that really makes a difference at night by not disturbing my wife next to me in bed. Other than that I've just got full screen reading, bookerly font installed, and my words (vocabulary builder) turned on. What are all the firmware mods that you've done?

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Thank you for sharing! Looks very good. I'm not familiar with PlastiDip. A quick Google gives me a site with many cans in all sorts of colours. What colour did you use? Black?

(I also saw PlastiDip is vinyl, not rubber, which is good as I'm allergic to latex/rubber.)

Plastidip is mainly used for car paint jobs as an alternative to normal paint in that it can be easily peeled off later if you want (although the stippling pattern on the back of the Clara might make peeling it off difficult).

Yeah I used black but they also have a gunmetal gray that I almost chose, or white or several colors like blue or red. Then they also have finishing sprays like a metallizer to make it look metallic or a glossifier for a glossy finish so there's lots of options for customization.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by timeisart

Plastidip is mainly used for car paint jobs as an alternative to normal paint in that it can be easily peeled off later if you want (although the stippling pattern on the back of the Clara might make peeling it off difficult).



Yeah I used black but they also have a gunmetal gray that I almost chose, or white or several colors like blue or red. Then they also have finishing sprays like a metallizer to make it look metallic or a glossifier for a glossy finish so there's lots of options for customization.

Thank you!