Sansa e200 models are not all the same

Some Sansa’s are very different from others.

I have an e280 that is like that originally, and got another e250 recently, and it is like the e280 was.

Basically the e200’s have a plastic wheel that is translucent white, lights up blue when in use. All e200’s have this, but what’s underneath isn’t the same. The odd ones are a total plastic front, with just a little bit of metal around the power button. The other e200’s have a metal plate that supports the player button area.

On the cheaper version the wheel is one solid piece. On the metal, or better version, there is the wheel inside the front, and inside the player there is a second white piece that works to make the wheel action much smoother, controllable.

The center black button is different too. The cheaper versions have longer prongs, just look different compared to the regular black button.

On a player the difference is night and day when you can compare scrolling with a more solidly built e200.

As it goes, the board with the LCD is interchangeable with a different front, the nicer one, and the nicer scroll wheel parts. This is great since multiple units don’t always work, buying them where ever one can find them, and with parts galore you can get a good solid player built.

You can also swap memory parts, so easy to customize size portion. Backs are backs. Backs are not all the same, different model names on them, but made out of … what. Originals say “liquidmetal” on the bottom left of the back. I had one e250 from ebay recently that had that back, a good metal inside and scroll wheel, but the battery was swollen and the LCD ruined.

A player like that is for parts. LCD and board and battery are useless. Frame, front and back and screws are useful, and the memory module too.

Earlier I had an e260 with a swollen battery,  it’s LCD was messed up too, red interface. I messed around with it and made it useless, which I didn’t care about since the LCD was unpleasant. In Rockbox one could invert the LCD color, which helped, it looked better, and was usable, but only in Rockbox and it wasn’t anything I would use like that. I decided to just fool around with it and found that the LCD is so very fragile, you can’t replace one, the way it connects just leave it alone, find a board with a working LCD, never lift it up.

At any rate, that e260 had a weird heavier metal back, but the front was the normal good metal backed, etc. No Sansa LOGO next to the Sansa name on the back though. The new e250 I just got seems to have a similar though different metal back on it, but it does have that Sansa LOGO.

The regular liquidmetal kind of back is on the other players I have, whether they say “liquidmetal” or not. All also have the Sansa LOGO.

I have an e280 that I made better, it was one that came with that different front and scroll wheel setup. The actual board all works, the buttons work, but the right button only works as a “touch” button, it’s weird. No click, just touching works. I’d rather put the 8gb memory on a board that has good click buttons, but any extras I have are bad LCD’s so… I can leave it all the way it is, or put that board with the e250 memory so bad front and a touchy right button, and let the e280 have the clicky good buttons.

I have one good extra front, so I could give that to the e250, but I think I’ll wait for a good reason to do that.

Buying used e200’s for parts or repair is fun for me, but hunting for the best isn’t rewarded very often. Mostly e250’s are abundant. e280’s more regular than either e260 or e270 so far. Makes sense, people bought more 2gb models, others bought the e280 for the 8gb. Less bought e260 and e270.

[I need to get pictures of all this. I have some photos, but they aren’t good enough, or exactly all the pictures I need in this post. I need to get a light box together and get that done. ]