iHome Teardown

For this tear down project I found an old iHome iPL8 Charging Stereo FM Clock Radio with Lightning Dock.

 

Features include:

• USB Port
• AUX line
• Alarm “Wake/Sleep” function with iPhone/iPod music or FM radio
• iPhone charging doc
• Digital time display
• Speakers (Reason8 Speaker Chambers)
• Materials
  • Plastic Injection mold
  • Matte Metallic Mesh
  • Foot pads
  • Screws

Part 1

I approached the iHome from the underside, removing the Lithium Watch battery first and proceeding with the 4 visible and accessible screws. After those were removed I discovered there where two more screws hidden beneath the foot pads. Removing those allowed me to open the case.

 

Part 2

From there I encountered a layering of circuit boards and electronic components; separated by injection mold casings or foam padding.  All of these were well-organized and neatly packed into the case. Each part was easily broken down with a tiny Phillips head screw driver.

 

 

Part 3

At this phase you can clearly begin to see the different parts of the iHome (i.e. Digital clock, speakers, iPhone port) and how they connect to the main circuit board so I started breaking them down one by one.

Speakers:

 

• Materials:
  • Speakers – SRS TrueBass expanded bass circuitry. sealed speaker, magnetic and glued shut. ( YDF4304-A122M1-131)
  • Rubber
  • Injection mold plastic
  • Wiring
  • Foam
  • Screws

iPhone Port:

• Materials
  • Injection Mold Plastic
  • Circuit board
  • Screws
  • Springs
  • iPod jack

Digital Clock Display Components:

• Materials:

  • Printed circuit board RoHS, including solder-stop and marking print.

  • Flexible Flat Cable Tape

  • Clear Plastic Screen
  • Textured Plastic plate with silver foil taping, sandwiched in paper.
  • Tinted Glass plate with injection mold plastic casing and framing
  • Circuit Display board.

The main circuit board with microchips:

Materials in total:

• Injection Mold Plastic
• Electric wiring/cables
• Lithium Battery
• Circuit Boards (with soldering)
• Flexible Flat Cable tape
• Speakers – YDF4304-A122M1-131 (magnets?)
• Foam
• Glue
• Screws

Tools Used to Teardown:

• Tiny Phillips Screw
• Pliers
• Wire cutters

Parts/Chip info:

• STA369BWS – From STMicroelectronics – Audio Amplifiers /Audio Subsystems.

• AP918 – Flash Micro controller with LCD drive for USD audio application.

• SS32 – S310 Schottky Rectifier – electrical resistance

One Design element I think it interesting is the speaker design. As a consumer who doesn’t understand really much about how speakers or electronics are made, the exterior design of the speaker mesh gives me the feeling that there is this giant, “surround sound” speaker affect inside my iHome. In reality there is just a L and a R speaker. It’s a bit of smoke and mirrors but I think it’s a good visual trick.

A second design element I think works really well is that the iPhone jack is set into “pins” so that the device can rock front and back when it’s connected to its port. I think this is a fairly simple thing to add into a design but it smart because probably means the components aren’t snapping or breaking when the device is put on or taken of.

Thanks I hope you enjoyed my teardown!

Stephanie