I tore apart the Fitbit Surge with the help of some fit men. Together, we used pliers, an eyeglasses screwdriver, an exacto knife, and our muscles/hands.
note: no fit men were harmed in the tearing down of this fitbit.
Parts and Materials List
- Battery cover (metal and foam)
- Alkaline button battery
- Main Printed Circuit Board including:
- metal shield,
- touchscreen controller (Cypress CY8CTMA463),
- microcontroller (Silicon Labs EFM32 Giant Gecko (ARM Cortex-M3) EFM32GG395F1024),
- flash memory (Micron Serial NOR Flash N25Q064A11ESEA0F),
- battery charger (Texas Instruments Battery Charger BQ24232H),
- GPS receiver (MediaTek GPS Receiver MT3339),
- Bluetooth controller (Texas Instruments Bluetooth Controller CC2564)
- Lithium Polymer battery (LSSP491524AE)
- Metal clasps
- Rubber liner
- Silicone-rubber band
- Plastic casing with built-in:
- charging port
- pressure sensor (MS5805-02BA01)
- Small screws:
- four 2mm torx screws
- four 2mm Phillips head screws
- four 1mm Phillips head screws
- Wiring
- Glue
- Plastic buttons with rubber bumpers
- Metal casing
- Metal casing with attached wire
- Connective wiring and chips
- Metal binding with wiring
- Foam
- Plastic papers
- Tape
- Sharp thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display screen (TFT LCD) screen
- Silicone-rubber band belt
- Metal clasp (nickel and stainless steel)
- Silicone-rubber band
- Glass display window with wiring
- Bluetooth antenna (2 parts)
- GPS antenna
- Plastic casing with metal screw bearings
- Metal casing
Manufacturing the Fitbit
- Material extraction
- Injection molding
- PCB manufacturing (coating, printing, chemical etching, inspecting, soldering, cleaning, plating, laminating etc.)
- Battery manufacturing (electrode manufacturing, cell assembly, and cell finishing)
- Assembly
Design elements of interest:
- The buttons: It was interesting to see how the buttons had little rubber “bumpers” that help the buttons stay in place and are protective buffers against the receptors that they hit when pressure is applied.
- The band: The band is glued to the Fitbit electronic where the antennas are. It thereby becomes very hard to remove the bands without damaging the antennas. After seeing all the protective measures for the other electronic parts, it becomes very odd to see these pieces unprotected and easily damaged. It has me wondering if the device is built for obsolescence by a company wanting their users to break their products and then buy new ones.