Category: Teardown

Componts of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB):
1. 1 LCD Display screen
2. 1 Transciever AN29160AA (transmits and receives radio waves)
3. 1 Headphone jack
4. 1 DC jack
5. 1 Microphone
6. 1 Antenna
7. 3 larger Capacitors (temporarily stores electircal charge, used for filtering.)
8. Many mini capacitors
9. 3 large Oscillators (programmable timer or clock)
10. 1 mini oscillator
9. 1 Integrated Circuit / microchip
10. 1 Battery
11. 7 Switches (6 PCB printed buttons and 1 soldered-on button)
12. 1 large Potentiometer (variable resistor with 3 terminals)
13. Many mini diodes (control and redirect energy flow)
14. Many small transistors (amplify electrical enegry)
15. 5 Coil Inductors (temporarily magnetically stores electrical charge)
16. 2 mini inductors
17. 5 resistors (resist the flow of electricity to control energy) (I calculated the values using a color band calculator)

2 Unidentified PCB Components:
1. Serial# 270
2. Serial# CQ WM50HTP (I think it assists the transceiver in some way)

Other Components:
1. Plastic case made of 2 parts
2. 4 Rubber button cover parts
3. 3 screws
4. 2 Plastic covers for removable parts.

Datasheet for Transciever AN29160AA:
https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/749064/Matsushita/AN29160AA/1

Tools used to take it apart:
1. Screwdriver
2. Solder sucker (to remove the LCD display screen)
3. Soldering iron
4. Wir cutters (to remove the protective plate)

Design elements that I like:
1. I like that the antenna is hidden inside the handle of the radio case.
I used radios for my gallery technician job for years and I hated when the antenna would get caught on my clothes or on objects around me. I also hated when they dug into my side while heavy lifting or when bending in odd positions to install lights and artwork on the ceiling.
2. I like that it is voice-activated.
This radio would have been really helpful with my job when I needed help with installation and my hands were full.

Making processes of a PCB:
PCBs are mechanical supports that electrically connect electrical components using conductive pathways.
1. Create the circuit diagram
2. Create a schematic of this using PCB layout software. There are many open source options such as AutoDesk Wizard, KiCad and PCBWizard.
3. Design the physical board layout. This is what your schematic will be printed onto. The software used will help you compare them to determine the best board size. You will also need to decide how to design the connections for soldering. Through-hole components are the easiest to solder, but they take up more space than the more complex soldering options.
4. Etch your PCB. This can be done from home with a laser cutter, photo paper, a blank copper-coated plate, hydrogen peroxide (or ferric chloride with water) and a drill.
-Laser cut the schematic onto the photo paper
-Use heat from an iron to transfer it to the copper-coated plate
-Put the plate into the hydrogen peroxide and shake it until the copper coating is etched off the unexposed copper
-Sand off the printed ink.
-Drill holes for the electrical components.
Done!

Photos of behind the protective plate and behind the LCD screen display.

The product I chose to tear down is iphone 6 because my eyes just sticked to it when I saw the white cubic package. Everytime I was super excited to get a product from Apple. There’s actually a funny story between me and Iphone. Back to 2012, I was in my first year of middle high school, and visited the US by a study camp. That’s the first time I saw iphone 4 which used by a girl in my team. By contrast, I was using the phone that my mom got for free by charging calls – so jealous. Also, since then, Iphone has become a symbol of technology, design, fashion and wealth. For iphone 6, an interesting finding is that it’s the best selling model among all Iphone. So, let’s go for a look.

Tools

Process

The main process is to remove the screws and then take the parts out.

Components

The inside of iphone 6 is compact and neat by the well designed layout. Apart from the battery, which takes up half the area, many electronic components are distributed around. They are fixed by brackets and screws, and powered by circuit boards.

When I finished the disassembly, I was shocked by Apple’s exquisite design and precise manufacturing. All the parts are easy to disassemble, which means more convenient repair and recycling. Also, this is the first time I take a close look at the elecronic components whose function has been used by me every day. Just list some of them below.

• Back camera

• Front camera

• Logic board
• Front: components related to frequency signals
• Back: components related to storage, Wi-Fi, touch screen control etc

• Speaker

• Home button

• Lithium-ion battery: surprisingly foud that the battery is soft. After research, it is because Apple use the soft packaging technic. Soft-pack lithium batteries are liquid lithium-ion batteries covered with a polymer shell. The structure is packaged with aluminum-plastic film. It is safer because when a safety hazard happens, the soft-pack battery will only bulge and crack and won’t explode. Besides, it’s ligther and has more capacity.

For my teardown assignment, the product I chose was the Flip UltraHD camcorder during the Yankee Swap. When I got the product, I started exploring it on the surface level and found the in-built usb connector and a sling to wear the camera over your hands. The usb was a fascinating feature as it’s not something I’ve come across in cameras, especially for its time. 

Before I talk about my process, a little bit about the video camera. The Flip UltraHD is a pocket-friendly camcorder with an 8 GB built-in memory that can record unto 120 minutes of 720p videos. It was acquired by Cisco, which is an IT and networking brand, in 2009 from Pure Digital. However, Cisco discontinued the product of Flip around 2011 as the company was realigning their operation. Some of the prominent features of this camera is that it’s easy to use, has rechargeable AAA batteries and includes FlipShare which is software that is compatible with Mac and Windows devices. Some of its drawbacks were that it does not have slot for memory card and has no cable to connect to HDTVs. 

The Process

Initially, it seemed like the process was going to be easy and pretty straightforward. However, like most things, that was not the case. Never did I imagine that I would be dismantling every single part of this camera. Various tools were used to tear this camera to bits. 

Tools Used:

Screwdriver

The biggest challenge throughout the process was finding the right screwdrivers as there were screws of various sizes and all of them were relatively small too. Out of them, removing 2 screws attached to the circuit board was close to impossible and after great help from my classmates and the VFL team, I finally had to cut it out using a plier (the screw still attached to the plastic in the image).

Pliers

Some of the parts were bolted pretty tight and hence, required a plier to be able to separate it from the rest. As mentioned earlier, it was used to cut out one of the screws as well as to remove the circuit boards. 

Exacto knife and Heat gun

Both these tools were used to take out the black front panels since they were glued pretty tight to the rest of the camera. 

Components

Here is a list of some of the major components in the Flip UltraHD.

• AAA Lithium Batteries
• USB Connector
• Flex Circuits
• Detachable Flex Cables
• 4 way D-pad Buttons
• Mircophone
• Mic Board
• Screen Module
• Camera
• Microswitch

My Reflection

Recently I have been trying to experiment a bit with film photography and that was the reason I chose the camera as my object for the teardown. Even though the product looked pretty minimal from the outside, my teardown process was quite long as there were many layers within the camera. There were a crazy numbers of screws that I easily missed since they were really small. However, there were a couple of things that really fascinated me. As I mentioned earlier, the in-built USB connector was a feature that really impressed me. For a camera that is so easy to carry around, including a USB within it fascinated me completely. I loved carrying the camera around because of its convenient size and sling, and how it would easily fit in my bag and pocket. Overall, I had a great experience during the teardown process, discovering new components with every screw I unbolted.

Resources used:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Flip_Ultra_HD#Section_Tools

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/flip-ultrahd-review/

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/why-cisco-killed-the-flip-mini-camcorder/

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://library.wvu.edu/files/d/ca4a97a7-8f04-40e8-94e4-c41aa7cedebb/flipultra.pdf

The electronic piece that I took for the teardown is the AT&T Microcell. I thought Wi-Fi routers are pretty interesting as I had some prior experience with putting electronics together (I put together my own PC) and I thought the motherboard for the router should be quite similar to the PC ones. Therefore I decided to give it a try. 

Step 1: The first step to take the components apart is to remove sticker from bottom of case to reveal the 2 screws and unscrew them. After taking the screws out, pull the orange part away (initially I thought they were glued together, but then I realized that they were snapped together so I had to pull them apart). 

Step 2: Once the orange part comes out, check the interior to see which side is screwed together with the motherboard. This is important because this helps identify which part needs to be taken apart first (which is the part that is not screwed with the motherboard).

Step 3: After identifying, unsnap the white siding that was not screwed with the motherboard and unscrew the 4 corners of the PCB.

Step 4: After taking one of the white slidings out, remove the other white sliding.

Tools used: Screwdriver, X-acto knife, plier.

List of components and materials:

• Case: Plastic and rubber
• Motherboard: Copper
• WiFi: Ralink RT2150F
• GPS: RoyalTek REB-1315LPNX
• FPGA: Xilinx XC3S400A
• SDRAM: Winbond W9812G6IH
• Flash: MX 29LV320DBTI-70G
• Baseband+ARM9 Processor: picoChip PC202, based on ARM926EJ-S processor
• SDRAM:Samsung DDR2 K4T51163QG-HCE6
• Flash: Spansion GL512P10FFCR2
• Ethernet Transceiver: SMSC LAN 8700c-aecz

The Ralink and the other picoChip are two System-on Chips.

Manufacturing Techniques:

• SSH port on base-station, Nmap OS, and service versioning reports
• The router was built like a tower/cell with a bright orange to give a sense of energy while providing network coverage.

The camera appears to be pretty simple from the outside but when the teardown began, there were layers and layers and it just kept going! The camera was launched on September 21, 2011.

For a product that was released over a decade ago and has since been discontinued, the camera body was in pretty great condition.

The rule I set in mind was to “follow the screws”.. and there were a lot!

The first few screws were easy, then it started to get complicated as all the parts were connected to each other, sometimes 2-3 layers of parts away.

Something very interesting I noticed was that the metal “loop” for the strap attachment was actually connected to the center-most piece of the structure.

I imagine that the camera was assembled by hand as the parts are very small and numerous that it would be very hard to program a machine to do so.

One thing I loved about the design was that they incorporated the tools used to assemble it, into the physical shape of the parts. The two holes on the top were the only way I was able to view or access the two screws on the bottom. The screwdriver I was using was not able to fit in such a small radius. I assume the manufacturers were using special screwdrivers for the assembly.

Materials:

1. Screws (12 kinds, total 75)
2. Washers
3. Glass
4. Brass
5. Steel
6. Copper
7. Plastic
8. Wires
9. Springs
10. Silicone/rubber
11. Circuit Board
12. Lithium battery
13. Black tape

Tools Used:

1. Screwdriver
2. Phillips head 0
3. Phillips head 000
4. Tweezers

Chips:

1. NHHS-3: Flash charge driver
2. M29W128GH: Parallel NOR Flash Embedded Memory
3. D78F1013: System control processor, MCU

Specs: https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-1-j1https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-1-j1

https://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/acil/bodies/j1/spec.htm

Time-lapse:
Knolling- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p_DXvUc_1crkJ4n5pWFVFXqEcs2gmskp/view?usp=sharing

Lens teardown-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AFfiDWvzWh0T7M7iaiAjs7wrcyhlkp_S/view?usp=sharing

Product Intro:

The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics.

Although the overall design of the Galaxy S6 still features characteristics from prior models, its construction was revamped to use a metal unibody frame and glass backing instead of plastic. Samsung also promoted an improved camera, streamlined user interface, support for major wireless charging standards, and support for a mobile payments platform that allows the device to emulate the magnetic strip from a credit card.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S6

PARTS information:

Components Material:

1. Corning Gorilla Glass
2. Corning Gorilla Glass
3. AMOLED -5.1″ QHD (2560×1440, 577ppi)
4. 6013 aluminum
5. Li-Ion 2550 mAh
6. wireless power consortium (WPC) ferrite material
7. SM-G928 BUILT-IN SPEAKER
8. Corning Gorilla Glass
9. Mesh
10. 5 MP, f/1.9, 22mm (wide)
11. Micro USB
12. Durable Material
13. Vibration Module
14. 6013 aluminum
15. 24-bit/192kHz audio
16. Micro USB
17. Micro USB
18. Micro USB
19. OEM
20. 16 MP, f/1.9, 28mm (wide), 1/2.6″, 1.12µm, AF, OIS
21. G920P
22. G295F
23. Metal

Manufacturing Techniques:

The high-gloss color of the rear glass panel is from a nano-thin multi-coating process, which adds nano layers of multiple coatings giving both the front and back of the device a “rich, dynamic color that reflects light as it is viewed from different angles.”

Samsung details new manufacturing process for both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

TOOLS:

Tiny Strew Driver

Heat Gun (Helpful tool to melt the glue inside of the rear panel and front display)

INTEREST DESIGN ELEMENTS:

• Metal Frame

Samsung S6 Midframe is equipped with high-strength 6013 aluminum which is typically used in products that require extreme durability such as aircraft fuselages, automobiles, yachts, and mountain bikes. Compare with existing smartphones normally use 6063 aluminum, it is 1.5 times stronger and 1.2 times more scratch-resistant than 6063 aluminum.

Samsung has produced the sleek frame of this masterpiece using a process of more than 20 precise and delicate steps. Procedures that help provide texture and enhanced durability include precision machining from extrusion, molding to integrate heterogeneous components, diamond cutting on the metal covers and anodizing. I haven’t think about the metal frame material and manufacturing information before I teardown this product. I found Samsung applied a technique to weld the antenna to the metal frame itself with ultrasonic welding for the Galaxy S6, makes the antenna more stable for the environment and resilient against external impact, while freeing up more internal space.After they realizing the thickness of the metal frame ultimately impacts antenna performance. This kind of material and manufacturing Technology ensure the high quality products.

• AMOLED Display

AMOLED is a display technology and stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes. It is a type of OLED display and is used in smartphones.

Super AMOLED is an AMOLED display that has an integrated touch function: Instead of having a layer that recognizes touch on the top of the screen, the layer is integrated into the screen itself.

Super AMOLED provides an exceptional viewing experience for you. It offers a wide range of colors with an incredible degree of color clarity which translates into far greater resolution.

Given its astounding 100,000:1 contrast ratio, Super AMOLED displays will automatically adapt to various lighting environments to make it easier on the eyes while providing great picture quality when playing games or watching your favorite multimedia.

AMOLED is a display technology and stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes. It is a type of OLED display and is used in smartphones.

Super AMOLED is an AMOLED display that has an integrated touch function: Instead of having a layer that recognizes touch on the top of the screen, the layer is integrated into the screen itself.

Super AMOLED provides an exceptional viewing experience for you. It offers a wide range of colors with an incredible degree of color clarity which translates into far greater resolution.

Given its astounding 100,000:1 contrast ratio, Super AMOLED displays will automatically adapt to various lighting environments to make it easier on the eyes while providing great picture quality when playing games or watching your favorite multimedia.

https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/what-is/amoled/

AMOLED displays have great viewing angles you can clearly view the screen from a wide variety of angles. AMOLED screen made by special process, compared with ordinary OLED screen is thinner, lighter and more durable, in weight only one tenth of the ordinary OLED screen, greatly reducing the thickness of the phone. The application of flexible substrate makes the screen in the use of the process of impact resistance, not easy to break, as well as a unique bending, folding characteristics.

So when choosing the material for future design works, can consider use these two material and their manufacturing techniques which would be a lot helpful:)

Who haven’t play with one? A walkie talkie is probably one of the objects that reminds most my childhood. I used to play with it as much as I can, but I have never disassembly it until now.

Using just a screwdriver you can dissemble the entire device and here is how it looks like:

List of components and materials

• Case: Plastic
• Battery : Aluminum, copper and plastic
• Antenna : Copper
• Speaker : Aluminum
• Keypad : Silicon rubber
• Circuit: Copper
• Talking button : Rubber and plastic

So, how all these parts work together? Walkie-talkies are small radios that can transmit and receive signals. As soon as you press the talking button and speak into a walkie-talkie, your voice is picked up by a microphone, encoded onto a radio frequency and transmitted with the antenna. Another radio receive the transmission with its antenna, decode your voice from the walkie-talkie signal and drive a speaker. (How Stuff Works, 2004)

Manufacturing techniques

• Battery : electrode manufacturing, cell assembly, and cell finishing
• Antenna : etching process / printmaking
• Speaker : Assembling process
• Keypad : Molding cycle
• Circuit board: PCB process
• Talking button : Molding cycle

One interesting thing I noticed was the datasheet. On the back of the circuit board, there was this number AN29160AA, which indicates that is a IC (Integrated Circuit) for Transceiver (transmitter/receiver in one single package) with specific features.

Finally, if I need to pick 2 designs, I would choose the keypad as the design that I like most and the case as the one that it’s not appealing for me but I’m curious why the designer used that form.

Considering that this product was most used by children, the person who designs the keypad might created circular buttons since they are easy to press and might used rubber to manufacture it and make the buttons soft.

On the other hand, the case fits in a hand of a child so It might be the main reason to consider that width. Also, a curve case for the antenna and the base seem as a protection for children. However, it looks a simple design for me but I might be biased by how much technology has advanced and everything looks appealing now.

Part One

The piece of electronic equipment I drew for my teardown was a modem. Initially I had chosen the mouse, however it was taken by another during the Yankee Swap. I also had some interest in other items such as the cameras, however I didn’t have the heart to take it from others who seemed very enthused about it. Therefore, while picking my replacement I stuck with the still-available pieces of equipment laid about on the table. At the instructor’s suggestion, I picked the modem because it was insisted that the modem was simple. I would say that “simple” is a serious understatement.

Going into the project, I really had no idea what the interior of a modem looked like. I had pictured a pretty complex machine so I expected to use a bit of finesse and elbow grease to take the whole thing apart. As I soon discovered, it really wasn’t the case. After unwinding all the screws I was able to see, the exterior shell came apart extremely easily. The shell came in two halves, encasing a circuit board in the middle. I looked around for more components to rip out but there were none. I stood by the workbench with a screwdriver in my hand and an empty expression on my face, I was not sure what to do. The entire process took around five minutes, required only a screwdriver, and produced a grand total of eight components (four screws, one switch, two halves of a shell, and a single circuit board). It is difficult to determine what the screws are made out of, but they are likely to be stainless steel or some aluminum alloy. The material of the enclosure was also very difficult to determine. Lengthy visual comparisons narrowed it down to likely common plastics of this application such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polycarbonate (PC) or a blend of PC+ABS. The enclosure was probably injection molded rather than thermoformed. The circuit board itself is most likely fashioned from silicon with conductive copper alloy elements buried within it.

After the initial teardown and cursory analysis of the materials of each large component, I decided to continue to get very granular in analyzing the circuit board and its smaller components. In total I counted approximately 281 individual items on the circuitboard. It was virtually impossible for me to identify any of the extremely small components like the transistors, therefore I chose to focus on the bigger components.

For me, most immediately noticeable thing about the circuit board was all the text. It offered a lot of clues as to what each component actually was and their origins. The machine itself was a Courier External 56k* V.92 Global Dial-Up Business Modem from USRobitics with the year 2006 stamped on the circuit board. Many of its major chips seemed to have come from all over the world. Prominently featured in this circuit board is chips from the Japanese company NEC, as well as ISSI, Innovasic, the Taiwanese company MXIC, also Texas Instruments. The entire circuit board itself was assembled in China.

Part Two

The identifiable parts are as follows:

x1 INNOVASIC IA186EB-PQF801-R-0C 16-bit Microcontroller
The INNOVASIC IA186EB-PQF801-R-0C is a 16-bit microcontroller that is embedded into this circuit board. A microcontroller is a central part of a circuit as it controls other portions and functions of the system.
https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Innovasic%20PDFs/IA186EB_IA188EB_v.00_7-30-08.pdf

x1 MXIC MX29F800CTTI-70G IC NOR Flash Memory IC 8MB
This component is a memory unit of the NOR Flash architecture. I am not really able to parse through all the technical jargon, but in essence this chip has a memory function in the circuit board.
https://octopart.com/datasheet/mx29f800ctti-70g-macronix-11917995

x2 ISSI IS62C1024AL-35QLI SRAM 1MB
These components are SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) chips, which are also memory units with the primary function of storing data.
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/198/62-65C1024AL-258436.pdf

x2 Texas Instruments SN75188 Quadruple Line Driver
x1 Texas Instruments SN75189A Quadruple Line Driver
x1 Texas Instruments D172B1PJ92 Quad Flat Package
As for the rest of these components, I am unable to even begin to really understand what they are used for, nevertheless I have included some data sheets I found on them.
https://www.ti.com/product/SN75188
https://www.ti.com/product/SN75189A

Interestingly enough, I couldn’t find any information on any of the NEC components.

Part Three

One unexpected development or take away I had from this teardown was my new fascination for cooling and temperature management in household electronics. I spent a long while looking at the vents in the enclosure and wondered why it was the way it was. The bottom surface had no vents, whereas the sides, and the top featured vents very prominently. Having large vents on the top side makes a lot of sense. Since heat rises, the top vent provides the heated air with an upward pathway to escape, thereby passively drawing cooler surrounding air into the enclosure from the side vents, effectively creating a very slow air flow. I reckon that it’s enough of an air flow for the temperature to be more or less controlled within the operational range. Beyond having utility, the vents are also very visually dominating. These grates in particular create an interesting cage-like form. It has made me ponder about how different electronics handle the visual presentation of exterior necessities such as vents on enclosures.

Another thing about this modem that really stuck out to me was the international workmanship of the device. It really demonstrates the international collaboration when it comes to more (at the time) sophisticated technologies. For me, I hear about the globalized supply chain all the time, however it was very interesting for me to see it presented in such a way directly from a teardown. The engineers most likely had no choice but to source internationally due to constraints with time, cost, and etc.

So the device that I chose to teardown was the Apple Ipod Nano.

Step1: The first step to tear it all apart is to use the heat gun and expose the screen to a lot of heat , this way the glue that is keeping the entire device together loosens up.

After a couple of tries, the glue loosened up pretty quickly. Then I tried to force the glass to come apart.

Step 2: Once the glass comes apart, it was pretty easy to tear down the rest of the parts. I had to unscrew the tiny screws that are used to secure the circuit board and battery that is beneath the metal sheet.

Step 3 : Once I removed all the screws, I could see the circuit board, battery, battery outlet and earphone outlet.

Step 4 : The final layer is to remove the screws that is responsible for holding the clip (the part that helps you clip the Ipod to your clothing). This part was quite tricky though because the screws were glued into place, so I had to use the heat gun to repeatedly heat the shell to loosen up the glue. Once I successfully removed the screws, this was the final result.

Tools I used for this teardown:

Heat Gun, Screwdrivers (Very small), X-acto Knife.

Materials and Techniques:

1. All of the metals are Aluminum. It is an excellent material because it’s lightweight, durable and at the same time strong.
2. LCD screen.
3. Tiny Screws.
4. Logicboard and Battery
5. Headphone Jack and Dock Connector

Some of the techniques used to secure all the parts and keep them intact is that apple secured them all together in a tight space without any gaps, they also use very strong glue that will not come apart unless by force.

Two Design Elements that I appreciate:

1. The size of the product. The designers have chosen the perfect size for the purpose of listening to music, the user could carry it anywhere and everywhere and wont have to worry about it taking up space.
2. The intention of having just an LCD touch screen without having any other buttons or functions. It looks very chic and also is easy to use.