Category: Teardown

LG Revere 3 VN170 Teardown

LG Revere 3 NV170 Teardown Timelapse

I did a teardown of an old flip phone that was no longer being used and laid out all of the component parts as follows:

Chip Information:

QUALCOMM QSC6055 ENPC65B V453008: Memory Storage, Micron Technology 50A98 JW582 Semiconductor, A7354: Power Amplifier Module, DD6 94V0: said Data not Found, EMY57LLW19: information not found, LM220CMIAY04: information not found, tsd2g03884fpc-a1-e: information not found

Here is the full process divided up into 16 images.

The manufacturing techniques I found that were used to make the phone were soldering, plastic molding, cutting strips of plastic sheets, and metal cutting. A lot of tape was used to keep the pieces together, particularly the wiring. A fair amount of the pieces were kept together using metal screws.

I used three screwdrivers with different screw sizes as well as an unneeded attempt with a wrench to take apart the phone. In addition to the tools, I used my hands to pry apart the pieces and remove the adhesives.

Design Elements of Interest:

Keypad components

The keypad components of the phone were interesting to me because they were not what I expected. I thought it was interesting that the flip phone keypad, unlike a computer keyboard, did not have an individual component for each key. Instead all of the keys were connected in layers on top of the circuit board. The small metal pieces fit into the white plastic pattern, which was held together by a plastic adhesive and placed on top of the circuit board and covered by the painted rubber display that the user sees. The designers may have made it with this method to prevent individual keys from becoming loose and potentially lost / not in contact with the board and rendering typing difficult.

Phone Camera

Another interesting design element was the phone’s camera. I expected the camera to be bigger, more rounded in shape, and to be found solely in the top section of the flip phone. I did not expect for the camera to span across the phone’s hinge, have multiple connecting sections, and be so much smaller than I imagined. The designers may have made it this way to easily connect the phone’s display with the keypad. The shape may have been used to make sure pressing other buttons did not damage the connection between the camera and the camera taking button.

Old Cellphone Teardown

Video

This is an old cellphone made by a local small company in China more Than 12 years ago. It’ has a slide cover which was quite fashionable at that time. And this added function also made it more complicated in form compared with normal cellphones. For safety concerned the battery is removed and won’t be showed in the teardown process.

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Teardown

1, screen
2, Front shell – Plastic
3, Rear upper cover – Plastic
4, A large piece of copper, I think, is to simulate electrical grounding – Copper&Plastic
5, Rear motherboard, including two card slots – Silicon&Plastic&Metal
6, Front key board – Plastic
7, Cover of vibration motor – Plastic
8, Camera – Glass&Plastic&Metal
9, Rear lower cover – Plastic
10, middle cover 1 – Plastic
11, Warranty bar code – Paper
12, Digital keyboard touch receiving point – Plastic&Metal
13, Key cap of numeric keyboard – Plastic
14, Sliding mechanism – Aluminum&Steel
15, middle cover 2 – Plastic
16, front main board, with two sound generating units and a vibration motor – Silicon&Plastic&Metal

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Chips

1, IEE K4H – Can’t find
2, MT6301n – Touch screen control
3, QOG7J – Can’t find
4, MAZ ZT22 – Can’t find
5, memsic c62020 – Acceleration sensor
6, A4ZHE TKZC – microprocessor
7, MT63058N – Power management IC

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Tools

1, Needle nose pliers
2, Curved mouth clip
3, bolt driver

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The design elements I found

Before I teardown this cellphone I thought it should have a more conposed inside. But it turned to be a product between a simple combined device and a highly customized cellphone that we see today. It makes great sense as the age of personal devices were just about to start at the time it was developed. It’s a slide phone and the sliding mechanism inside is very small but smart. The designer used only two flat springs to enable the movement. It all happened in a sheet of metal with a thickness less than 2 mm. This is a good example of how technology could help improving the final outcome of products and even made something impossible become real. Another thing I found was when I tried to tear it down, there were two screws that were half covered by other parts. I was trapped by these two for a couple of minutes until I realized the designer was somehow telling me these two screws were not to be removed at that disassembling stage. Then I sure found another two hidden screws that works. This reminds me of some things I learned called Design for Assembling. We once visited the factory of Daikin and the manager told us they use different colors and shapes(Square, circle, triangle) for plugs to make it impossible for workers to assemble them in wrong ways. This should be Design for teardown but sure is also something we designers could help people to avoid a lot of problems.

Monitor Detector Teardown

The thing I teardown is a monitor detector. Because I bought it on second hand, first I need to figure out how does it work.

It has RF wireless signal detection, magnetic field detection and hidden camera detection. When the signal goes high, the screen will light up and it will vibrate. Also there are buttons and knob for you to adjust the function.

The teardown part is shorter than I thought, and here are the parts and the time-lapse video.

Parts:

  1. knob for on and off and control
  2. nut that fixed the knob on the outside
  3. filter lens in the middle
  4. double-sided tape to fixed the battery
  5. GS probe for information transition
  6. lithium battery
  7. the part connect to the MC1
  8. font shell
  9. back shell
  10. two circuit boards, the upper one is DSK18D27, the lower one is DSK19A01 (I googled both of the name of the data sheet, but couldn’t find the exact one, and the searching result is very limited, maybe someone can teach me a different way to find the datasheet so that I can find out what the No.7 function)
Continue reading “Monitor Detector Teardown”

Remote of Telecontrol Racing Car Teardown

  • TIME LAPSE VIDEO

Here’s a video of my teardown experience!

My teardown process

Components

  1. Antennae
  2. Joint Arm: Plastic Injection
  3. Button Pads: Plastic Injection
  4. Screws: Medal cross round head
  5. Plastic Shell: Plastic Injection
  6. Battery Case Cover: Plastic Injection
  7. Botton: Rubber (RC-706C)
  8. LED
  9. Chip:3F1114285 on RC-903T PCB
Continue reading “Remote of Telecontrol Racing Car Teardown”