Cree 4 Flow LED Bulb Review and Teardown: race to the bottom, 2nd entrant electronupdate 2026-09-26 | Cree 4 Flow LED Bulb Review and Teardown: race to the bottom, 2nd entrant
PI PICO W SILICON LEVEL TEARDOWN electronupdate 2022-07-23 | The Raspberry Pi Pico gets a wireless interface! A good assembly to tear down as it shows the typical types of integrated circuits found on a modern circuit board and some state-of-the-art packaging technologies.More details here: electronupdate.blogspot.com/2022/07/raspberry-pi-pico-w-silicon-level.htmlRaspberry Pi Pico W
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Extreme Teardown electronupdate 2021-11-12 | A look at the silicon dies on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.More details on my blog at: electronupdate.blogspot.com/2021/11/raspberry-pi-zero-2w-what-does-silicon.html
AMAZON ECHO FLEX: MICROPHONE MUTE, REAL OR FAKE? electronupdate 2021-01-12 | How 'real' is the microphone mute button? Does it just turn a LED on or off... or does it actually disable the microphone? Let's find out!
Amazon Echo Flex Teardown part1 electronupdate 2020-12-31 | Extreme teardown of the Amazon echo flex. In part one we look at the overall assembly and then study the MEMs microphone, ADC convertor and the main SOC. Video include decap of the silicon. Photos may be found at my blog: http://electronupdate.blogspot.com/2020/12/amazon-echo-flex-teardown.html
INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY: 74S04 SCHOTTKY LOGIC electronupdate 2020-07-05 | A look at a family of "high speed" logic used in the late '70s and 80's to design high speed computers. The Schottky transistor allowed much faster gate operation. In this video the 74S04, a hex inverter package, is de-capped and the circuit is analyzed to understand why it runs so quickly.More details on my blog:electronupdate.blogspot.com/2020/07/industrial-archaeology-74s04-schottky.html
QUEST SUPERELF: ONE OF THE FIRST PERSONAL COMPUTERS electronupdate 2020-06-20 | Back in the 70's integrated circuits got to the point where a whole CPU could fit onto a single chip. Soon there was an explosion of companies offering a new class of personal (or micro) computers.... This example, the Quest Superelf, was a good example... it takes it's design cues from the mini-computers that preceded it. The 1st user interface is a console which allow code to be written in assembly and directly entered into the memory of the computer.More details on my blog at electronupdate.blogspot.com/2020/06/quest-superelf-one-of-first-personal.html
UV-C STERILIZATION LAMP: REAL OR FAKE? electronupdate 2020-06-18 | Bought a UV lamp off of Amazon that claims to sterilize. Does it work? Let's find out!
Industrial Archeology: the 50 year old serial port chip electronupdate 2020-05-17 | 50 years ago a serial port would have been a stand alone state-of-the-art bit of silicon. This is a General Instruments AY-5-1013A found on a old DEC PDP11 minicomputer board.More photos may be found on my blog: electronupdate.blogspot.comFollow me on twitter: @electronupdate1
ANNOYING BLINKING FLASHLIGHTS AND HOW TO FIX electronupdate 2020-04-26 | Seems like every flashlight one buys these days has modes: one you want, light, and a bunch of useless blinking ones.In this video I fix the flash light and then I tear it down further by analyzing the integrated circuits.More details on my blog @ electronupdate.blogspot.com/2020/04/annoying-blinking-flashlights-and-how.html
Filament LED Light Bulb: 5 years and Teardown Time electronupdate 2020-04-20 | I have had a filament LED bulb powered up for 5 years.... it has now stopped working. This video tears down the bulb and analyzes why it failed.More details here: electronupdate.blogspot.com/2020/04/filament-led-light-bulb-5-years-and.html
Tear down of a Dollar Store LED BULB electronupdate 2019-12-11 | Teardown of an LED bulb that cost all of $1.25! The end point in cheap A shaped bulb design I suspect.More details on my blogelectronupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/dollar-store-led-bulb.htmlFollow me on twitter: twitter.com/electronupdate1
Early Integrated Circuit design: the 4017 STRANGE PINOUT! electronupdate 2019-11-17 | A look at an early CMOS part. Super strange pin out....let's tear it down and sort out why!more details on my blog:electronupdate.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-does-the4017-decade-counter-have.htmlfollow me on twitter:twitter.com/electronupdate1
Flappy Flower Solar Ornament Teardown electronupdate 2019-09-23 | Start here with Bigclive's video: youtube.com/watch?v=MHRxYtVD1IUMaster's Thesis: liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1110326/FULLTEXT01.pdfBlog here: electronupdate.blogspot.com/2019/09/flappy-flower.html
3 Cent Microprocessor Teardown: Padauk PMS150 electronupdate 2019-09-14 | A look at the lowest cost micro controllers. More details on my blog: electronupdate.blogspot.com/2019/09/3-cent-microprocessor-teardow-paduak.htmlBought from distribution: lcsc.comVendor: http://www.padauk.com.tw
Synaptics Touch Pad Teardown electronupdate 2019-06-09 | A look at what's hiding behind that boring grey plastic cover: a nifty circuit board and even more clever integrated circuit!Photos at electronupdate.blogspot.comFollow me on twitter at twitter.com/electronupdate1Patents:patents.google.com/patent/US6188391B1/enpatents.google.com/patent/US5543590/en
Reverse Engineering the Neat Semiconductors in a Label Maker electronupdate 2019-05-25 | Tear down of a Brother PT-90 label maker. Lots of neat looking semiconductors!blog here: electronupdate.blogspot.comtwitter here: twitter.com/electronupdate1
CERAMIC PACKAGE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT REVERSE ENGINEERING electronupdate 2019-05-18 | Removal of the lid of a ceramic integrated circuit and analysis of the die below. Part extracted from the CPU card of a DEC PDP 11/24 which dates to the early 1980's.
Crystal Oscillator Teardown electronupdate 2019-04-13 | Tear down of a crystal oscillator and a look at the silicon controller.A good paper on CMOS design: https://www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece410/mason/files/Ch3-5.pdfPhotos of the dies here:electronupdate.blogspot.com/2019/04/crystal-oscillator-teardown.html
BAKU 858A HOT AIR REWORK STATION REVIEW electronupdate 2019-04-03 | A look at an inexpensive hot air rework tool.
Amazon Echo Dot (gen3) Tear down electronupdate 2019-01-23 | A look at Amazon's Echo Dot and the technology they chose.A nicely designed bit of kit!
Credit Card Teardown: Secure Computing electronupdate 2019-01-02 | A look at a modern credit card and the nifty electronics it contains. On the surface a typical micro controller, but as one looks closer all sorts of security features become apparent.
Induction Speaker Teardown electronupdate 2018-12-24 | A cell-phone audio amplifier which picks up the magnetic field of the speakers and amplifies the sounds.More photos at: electronupdate.blogspot.com
Dashcam GPS Teardown electronupdate 2018-12-16 | A look at the GPS module which was part of a Dashcam. A look at a modern process node and the difficulty in analyzing silicon down to the gate level with a optical microscope.More photos at: http://electronupdate.blogspot.com
Cree 2018 60W Led Bulb Teardown electronupdate 2018-12-03 | More details:electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/12/cree-2018-60w-led-bulb-teardown.htmlA look at a bulb from 2018. Bought from Home Depot Model # TA19-08027MDFH25-12DE26-1-12 Store SKU #1003004374A good example of a modern controller drive for costs far below anything I have seen before.
Feit Flame Effect LED Bulb Teardown electronupdate 2018-11-25 | A lighting effect bulb which emulates a burning torch. Very effective! Available from Home Depot: homedepot.com/p/Feit-Electric-3-Watt-T60-Flame-Design-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White-C-FLAME2-LED-36/305312679More teardown photos on my blog: electronupdate.blogspot.com
Blinky ball: the art of disposable electronic design electronupdate 2018-10-27 | Lot's of disposable electronics (sadly) out there.... let's take a look at how costs are driven out of an assembly.More details @ electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/10/blinky-ball-art-of-disposable.html
Cheap Scope Probe Frequency Response electronupdate 2018-09-09 | Bought a couple of examples of cheap scope probes at less than $10 each!How do they perform in the frequency domain?
RF Explorer RF Signal Generator: 24 MHz - 6 GHz electronupdate 2018-09-03 | An attractively priced generator. Is it any good? Let's find out.From http://j3.rf-explorer.com easily purchased from Digikey, Amazon and other vendors
ESPRESSIF ESP32 TEARDOWN electronupdate 2018-08-27 | An interesting module which provides a fairly powerful processor with Bluetooth and WIFI. Appears to be a continuation of their 1st product the ESP8266. A great example of how cheap it has become to integrate wireless peripherals via clever engineering.Blog here: http://electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/08/espressif-esp32-teardown.html
Tear down of an Electronic Key electronupdate 2018-07-08 | In the mid 1980's a company called Dallas Semiconductor was producing a wide range of small RAMs with integrated battery backup. One of the more unusual item was an early attempt at an electronic key: a user would be issued a key which could then be typically used to allow access to equipment and to keep track of usage. Not very secure by today's standards.... but an interesting data point. More details on my blog: electronupdate.blogspot.com
HARD DISK DRIVE HEAD ASSEMBLY TEARDOWN electronupdate 2018-07-01 | A look at an 8-head assembly for a hard disk drive. A look at the integrated circuits on the flexible PCB, a look at the head construction.More photos at:electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/07/hard-disk-drive-head-assembly-teardown.html
Casio fx-260 Calculator Extreme Teardown and Conversion to Ice Cube Power! electronupdate 2018-06-16 | A look at a Casio fx-260 Scientific calculator: a look at the silicon controller die, a look at the circuit board fiber glass mat, a look at the conductive keyboard, etc....Conversion to ice-cube power..... so many wonderful energy scavenging possibilities to power an item which takes so little energy to runEEVBLOG video review may be found here: youtu.be/wF3xKFOJ804More photographs at electronupdate.blogspot.com
Tooth Brush Tear Down: Wait! Much more interesting than one expects electronupdate 2018-06-10 | A battery powered electric toothbrush.... surely the most boring thing one could imagine to tear down? Nope. processors, patents, motors and very careful design. A tribute of technology and careful design!More details at electronupdate.blogspot.com
DIGITAL WATCH TEARDOWN: THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT electronupdate 2018-06-02 | Tear down of a digital watch, with an analog face. A look at the integrated circuit, stepper motor and other components.Detailed photos of the silicon : http://electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/06/digital-watch-teardown-integrated.html
Microsoft Intellimouse Teardown electronupdate 2018-05-23 | A look at a long-obsolete mechanical mouse and the controller it contained.Optical mouse tear down here: youtu.be/sAklrT_HL0A
HOW NOT TO BUILD A SEMICONDUCTOR LAPPING MACHINE electronupdate 2018-04-16 | One area of silicon reverse engineering which has interested me is the delayering of a chip to see each layer which allows superior visibility into the circuitry. I know of two ways: chemical etch and mechanical means.In this video I try to make a mechanical grinder which can take micron levels of material away: a partial success. Parts are ground but I was not able to keep the silicon absolutely flat. More study of the commercial units is warranted!
The 1st Programmable Logic Chip! Signetics 82S100 electronupdate 2018-04-08 | Back in 1975 the 1st commercially successful programmable logic part was released. A major step forward in allowing end customers to quickly develop products with higher density without needing to fabricate custom chips.An important milestone in the development of electronics.A good paper on the people behind the chip:http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/05/102702200-05-01-acc.pdfmore details on my blog @http://electronupdate.blogspot.com
PDP 11/24 MYSTERY CHIP: MC8641 electronupdate 2018-04-02 | When looking at a old mini computer CPU card I kept running across a chip from Motorola marked MC8641.... no data sheets were readily available on the internet. I suspect this may have been a custom chip for DEC. In this video I tear down the chip to figure out what it is.More details on my blog at: http://electronupdate.blogspot.com/2018/04/pdp-1124-mystery-chip-mc8641.html
DEC PDP 11/24 CPU CARD TEARDOWN electronupdate 2018-03-12 | A look at a mini computer component from the late 1970's. This CPU card was being offered at about the same time as the 68000 and 8086 16 bit microprocessors were showing up to market.DEC was moving to too slow and the cost structure of this module would soon be very un- competitive: a look at the construction quickly shows why.However! A good example of CPU card design of that era. This is DEC part number M7133 and it has a LSI CPU chip set known as the FONZ-11.
DRAM DIMM TEARDOWN electronupdate 2018-03-01 | A look at the silicon and circuit board of a common DRAM DIMM
Seattle Vintage Computer Festival Pacific NorthWest electronupdate 2018-02-15 | A quick video of some of the machines on display in this years festival. A nice selection of computing from the early 1970's to the early 1980s.Emulation website mentioned in the video:http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence
Pic Micro 16F636 Taking a Look at the Silicon electronupdate 2018-02-10 | A look at a typical pic micro design for industrial control and display tasks.
Philips Filament LED Teardown electronupdate 2018-01-27 | A rather nice mash up of very old school glass blown bulb envelopes and modern electronics. Nice, very warm light similar to a incandescent running at a low voltage, no flicker and smooth dimming. In this video the bulb is dissembled and analyzed.The reference I used to find common surface mount components may be found here:http://www.sphere.bc.ca/download/smd-codebook.pdf
Filament LED Long Term Test: 24, 000 Hours Read Out electronupdate 2018-01-09 | The test is now at the twenty four thousand hour mark! How's the bulb holding up? Lets find out!
LEVITON LTB30 BUZZING TIMER FAILURE ANALYSIS electronupdate 2017-12-30 | The LTB30 is often used in homes to control an exhaust fan. After about a year two units installed in my home started to buzz: let's find out why.White paper on capacitor reliability: http://www.cde.com/resources/technical-papers/reliability.pdf
Water Temperature Light Teardown electronupdate 2017-12-25 | Branded "Illumisink", appears similar to items available on ebay. This device changes the color of the water to match the temperature.... does not seem to work well at low flow rates. Packed with a technology: a small turbine, a temp sensor, 3 color LED and a controller. More details @ http://electronupdate.blogspot.com
Ecosmart A19 4 Pack LED Teardown electronupdate 2017-12-18 | Some of the cheapest LED bulbs I have seen. 4 pack. A look at the design trade offs to achieve this low cost.
Amazon Kindeep G4 LED Teardown electronupdate 2017-12-11 | Tear down of a small bi-pin 12V LED designed to replace a halogen bulb. A look at the cross section of the LED as well as de cap of the Diode's Incorporated ZXLD1360 controller IC
Teardown of an Optoisolator electronupdate 2017-12-03 | Cross section and analysis of a opto isolator
Noma LED Bulb Failure Analysis and Teardown electronupdate 2017-11-27 | A look at a failed LED. After finding the failure and repairing the bulb I tear down the silicon
