first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic.
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@Andres this is a tiny battery, i'd be fine
@whitequark
I know, I'd made worst, but still
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took it apart. there's a sort of a plastic "carrier" that gets manufacured first, then inserted into the final package that's welded shut
okay, i've extracted the firmware-bearing parts. this is a tiny 45 mAh battery. (part of the lettering was torn off by the glue it was attached with)
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first impressions of the Lego smart brick, before I do any actual tearing down: wow, I forgot how good they are at working with plastic. the injecton molding remains impeccable, at least for this specific piece (I know about their recent QC issues elsewhere)
it's hard for me to look at the positively microscopic (I am literally using a microscope to look at it) "Li-Ion" lettering and think of anything but "showing off!"
(treehouse doesn't let me attach the full size images, you can grab them here: front, side)
@whitequark I feel this way about Nerf guns. Every one I’ve ever taken apart I’ve come away with “they’re charging WHAT for this?”
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okay, i've extracted the firmware-bearing parts. this is a tiny 45 mAh battery. (part of the lettering was torn off by the glue it was attached with)
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EM9305 is an em|bleu microcontroller in QFN
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I'm not yet sure how I'll open it up. I don't have a hacksaw (somehow... I should fix that), so my options are somewhat limited: it's either cracking or melting plastic. from what others have done I know I there's plastic welding all around the joined region.
@whitequark ultrasonic knives got quite cheap and are excellent for very precise plastic cutting
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@whitequark ultrasonic knives got quite cheap and are excellent for very precise plastic cutting
@timonsku I should get one!
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@whitequark ooh, i love these tiny SMT components. very delightful to look at
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okay, i've extracted the firmware-bearing parts. this is a tiny 45 mAh battery. (part of the lettering was torn off by the glue it was attached with)
@whitequark this is starting to remind me of the bit in A. K. Dewdney's _Planiverse_ where the two-dimensional people have built a two-dimensional electronic computer (well, an adding machine) and because it's rather difficult to make wires cross each other in two dimensions, every single logic gate in the contraption has its own battery
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@timonsku I should get one!
@whitequark @timonsku really braindead tip: search "ultrasonic kinfe" or "ultrasonic knjfe", because AliExpress censors the word "knife" in listings

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@whitequark @timonsku really braindead tip: search "ultrasonic kinfe" or "ultrasonic knjfe", because AliExpress censors the word "knife" in listings

@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku
Or add the word 'kitchen'.
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ok so this would be the JTAG pins



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@whitequark @timonsku really braindead tip: search "ultrasonic kinfe" or "ultrasonic knjfe", because AliExpress censors the word "knife" in listings

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ok so this would be the JTAG pins



also, here's a close-up of the markings on the tiny WLCSP between the BGA and QFN

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@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku
Or add the word 'kitchen'.
@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku
Ali Express is now AI express
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@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku
Ali Express is now AI express
@gsuberland @whitequark @timonsku
No capacity for alt text right now. Soz.
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EM9305 is an em|bleu microcontroller in QFN
@whitequark Calling an ARC CPU industry standard is very funny to me
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ok so this would be the JTAG pins



@whitequark Great to see that you got yourself a #LEGO #SmartBrick. Curious to know what set you got yourself. And eben more curious if you can get JTAG working... or find the relevant test pins. Yesterday, I started sniffing the SPI bus. Unfortunately, the ASIC Chip Select pin was not identified in the test pad matrix when I last looked up published schematics.
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@whitequark Great to see that you got yourself a #LEGO #SmartBrick. Curious to know what set you got yourself. And eben more curious if you can get JTAG working... or find the relevant test pins. Yesterday, I started sniffing the SPI bus. Unfortunately, the ASIC Chip Select pin was not identified in the test pad matrix when I last looked up published schematics.
@whitequark You'll probably also try to power it with a DC power supply instead of the battery, right?
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@whitequark And (checking the datasheet) apparently a log2() accelerator? That seems like an oddly-specific thing to accelerate.