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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@whitequark thats supposed to be an antenna? I find fascinating how anyone engineered this into existence
@analog_feelings @whitequark yep - that's a MIFA - meandered inverted F antenna. The F just represents the shape the feed point and grounding pin make.
Really cool how they evolved to be like that:
dipole
monopole
whip (inductively loaded)
Inverted f (capacitively and inductively loaded)
MIFA
PIFA
and eventually chip antennas (also dialectrically loaded) -
@NULLderef it looks exactly like every smartphone driver ever
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@whitequark Copyright 2022 is also not what I would have expected.
@claudius the PCB has 2024 on it
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yep that did the thing. probably should've started with sanding at the beginning.
it was somewhat more destructively than i wanted, but that's ok: i was trying to challenge my (incorrect) belief that sanding is always a tedious pan in the arse
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
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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
@whitequark content of the data matrix code
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@Andres this is a tiny battery, i'd be fine
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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
