Common Emitter: June 2012

2012-06-26

Renesas promotional boards with RX210 and RL78/G13

Renesas may be not popular among hobbyists, but it has big share of automotive and industrial market and highest revenue in 2011 and 2010 (EDN).
In a promotion open to United States, Canada, Mexico and South America Renesas is giving away after registration development boards: YRPBRX210 and YRPBRL78G13. Both boards have integrated debuggers and don't require additional hardware.

2012-06-17

Teardown: anti-theft acousto-magnetic stripes and RF tag

Anti-theft stripe based on magnetostrictive materials and mechanical resonance, found inside Sansa Clip mp3 player box.

Seee also: http://www.fushico.cn/upp.htm#FAQ3, http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/anti-shoplifting-device5.htm.

RF tag (from inside of the same Clip box):

2012-06-16

Teardown: Philips SA2220

2GB Flash mp3 player from 2007. In general similar to previously mentioned SA2620, both have "Desing by Perception Digital" printed on PCBs -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_Digital. Major differences from user perspective would be playback time (10 h with SA2220 vs 30 h with SA2620) and display size (2 vs 3 lines accordingly).

It has smaller integration level than SA2620 so there are more reuse options.
AT1305P: step-up DC/DC converter with LDO.

WM8731LS: low power stereo codec with integrated headphone amplifier.
SM3400F SoC.
TH58NVG4D4CTG00 NAND: multi chip, 3.3V, 16 Gbit, 2 bits/cell, x8, 2kB / 256kB, 70 nm, TSOP.

2012-06-10

Teardown: AA/AAA/USB charger

Global Technology BQC-2A28 AA/AAA/USB charger. Two independent channels, LCD display with simple icons representing charging state and very low price (bought for less than $6).

User manual:

Quite nice layout, AC input springs are dangerously close to LCD tape though.

Charging controller: EM78P259NMJ. It seems to be generic microcontroller actually: 8-bit, 2k x 13bit OTP-ROM, 12-bit ADC (4 inputs).
Next to it there is a 9926 dual n-channel MOSFET 20V/6A in SO-8 package.

Overall it seems to be good product. One thing that would bother me little is poorly regulated USB/5V output - with no load it gives in my unit 6.23V instead of expected 5V.

2012-06-09

Teardown: DRH-5DS hub

5-port (+ shared uplink) 10/100 Mbps hub "NetEasy by D-Link", extremely useful when debugging Ethernet devices. Relatively small (compares to modern switches/routers) but very sturdy case made of thick steel sheet. Cons: high power consumption (comes with 5V/2.4A power supply that can get noticeably hot).

Inside:

AIC1084CT, 5A low dropout linear voltage regulator
MCO-1500A 50 MHz 25 ppm oscillator
Winbond W25S243AF-7, high-speed, low-power, synchronous-burst pipelined, CMOS static RAM organized as 65,536 x 64 bits
SEEQ NQ80225/B
FD6605SX (note that whole board was named after it)
unidentified IC under black radiator
some TTL glue logic

Teardown: HP printer power supply

DC 24V/500mA HP switching power supply used with some ink jet printer.

Feedback photocoupler: Sharp PC123.

NEC 2SK2480 switching transistor, nMOS, 900V/3A, Rdson 4 Ohm max.

1393S = UPC1393?

Teardown: Rio Carbon

MP3 player with miniature 5 GB (2.5GB to 6 GB?) HDD and lithium battery from 2004.
Quite difficult to open - lot of metal latches on back cover.
No HDD inside of this unit but rest of the hardware seems to be functional - might get carbonized.

Sigmatel STMP3550 SoC

K4S280832F: 16M x 8bit 133 MHz SDRAM - same part was used in PC 128 MB DIMMs

74LVC245: octal bus transceiver with direction pin with 5 V tolerant input/outputs (3-state)

Big lithium battery (20 hours of playback time!)

512 kbit I2C EEPROM

Teardown: Aiptek MP-1003

MP3 player from 2003. 256 MB Flash memory, powered by 2 AAA/R03 cells.

Inside: two PCBs
RT9264 - 400mA, 90% eff., 1.4 MHz boost DC-DC converter

MS6323AS: 16-Bits Stereo Audio DAC, 2.7-5.5V operation

MS6308: class AB headphone amplifier, compatible with Philips TDA1308T, maximum output power: 31mW at 2.8V, 124 mW at 5V

Wincan WT1004A

Two (!) Flash devices, separated data storage (Samsung 2 Gbit) and firmware: SST 39VF010, 1 Mbit, 3.3V.

Nice gold plated connectors

Teardown: Mustek Gsmart mini 2

Miniature 1.3 MP camera with built-in lithium battery.

Captured images are stored in RAM (16 MB), not in Flash.

VC373A = Octal D-type transparent latch with 5-volt tolerant inputs/outputs 3-State

SPCA504A

The SPCA504A is a digital camera processor chip that provides a complete solution for dual mode camera
applications. This chip integrates image sensor interface, digital video input interface, color image processor,
storage media controller, JPEG image compression engine, USB interface, and a built-in micro-controller. The
SPCA504A supports both CCD and CMOS image sensors up to 1.1M and 2.0M pixels respectively. It is
designed to fulfill all the requirements for the dual mode camera applications. The SPCA504A camera processor
chip includes not only the latest technology, but also the full services and support of Sunplus.

The main functions of the SPCA504A includes:

● DSC mode : capture one frame each time

● Video clip mode : capture a video with frame rate 15~30 frames/sec

● PC-camera mode : 30 frames/sec for CIF size, 20 frames/sec for VGA size

Under the copper shielding foil: Winbond W39L512P-90, 512 kbit, 3.3V FLASH memory.
Battery: SYN382035A, 23x20x4mm according to http://www.jing-yang.com.tw.

Optical part is very simple - just few lenses, manually operated focus.
Optical sensor is surprisingly large for such small camera one could easily mistake for a toy, overall image quality is little disappointing though. I was hoping especially for useful PC camera mode (it also does not depend on internal battery that is in poor condition 9 years after manufacturing), but it is usable only in good light.

2012-06-07

Teardown: Samsung Yepp YP-E32 mp3 player

Back in time: Samsung's first mp3 player from 1999.
See review at: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63924.
32 MB internal Flash memory, LPT as PC interface, powered by 2xAAA, 3 lines x 10 chars + few icons B/W display, handles SmartMedia cards (up to 32 MB?).