![Violent Disassembly](https://www.experimental-engineering.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/photo_2018-04-26_15-56-16-300x225.jpg)
These photos were sent over to me by a friend, an interesting piece of tech that’s used in the retail industry. This is a BluVision BLE Beacon, which as far as I can tell is used to provide some automated customer assistance. From their website it seems they can also be used for high-price asset protection & tracking. These units don’t appear to be serviceable, being completely sealed & only having a primary cell. I’m not sure what they cost but it seems to be an expensive way to contact clients with adverts etc.
![Component Side](https://www.experimental-engineering.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/photo_2018-04-26_15-53-01-300x225.jpg)
There’s not much populated on this PCB, the main component here is the CC2640 SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless microcontroller for Bluetooth Low Energy. It’s a fairly powerful CPU, with an ARM Cortex M3 core, 129KB of flash & up to 48MHz clock speed. There’s a couple of crystals, one of which is most likely a 32,768kHz low-power sleep watch crystal, while the other will be the full clock frequency used while it’s operating. Unfortunately I can’t make the markings out from the photos. There doesn’t appear to be any significant power supply components, so this must be running direct from the battery underneath.
![2.2Ah 3.6v Lithium Cell](https://www.experimental-engineering.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/photo_2018-04-26_15-56-18-300x225.jpg)
The other side of the PCB has a single primary lithium cell, rated at 3.6v, 2.2Ah. The factory spec sheet specifies a 2.2 year life at 0dBm TX Power, Running 24/7, 100ms advertisement rate.