These solar flowers were being sold off at my local Tesco, a pair of them appeared thanks to my child 😉
They have a small solar panel on top, when they’re exposed to bright light, the flower & leaves move as if they’re being blown in a breeze.
Since one of them didn’t work, I figured I’d tear it down.
Solar Cell
The solar cell on the top is similar if not identical to that used on a cheap calculator.
Controller
Not much to the control PCB. Just an electrolytic for smoothing the DC coming from the solar cell & a COB IC.
Electromagnet Coil
The IC drives this coil of extremely fine wire, glued to the base of the housing. Attached to the green plastic arm should be a magnet – this one has never worked as the magnet is missing. at 50p a piece, a magnet would cost me more than the whole device. So it’s the bin for this one.
I have recently begun to create an archive of all my personal data, and since LTO2 tape drives offer significant capacity (200GB/400GB) per tape, longevity is very high (up to 30 years in archive), & relatively low cost, this is the technology I’ve chosen to use for my long term archiving needs.
Unfortunately, this drive was DOA, due to being dropped in shipping. This drop broke the SCSI LVD connector on the back of the unit, & bent the frame, as can be seen below.
Broken SCSI
As this drive is unusable, it made for a good teardown candidate.
Cover Removed
Here the top cover of the drive has been removed, showing the top of the main logic PCB. The large silver IC in the top corner is the main CPU for the drive. It’s a custom part, but it does have an ARM core.
The two Hitachi ICs are the R/W head interface chipset, while the smaller LSI IC is the SCSI controller.
The tape transport & loading mech can be seen in the lower half of the picture.
Main Logic
Close up of the main logic.
Tape Spool
Here the main logic PCB has been removed, showing the tape take up spool. The data cartridges have only one spool to make the size smaller. When the tape is loaded, the drive grabs onto the leader pin at the end of the tape & feeds it onto this spool.
The head assembly is just above the spool.
Bottom Plate Removed
Bottom of the drive with the cover plate removed. Here the spindle drive motors are visible, both brushless 3-Phase units. Both of these motors are driven by a single controller IC on the other side of the lower logic PCB.
Head Drive Motor
The head is moved up & down the face of the tape by this stepper motor for coarse control, while fine control is provided by a voice coil assembly buried inside the head mount.
Tape Head Assembly
The face of the tape R/W head. This unit contains 2 sets of 8 heads, one of which writes to the tape, the other then reads the written data back right after to verify integrity.
Cartridge Load Motor
The tape cartridge loading motor. I originally thought that this was a standard brushed motor, but it has a ribbon cable emerging, this must be some sort of brushless arrangement.
A replacement drive is on the way, I shall be documenting some more of my archiving efforts & system setup once that unit arrives.
Here’s the teardown of the projector itself! On the right is the info label from the projector, which covers the flex ribbon to the VGA/composite input board below.
This unit is held together with Allen screws, but is easy to get apart.
PicoP Display Engine
Here’s the insides of the projector, with just the top cover removed. The main board can be seen under the shielding can, the Micro HDMI connector is on the left & the MicroUSB connection is on the right. The USB connection is solely for charging the battery & provides no data interface to the unit.
On top of the main board is the shield can covering the PicoP Display Engine driver board, this shield was soldered on so no peek inside unfortunately!
Laser Module
The laser module itself is in the front of the unit, the laser assemblies are closest to the camera, on the left is the Direct Doubled Green module, in the centre is the blue diode, and the red diode on the right. Inside the module itself is an arrangement of mirrors & beamsplitters, used to combine the RGB beams from the lasers into a single beam to create any colour in the spectrum.
Module Innards
Here is the module innards revealed, the laser mounts are at the top of the screen, the green module is still mounted on the base casting.
The three dichroic mirrors in the frame do the beam combining, which is then bounced onto the mirror on the far left of the frame, down below the MEMs. From there a final mirror directs the light onto the MEMs scanning mirror before it leaves through the output window.
A trio of photodiodes caters for beam brightness control & colour control, these are located behind the last dichroic turning mirror in the centre of the picture.
Green Module Cavity
This is inside the green laser module, showing the complexity of the device. This laser module is about the size of a UK 5p coin!
Green Module Labeled
And here on the left is the module components labelled.
Main PCB Top
Here is the main PCB, with the unit’s main ARM CPU on the right, manufactured by ST.
User buttons are along the sides.
Main PCB Bottom
Other side of the main board, with ICs that handle video input from the HDMI connector, battery charging via the USB port & various other management.
An old IDE interface Zip drive. This fits in a standard 3.5″ bay.
Cover Removed
Top cover removed from the drive, IDE & power interfaces at the top, in centre is the eject solenoid assembly & the head assembly. Bottom is the spindle drive motor.
Head Assembly
Head assembly with the top magnet removed. Voice coil is on the left, with the head preamp IC next to it. Head chips are on the end of the arm inside the parking sleeve on the right. Blue lever is the head lock.
Controller
Controller PCB removed from the casing.
Spindle Motor
Spindle motor. This is a 3-phase DC brushless type motor. Magnetic ring on the top engages with the hub of the Zip disk when insterted into the drive.
Magnets
Magnets that interact with the voice coil on the head assembly.
Head Armature
Head armature assembly removed from the drive. The arm is supported by a pair of linear bearings & a stainless steel rod.
This is a HP PhotoSmart 375 portable photo printer. With built in card reader, screen & PictBridge.
Top of the printer showing the UI Buttons & Screen.
Front
Front of the unit, card reader slots at the top, Pictbridge USB connector at top left. Paper out slot at bottom. Cartridge door is on the right.
Cartridge Door
Here the cartridge door is open. Takes HP 95 Tri-Colour Inkjet Cartridge.
Battery Compartment
Battery compartment on the bottom of the unit. A Li-Ion battery pack can be installed here for mobile photo printing.
Bottom Label
Specifications label.
USB + Power
Power adaptor & USB connection for PC use.
Paper Tray
Rear door opened. Showing the paper feed tray.
Paper Feeder
Rear door has been removed in this shot. Paper feed roller & platen roller can be seen here.
Rear Cover Paper Feeder
Paper holder attached to rear door.
Top Cover
Bottom of the top cover, with connections for the buttons & LCD panel.
Main PCB
This is the main PCB of the unit. Controls all aspects of the printer. CPU in center, card reader sockets are along bottom edge. various support circuitry surrounds the CPU.
Rear
Rear shell has been removed here. Showing the main frame & the carriage drive motor on the left.
Carriage Drive
Closeup of the carriage drive motor & timing belt system. All the motors in this printer are DC servo motors, not steppers.
Main Drive Motor
Main drive motor, feeds paper, drives rollers, operates cleaning mechanism for the inkjets.
Shaft Encoder
Mainshaft encoder. Main drive motor is bottom right hand side with timing belt drive.
CPU
Closeup of the CPU. This is a Phillips ARM chip, unknown spec.
Card Reader Sockets
Detail of the card reader sockets, this unit takes all current types of Flash memory card.
This is a Western Digital drive recently removed from my laptop when it died of a severe head crash.
Top of drive can be seen here.
Top Removed
Here the cover has been removed from the drive, showing the platter, head arm & magnet. Yellow piece top left is head parking ramp.
Head Arm
The head assembly of the drive is shown here. The head itself is on the left hand end of the arm in the plastic parking ramp. The other end of the arm holds the voice coil part of the head motor, surrounded by the magnet.
Bottom Of Drive with PCB
Bottom of drive, with controller PCB. SATA interface socket at bottom.
PCB removed from bottom of drive. Spindle motor connections & connections to the head unit can be seen on the bottom of the drive unit.
Controller PCB. Supports the cache, interface & motor controller ICs.
Closeup of the motor driver IC, this controls the speed of the spindle motor precisely to 5,400RPM. Also controls the voice coil motor controlling the position of the head arm on the platters.
Interface IC closeup. This IC receives signals from the head assembly & processes them for transmission to the SATA bus. Also holds drive firmware, controls the Motor driver IC & all other functions of the drive.
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