SD – Experimental Engineering

Posted on January 24, 2017 by The Engineer — Leave a comment

USB3 SD/µSD Card Reader Teardown

This is a cheap little eBay reader to replace my ~10 year old multi-reader that very recently died. My original was an 8-in-1 version, but as I never read anything else other than SD cards these days, a little USB dongle version was more convenient.

The layout is very minimal, just the µSD socket, bypass passives & the main controller chip on this side, which is a GL3224 Dual LUN Memory Card Controller from Genesys Logic. This is fully USB3 capable according to the datasheet, but I’m not certain of the advantage of this for something that reads relatively slow devices like SD cards.

The other side of the PCB holds the full size SD socket, along with the activity LED & USB connector.

Posted on March 8, 2011February 11, 2011 by The Engineer — Leave a comment

USB Multi Card Reader

Here is a cheap USB 8-in-1 card reader. Power & Access LEDs are on top left.

Top of the PCB. The OTi IC is the interface IC to the USB port, part number is OTI002126. Card sockets on the top here are CF/Microdrive & Memory Stick.

Bottom of the PCB with the SD/MMC, Smart Media

Posted on August 26, 2010 by The Engineer — Leave a comment

Motorola V360v

Here is a more modern phone, the Motorola V360v. Features include Dual screens, 640×480 VGA camera, full col

our TFT Main LCD, SD-Micro slot.
Here on the back the grey scale LCD can be seen, with the camera lens to the right of the Motorola logo

Here the phone is opened showing the keypad & the full colour TFT LCD display.

Here the battery is removed from the unit, showing the SIM connector. The antenna cover is still on at the bottom.

The antenna cover has been removed in this shot, the antenna is the white section at the bottom, With the loudspeaker & the external antenna connector hidden at the right.

Here is the main PCB. Parts from left are the Bluetooth module at the top, supplied by Broadcom, the SD Card socket at the bottom. Main CPU next to that is the Freescale SC29343VKP. Above right of the CPU is the Freescale SC13890P23A Charger, Power & Audio IC. Below is the SIM card socket. Under the main CPU is the Intel Flash memory IC. ICs inside the shields are the RF sections for transmit & receive.

Rear of the display unit showing the monochrome LCD. The camera module on the bottom left. Ear speaker on the far right of the unit.

Main colour TFT LCD.

Camera module removed from the LCD unit.

The vibration motor attached to one of the LCD looms.