Has anyone done this?

S

starhawk

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 4, 2004
Messages
8,908
I'm looking for a deconstruction of one of those cheap Chinese / Hong Kong Krap MP3 players that are pretty much literally all over eBay.

Like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fashion-Cli...ayer-Support-1GB-2GB-4GB-8GB-TF-/220986173184

I can't seem to find a pull-apart referenced on Google. (I did find one something like 3 years ago... but I can't remember much of it!) I'm very interested in what's inside those things. Yes, I could do it myself, but I have neither the money nor the month-long patience to order one from China. Also, the only one I have (a Sylvania rebrand!) is my primary MP3 player and I don't want to chance breaking it -- especially since I seem to recall these things using those awful flex-PCBs that almost literally tear when you look at them.

Can someone post a link or photos or something?
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I can guarantee it won't be very interesting.

Inside you'll find a single PCB. One side will be mostly dedicated to the buttons, switches, etc, and the other side will hold an MP3 decoder SoC (like this http://www.vlsi.fi/en/products/vs1005.html ) and a NAND flash chip. The rest of the internal space will be occupied by the 3.5mm headphone jack and the battery.

Take a look at this presentation for an overview of what goes into a full-featured MP3 player: http://www.vlsi.fi/fileadmin/presentations/vs1005_mp3player_public.pdf

The only thing that VLSI part is missing is the Li-Ion charge controller, which is probably built into whatever super cheap SoC the eBay MP3 player uses.
 
I've heard it's a flex pcb, which would be VERY interesting to me. Reason for this thread is (a) to confirm (or not) that statement, without destroying my currently only player of that style, (b) get photos of the guts, and (c) generally learn more about the damn things.

I imagine that IF it's a flex pcb, it's one that wraps around a battery in the middle and has the SoC/Flash chips and ports/jacks/buttons/etc. on the outside. That would also be interesting to me.

It's a learning thing ;) I want to know how *they* make these things. (I know approximately how *I* would want one to be made... that's quite a bit different though ;) I'm an artist of sorts :cool: )
 
Update... if anyone cares. I finally was able to scrape together $6 and bought a 512mb Hong Kong Krap player off eBay. It should be here on the 23rd if not sooner.

I'll let folks know what I find, once I get it and pull it apart ;) there WILL be photos!
 
I will, promise :D

Glad to hear that there's more than one person interested here, as well.
 
Got the player this morning. As promised in the eBay auction, it was a gold-colored 512mb 'mini clip' style MP3 player. I believe that these are intended as knockoffs of the early iPod Shuffle design.

I unboxed it... it came with a USB cable that I'm not sure I trust, a set of horrible-for-you earbuds, and two pages (one front-only, the other front-and-back) of instructions that I think my cat would have little trouble understanding. The player and 'accessories' were in a little tiny cardboard box with a 'shelf' and a cellophane window on the lid, to show off the player.

Sorry, I didn't get pix of the box, the accessories, or the player in the box. Nor do I want to -- it seems that the fellow who sold me the player lied about the thing coming from a "non-smoking household". It doesn't quite reek of smoke (i.e. I didn't have to fill it with baking soda just to get near it), but the odor is there and noticeable and really unpleasant to me. Fortunately, the player didn't pick up the odor from the box, and I did take pix of it, before deconstruction commenced.

Note that all the pix in this post are clickable thumbnails. It saves bandwidth both for ImageShack and for The [H].



Next step was to figure out how to get the thing apart. Upon close inspection, I found a small Phillips-head screw present under the USB port, and I took it out with a #0 Phillips "jewelry"/"precision" screwdriver. That dropped the clip and the spring out. Considering that the screw is maybe a 1mm diameter screw, I don't think I want to try this thing's clip on anything thicker than clothing! If it hits any significant stress, that screw is just going to snap -- especially since it's easily half the width of the player.

However, that didn't break the insides loose. There are actually two spring-tabs near the rounded edges of the player. Just poke those inward, using a small slot screwdriver (I used the one labeled 1.2mm in my set), and they will pop in and stay in. Helpful! Then just poke the frame through by pressing with a larger screwdriver (I used the #1 Phillips in my set) and it pops right out. It may get caught on the button pad at the top; I managed to snap off one side (one pair) of little tabs that held that in place, as the insides were on their way to outside.

The result of all this finicky removal stuff:



I was wrong, and I admit it. There are no flexible PCBs here. AgentQ, you were partially correct, in that it's a rigid PCB with battery on one side and controls on the other, but the FlashROM chip is on one side (with the controls) and the controller chip is on the other (with a cartload of SMT components and the USB and audio ports). BTW, the buttons are just metal dome switches. No special parts here, not even tact switches!

I got all the info from both chips and the PCB (which, amazingly enough, actually had markings!). The battery had neither model nor capacity information; just a manufacturer name which I couldn't pronounce if I had tried (I didn't). I'm going to guess that it's a 110mAH model, similar to something retailed at SparkFun. I'll have to check dimensions, though; the SparkFun battery may be a little too large.

The PCB is a Monia (brand) M-1045-V1.0 made in August 2010 (it's marked 2010-08-11, and Japanese dates go YYYY-MM-DD).

The NAND flash is a bit of a surprise -- I was expecting some Chinese-sounding name that I'd never heard of, peddling a knockoff of a more well-known design. Instead... the ROM chip is made by Toshiba. It is a TC58NVG2S3ETA0J. Take the "0J" off the end and you'll find several references (none actually on Toshiba's website!) of it. It's a 3.3V, 512Mx8 part, in the familiar 48pin TSOP-I package. I'm told that 512mb is 4 gigabits.

FWIW, the chip's full information read:
TOSHIBA L U 8 5 0 8
TAIWAN 0946 9 AE
TC58NVG2S3ETA0J

I've taken the liberty of uploading that chip's datasheet to DataFileHost, here --> http://www.datafilehost.com/download-e0e1d5a3.html
It'll be there until someone doesn't download it for 61 days.

The controller chip didn't have a name and the logo was one I didn't recognize. However, it did have writing on it. Google tells me that the responsible party is some company I've (predictably) never heard of called Actions Semiconductor. They're out of Zhuhai and Shenzhen in China. Their logo matches what's on the chip, so it's not a counterfeit (although it might be a knockoff). That controller chip reads:
ATJ3310
7BB0JBB 87A

It's a dinky chip so that's all she wrote. I want to say that the second line is a location/date code of some sort, but I wouldn't know. It might also be a serial number of some sort. Actions Semiconductor didn't bother with providing a datasheet (neither did Google; I guess one has to email the company and request such a thing) but their product page for the ATJ3310 is here --> http://www.actions-semi.com/en/product.aspx?id=30

Photos of the chips on the board:



The funny thing here, is that once I got done with all this, I decided to put the player back together, and it actually went back together just fine, except for the buttons (where I'd ripped off the two tabs by accident) -- and that was easily fixed with a bit of Duck brand "Scotch" tape.



Even better, although I didn't test the player before opening it up, I plugged it into my PC after taking it apart and putting it back together, and it actually worked! (I used a random USB cable because of the cigarette smell on the one that came with the player.) It actually had six files on it already as well. I believe they were from the manufacturer, since they're all audio workouts. The files are labeled (in order):
01-30 Minute Basic Interval Audio Workout
02-20 Minute Toning Walk Audio Workout
03-45 Minute Basic Interval Audio Workout
04-25 Minute Toning Walk Audio Workout
05-20 Minute Supercharged Audio Workout
06-30 Minute Supercharged Audio Workout

The workout audio is in English (I was expecting Chinese or Japanese for some weird reason :p ), with an American-sounding (no noticeable accent) instructor. I'm impressed, although since the files take up almost half of the player's memory and I have no use for them, I'm not going to keep them. I don't feel like archiving them, either, so they will be gone shortly.

So there you have it. One MP3 player, in parts and otherwise. Not a flex-PCB style (if those even exist), but certainly interesting nevertheless. Hope you folks enjoyed it as much as I did!

I'll end this post with some links.

Toshiba ROM datasheet: http://www.datafilehost.com/download-e0e1d5a3.html
Actions Semi ATJ3310 datasheet: http://www.actions-semi.com/en/product.aspx?id=30
Link to an ImageShack Album, all the pix in this thread: http://imageshack.us/g/444/1002797k.jpg/
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Just submitted this thread to HackADay. Would be pretty cool if they posted it... but I'm not holding my breath any.
 
Very cool, and thanks for the pics. Good luck with HaD--I've been fortunate to get posted there a handful of times.
 
looks exactly like the apple shuffle .... minus the micro usb ? and erm shuffle and power button slider are made of metal and Inside mic jack is white and less sloppy on the apple one... oh and the apple logo ;P

I like taking things appart too! Well not as much putting em back together :p
 
The Chinese player has a USB Mini B socket. Everything is plastic except the outer body shell (probably aluminum, but I actually didn't look too closely at it). Mic jack is black inside. No logo on this at all, unsurprisingly -- it is the epitome of generic.

Taking things apart is fun!

@Mohonri: I don't think they're going to post it :( it's been a few days and I haven't gotten a peep from them. (Err... they DO tell you if they post your stuff, right?)
 
I have a lot of projects ;)

I'd like to cobble together a DIY inkjet printer... I've got some neat ideas, but I can't seem to keep money in my wallet for any meaningful amount of time :p
 
starhawk said:
@Mohonri: I don't think they're going to post it :( it's been a few days and I haven't gotten a peep from them. (Err... they DO tell you if they post your stuff, right?)
Click to expand...
They haven't notified me if something I submit gets posted, but I subscribe to their RSS feed, so I find out soon enough. I haven't seen it come across yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top