Christmas disassembly with a canoe
For a while, we spent on studying smart speakers from different manufacturers. We were looking for an opportunity to place our module in them for remote control of devices. How it ended - a topic for another conversation. Since the materials on the net about dismantling smart speakers are vanishingly small, we decided to combine the useful with the pleasant and make a gift to the inner child who lives in every techie. Allow me to present - material about disassembling a smart column Baidu Raven H. Here and hereinafter - most of the images are clickable.
The Raven H column is released by the Chinese “google” Baidu, who ordered the development from the Swedish company Teenage Engineering. Constructively it is a cylindrical tower with 7 colorful plates strung on it in the upper segment with an LED matrix. On board, the DuerOS voice assistant platform speaks only Chinese. Moreover, the command word was not indicated in the documentation and I had to dig deeper into the Chinese segment of the Internet in order to find it. If you need someone, we can send an audio file, but for now let's start disassembling.
Detachable upper segment with LEDs, which can be carried with you and through it to control the column. The removable block fastens on magnets. That is why it can be rotated at an angle to the horizon of 0 - 90 degrees on the main body bar and this part does not fall off.
The case is assembled without screws, so you will need a plastic card for disassembly. Here is what we see inside: Disassembled top panel. The LED matrix board and the aluminum milled screen are visible. On the bottom of the LED matrix, the FT6236U is a 16-bit touch panel microcontroller and four S1819 microphones.
The upper segment motherboard is located next to a battery with a capacity of 850 mA · h and a voltage of 3.8 V. From the battery there is a cable to the charge and discharge controllers hidden under the screens. Another cable connects the motherboard and the connector on a small scarf, pressed against the spring contacts next to the magnets in the lower part of the segment.
Touchpad Controller
Microphone We
warm up and remove the LED matrix board and the touchscreen. LED matrix and sensor plate. Consider in more detail the motherboard of the upper segment. The screen and radiator of the motherboard On the left side, you can distinguish the markings of the PMI8937 and PM8937 power controllers, often used in mobile technology. It is to them leads the battery cable.
Motherboard with screens removed. Krivenko, but marking is visible
On the right side of the motherboard there are unidentified m / c FU74726K and H9TQ17 flash memory with 16 GB x32 power: Under the two small screens on the motherboard are located the wireless module WCN3660B , supporting Bluetooth 4, STM32F051K6 microcontroller , controlling the detachable part. As for the C823A chip, we are not sure, but it looks like it is the CX20823 , which is responsible for voice control. If someone met and can give explanations on this component - write in the comments, include in the text. Connection board with a button through which power is supplied to the upper segment of the column:
With a portable "remote" finished, consider the main unit. The case is also assembled without the use of fasteners. The main speaker unit and the top connection board. The top part of the board contains only connectors, but on the bottom you can see four microphones, covered with silicone caps and a mysterious screen. Bottom side of the interconnect board. We remove the screen and see ... emptiness: There are two previously seen C823A and a riddle marked PTSI TI 79. upd. Which, as Karlson_rwa prompted, DC-DC converter TPS62130RG : Carefully remove the segments from the main cylinder: Remove the cylinder, observe the bottom board. It has a big screen and a copper plate:
On the bottom board, there is an AP6255 dual-band Wi-Fi module with support for the AC standard, a KLM8G1 flash memory and a screen under which the processor should be: Exactly, under the screen we see an Amlogic S912 processor and two 8GB K4A8G165WB Samsung memory chips . The eight-core processor supports smart cards to encrypt digital TV.
On the other side of the board is a strapping and a thick textolite substrate with a USB connector, through which the speaker is powered. By the way, the battery on the main unit is not, turning off the power will turn off the assistant, but the removable part will be sad to ask for something in Chinese. The power assistant of the voice assistant issues 12 V, so it should not be mistakenly connected to the phone. On the whole, we consider the choice of a higher-voltage supply voltage justified in view of the required power. Bottom side of the board. The base of the column is cooling and the power button. Square rings ... square plates with a round window in the center cover the cylindrical case with a speaker: The board contains a very powerful TAS5751M amplifier and an unidentified m / c 9106B AAK9 board.
upd. Thanks to Karlson_rwa for the help, it turned out to be an AW9106B LED driver. Amplifier board Without giving any assessment to the design itself, it can be noted that there is a lot of everything in a fairly compact package (a parallelepiped 10 cm high and with a side of 7.5 cm square). It can be seen that a lot of work has been done on the design and circuitry, while the components are selected with a huge margin of performance - the monstrous computing power of an eight-core processor with a powerful video core supporting 4K H265, 16 GB for two processors. Add to this a sophisticated sound amplifier and hypertrophied LED display and get the question - why such a power is a simple smart speaker? Test sample of the future media center?
We hope you were just as interested as we are. We have a lot of insights on voice assistants, over time we will post most of this information on Habré. Who needs earlier or more - contact the PM. If you are interested in the analysis of a particular column - also write, publish it earlier. You can share your thoughts about the design and components in the comments.
Congratulations on the upcoming / coming New Year and wish all interesting!
The Raven H column is released by the Chinese “google” Baidu, who ordered the development from the Swedish company Teenage Engineering. Constructively it is a cylindrical tower with 7 colorful plates strung on it in the upper segment with an LED matrix. On board, the DuerOS voice assistant platform speaks only Chinese. Moreover, the command word was not indicated in the documentation and I had to dig deeper into the Chinese segment of the Internet in order to find it. If you need someone, we can send an audio file, but for now let's start disassembling.
Detachable upper segment with LEDs, which can be carried with you and through it to control the column. The removable block fastens on magnets. That is why it can be rotated at an angle to the horizon of 0 - 90 degrees on the main body bar and this part does not fall off.
The case is assembled without screws, so you will need a plastic card for disassembly. Here is what we see inside: Disassembled top panel. The LED matrix board and the aluminum milled screen are visible. On the bottom of the LED matrix, the FT6236U is a 16-bit touch panel microcontroller and four S1819 microphones.
The upper segment motherboard is located next to a battery with a capacity of 850 mA · h and a voltage of 3.8 V. From the battery there is a cable to the charge and discharge controllers hidden under the screens. Another cable connects the motherboard and the connector on a small scarf, pressed against the spring contacts next to the magnets in the lower part of the segment.
Touchpad Controller
Microphone We
warm up and remove the LED matrix board and the touchscreen. LED matrix and sensor plate. Consider in more detail the motherboard of the upper segment. The screen and radiator of the motherboard On the left side, you can distinguish the markings of the PMI8937 and PM8937 power controllers, often used in mobile technology. It is to them leads the battery cable.
Motherboard with screens removed. Krivenko, but marking is visible
On the right side of the motherboard there are unidentified m / c FU74726K and H9TQ17 flash memory with 16 GB x32 power: Under the two small screens on the motherboard are located the wireless module WCN3660B , supporting Bluetooth 4, STM32F051K6 microcontroller , controlling the detachable part. As for the C823A chip, we are not sure, but it looks like it is the CX20823 , which is responsible for voice control. If someone met and can give explanations on this component - write in the comments, include in the text. Connection board with a button through which power is supplied to the upper segment of the column:
With a portable "remote" finished, consider the main unit. The case is also assembled without the use of fasteners. The main speaker unit and the top connection board. The top part of the board contains only connectors, but on the bottom you can see four microphones, covered with silicone caps and a mysterious screen. Bottom side of the interconnect board. We remove the screen and see ... emptiness: There are two previously seen C823A and a riddle marked PTSI TI 79. upd. Which, as Karlson_rwa prompted, DC-DC converter TPS62130RG : Carefully remove the segments from the main cylinder: Remove the cylinder, observe the bottom board. It has a big screen and a copper plate:
On the bottom board, there is an AP6255 dual-band Wi-Fi module with support for the AC standard, a KLM8G1 flash memory and a screen under which the processor should be: Exactly, under the screen we see an Amlogic S912 processor and two 8GB K4A8G165WB Samsung memory chips . The eight-core processor supports smart cards to encrypt digital TV.
On the other side of the board is a strapping and a thick textolite substrate with a USB connector, through which the speaker is powered. By the way, the battery on the main unit is not, turning off the power will turn off the assistant, but the removable part will be sad to ask for something in Chinese. The power assistant of the voice assistant issues 12 V, so it should not be mistakenly connected to the phone. On the whole, we consider the choice of a higher-voltage supply voltage justified in view of the required power. Bottom side of the board. The base of the column is cooling and the power button. Square rings ... square plates with a round window in the center cover the cylindrical case with a speaker: The board contains a very powerful TAS5751M amplifier and an unidentified m / c 9106B AAK9 board.
upd. Thanks to Karlson_rwa for the help, it turned out to be an AW9106B LED driver. Amplifier board Without giving any assessment to the design itself, it can be noted that there is a lot of everything in a fairly compact package (a parallelepiped 10 cm high and with a side of 7.5 cm square). It can be seen that a lot of work has been done on the design and circuitry, while the components are selected with a huge margin of performance - the monstrous computing power of an eight-core processor with a powerful video core supporting 4K H265, 16 GB for two processors. Add to this a sophisticated sound amplifier and hypertrophied LED display and get the question - why such a power is a simple smart speaker? Test sample of the future media center?
We hope you were just as interested as we are. We have a lot of insights on voice assistants, over time we will post most of this information on Habré. Who needs earlier or more - contact the PM. If you are interested in the analysis of a particular column - also write, publish it earlier. You can share your thoughts about the design and components in the comments.
Congratulations on the upcoming / coming New Year and wish all interesting!