2023-03-09 - Brian Dipert

Freeing a three-way LED light bulb’s insides from their captivity

LED light bulbs are becoming increasingly integrated and otherwise design-simplified from both electrical and mechanical standpoints.

2022-11-15 - Brian Dipert

Teardown: Dashcam GPS antenna

Successful teardown reversals open the doors to subsequent dissections of location-sensing accessories.

2022-10-20 - Brian Dipert

Apple’s Beats Powerbeats Pro: A teardown

No fix? No problem. Let's instead proceed with the dissection and see what else is inside these dead-battery wireless earbuds.

2022-10-06 - Brian Dipert

Teardown: Amazon’s fourth-generation echo dot

Amazon claims that its latest-generation Echo Dot's sonic performance supersedes that of predecessors, and independent reviews concur. How'd the company…

2022-09-21 - Brian Dipert

Aukey dash cam teardown redux: DRA5 on spotlight

This intrepid analysis engineer revisits Aukey's dash cam product line, this time perusing a more diminutive offering.

2022-09-15 - Brian Dipert

Blow-by-blow repair attempt of Apple’s Beats Powerbeats Pro

A partnership with a local engineering company didn’t succeed in resurrecting a set of earbuds, but it still produced some…

2022-09-08 - Brian Dipert

Inspecting an Insteon (and X10) controller

The Insteon powerline modem this engineer tore down back in July is only part of the implementation puzzle; an intelligent…

2022-08-29 - Brian Dipert

Disarming a carbon monoxide detector

A quick perusal of the instruction sheet educated me that the CO alarm was the “end of life signal” operating state, and…

2022-08-12 - Brian Dipert

A look inside an HDD

Usually when a drive dies, this engineer just either apply a strong magnet or a heavy sledgehammer to it to…

2022-08-04 - Brian Dipert

Investigating a Volvo key fob: A knowledgeable reader shares his insights

Intuition fueled by an engineering background in combination with online research is all well and good, but nothing beats the…