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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Dissecting a deceased Insteon power line modem
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Time and time again, irreparable system damage has been the fundamental motivation for…
Dissecting an underwhelming dog bark controller
This product didn’t deliver on its ultrasonic canine-vocalization suppression promises but still provided an interesting teardown exercise, one that also…
Post-mortem investigation: Volvo key fob
High replacement vehicle smart key prices seem outrageously profitable to the supplier, but without taking one apart, how can you…
Teardown: Dissecting Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential, a non-Google Google Assistant
Bill-of-materials costs are of only partial profit influence in partner-subsidized consumer-electronic devices, as this engineer suspects may be the case…