Teardown: Dashcam GPS antenna
Successful teardown reversals open the doors to subsequent dissections of location-sensing accessories.
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.
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…
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…