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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

What main IC does the flexdrive use?

Hiemal

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Well I can indeed confirm, it is a TPS63010 chip.

RrJs0.jpg


I had an interesting time trying to balance my iPhone and the aixiz lens. :p
 





Hiemal

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It did indeed. :)

I live right in Buffalo NY, so it's not that big of a distance between us.
 

gillza

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So a layman question: why is it so difficult to reverse engineer this and why no-ne else attempted this before?

The first and obvious step would be to remove the TPS63010 chip and see how the pins are connected. Then draw out the diagram and determine the rest of the components (resistors, mosfet, caps etc) ?

Am I completely wrong?
 

benmwv

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I knew it!

Ill make a board if you guys want.

I don't think there is any need to remove the chip and find where the pins are connected. Much easier to just look at the datasheet and find what the pins do.
 

gillza

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Ben!

That would be awesome!
I have 1 more flexdrive (wanted to make a red pointer with it but oh well..) I'd be willing to donate in order to reverse engineer it and open source it.

I think selling the reverse engineered exact copy of flexdrive would be a gray area, or borderline unethical, but having it opensourced so that anyone could build it or improove it if they want would be great!
 
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Yeah, let's face it. The TPS63010 is a well documented IC, it is just a bear to reflow for many of us hobbyists.

It would be interesting to come up with a decent design, then reverse engineer the flex and see if the good Dr. was a genius, or if he just copied a data sheet schematic and reaped the benefits for all this time.
 

benmwv

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I really want to try reflowing the BGA. The hardest part of soldering DFN/QFN is putting the paste on right, but BGA already has that part done. The alignment will be more critical, but I think I could do it quicker than a DFN/QFN.

I think Lava really does know what he's doing, considering he used high side current monitoring. I know that isn't in the datasheet.
 

Hiemal

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I did a little bit of prodding and found the total capacitance on the input and output of the driver is about 12 uF.

I wonder how the BGA dissipates heat since it doesn't have a pad or anything...
 




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