Flip Flop.io Amazon Dash Button Hack Part1 (Teardown)
This all started when I saw a post on an Amazon Dash Button teardown.
(http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441569/Teardown--Amazon-Dash-Button-is-the-ultimate-in-consumer-convenience)
You may already know that the Dash cost only $5!
We went crazy when we saw how cheap it was and what the possibilities could be by using this little device...
I'm not totally certain of this, but I think you need to be an Amazon Prime member in order to be able to purchase the Dash Button. No big deal, they offer a one month trial for free. I also enjoyed a month of free video streaming and free shipping 😄
So anyway, we purchased a few of these to thinker with... So it begins!!!
The Dash hardware is quite powerful, it has a ST Micro MCU (STM32F205RG) running at 120MHz.
Also for the WiFi part, a Broadcom module is used, a BCM43362 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi module.
The board include a nice Flash memory, Micron Technology M25P16 16 Mbit SPI serial interface.
Another interesting feature is the integrated microphone. It's an InvenSense INMP441 MEMS microphone.
The board power supply is a DC/DC boost circuit based on TI TPS6120x (most likely the 3.3V version).
The power supply convert the 1.5V AAA battery voltage to a 3.3V output voltage. The dash get turned on when a user presses the button. There is a D-FlipFlop (not a flip-flop.io, anyway not yet...) that latches when the button is pressed. The D-FlipFlop state is used to keep the DC/DC supply active.
The power gets cutoff by a digital output from the MCU that is connected to the Clear Input of the D-FlipFlop.
In the next sections we will go more into details on all that was discovered during our reverse engineering.
You will need the following tools:
- Torx T5 screw driver
- Utility knife
- Flat screw driver
1- First you want to remove the black plastic holder. This is pretty easy to remove.
2- Use a utility knife or something sharp to score each side of the plastic case. Be careful to stroke away from your fingers! After a few passes with the knife, use a wide flat screw driver of something flat to pry the case open.
3- Remove the Brand Sticker
4- Now there should be 3 screws that are exposed. The screws are Torx T5 size. If you don't have a screw driver for this, you can get some at Harbor Freight for $5 or you can try your luck with a small flat screw driver. This is what I did the first time, but it's not the best way. So I gave in and bought the right tool for the job!
5- Now you have the board exposed
6- If you decide to remove the battery (because it won't last forever!), you can remove it. The way I did it is by using the utility knife and prying out the connection starting from the top. Be careful not to slip and scratch the PCB, you might end up cutting something useful... 😢
