Hello!
The idea for this article was suggested to me by another author with AMR, Alexander Noskov, for which special thanks to him.
Each of us, during the use of electronic gadgets, has accumulated a lot of old, working and not very, but unnecessary electronic devices. Once, when we get tired of looking for a place for them and moving them from one corner to another, they fly into the trash can.
But this is not always the case. Some of them find their second life in the form of donor spare parts in other devices, or even turn into something new, becoming an object of art, or at least an interior. ?
Image taken from the site http://ubirai.ru
Most often, old hardware is used by designers and decorators, but there are exceptions.
Running a little ahead, I will say that now I am making a device that is useful in everyday life, which will combine parts from several old electronic devices. If you find these articles interesting, I promise to regularly share recipes for the production of 'Frankensteins'.
Today we will try our hand at not such a cardinal invention. Let's start small. So to speak, a test of the pen.
Before proceeding, I would like to warn you about this – it is unlikely that such a method will be able to save a lot, and you will spend a lot of time. If this does not scare you, then welcome to cat.
I have been using the second version of the fitness bracelet for a long time, from a well-known Chinese company Xiaomi. This is MiBand 2, which I am completely satisfied with.
Until recently, my friend had a first generation 1S Pulse bracelet Xiaomi. No persuasion could convince her to change her old MiBand 1S to MiBand 2. All my arguments were shattered by the pragmatic 'Why? Everything suits me in 1s'.
But life is unpredictable. A few days ago, 1S Pulse stopped showing signs of life. He did not react to charging, and did not want to revive at all, even after such shamanic techniques as freezing and rubbing against woolen fabric.
Shortly before that, they brought me a second generation bracelet with a diagnosis that it does not work on battery power. When connected to a charger, it showed a charge indication, and did not react to anything else. I bought it for a symbolic 100 rubles and put it off until better times. Perhaps it will come in handy. It looks like his time has come. The solution is obvious – fix it. And for this, first we open it!
Before opening an unfamiliar device, a mandatory ritual was performed with the search for video instructions on the Internet. The result upset me. Almost all the authors of the video propose a cruel method of opening and peeling off the aluminum cover, followed by opening the bracelet capsule by destroying the translucent membrane.
As for the instructions for opening the second version of the bracelet, things are even worse. I could not find a single sane instruction.
This made me look for other ways. As a result, a solution was found.
Let's start with 1S.
Peel off the aluminum cover. To do this, just heat it up and pick it up with a spatula.
Another translucent plastic cap of the capsule itself was found under the lid. Since the bracelet showed no signs of life, it was customary to open it with the barbaric method from the video instructions.
Having torn off the upper part of the case, the cause of the breakage became immediately visible. One of the planar microcircuits burned out.
To replace it, it is necessary to find a donor that I do not have, and it is not a fact that there are no other injuries. So this bracelet itself will be the donor.
Further inspection of the capsule design gave an understanding of how to properly open it. It is necessary to insert a spatula or similar tool end to end between the capsule and the body, and gradually squeeze out and to the side.
Thus, you can tear off the cover fastener, which means you can remove the board. The main thing is not to overdo it – there is a risk of damaging the internal elements. After the capsule is opened, we take out the contents and unsolder the main thing for us – the battery.
After that, it's time to open MiBand 2.
To do this, we act in the same way – we squeeze the lid by thrusting the spatula into the butt joint of the body and the capsule.
In this case, you need to be even more careful. In addition to the contents of the capsule, the MiBand 2 has a touch button and a display with cables that are easy to damage. It is necessary to open it from the side of the display, since the button is attached to the board with a thin copper ribbon.
After you open the cover, you need to disconnect the board from the case by tearing off the four unsoldered seals. Do this very carefully and slowly. There is a great risk of removing elements from the board.
After the seals are removed, unfasten the connector for the heart rate monitor.
That's it, now you can raise the fee. But we lift it from the side of the button, because the vibration motor cable is soldered from the opposite end.
The assumptions turned out to be correct – the battery is defective. This became clear immediately after opening, by the characteristic smell of a leaky battery. It's good that it didn't flood the board.
The only thing left to do is to check whether the battery is the only thing.
To do this, we solder the native battery, and throw in the donor battery with 1S.
The bracelet has wound up! The hypothesis turned out to be correct.
And then the matter is small. It is necessary to solder the donor battery, reassemble everything in the reverse order, without breaking or tearing anything.
Before assembling, I missed the lid well with the good old B-7000. This made it possible to restore the tightness of the device.
Everything is working! It wasn't hard.
The capacity of the native MiBand 2 battery is 70 mAh. The 1S has only 43 mAh.
This means that our 'Frankenstein' will not work 25-30 days, but only 15-16. However, I had a choice, either to throw out the faulty 1S and go to buy a MiBand 2 for 1,500 rubles, or to gain knowledge and experience, as well as the pleasure of picking a piece of hardware that was new for me and a working MiBand 2 for 100 rubles and two hours of wasted time, not counting an hour on search video instructions. In such cases, I always choose the latter.
In the end, everyone was satisfied. 'Frankenstein pleases the new owner, and I rejoice at the new experience in fixing an unusual device for me.
The article does not carry a sacred meaning, and for many it will not be a revelation. Among our readers there are many who, after reading, will say that the game is not worth the candle, and will be right in their own way. For someone, his time will be much more valuable than the final result, and he will also be right. Therefore, this article is more for those who are interested in how this world works from the inside, and the things in it. In whom the spirit of the natural scientist lives, and to whom curiosity still haunts.