Amazon’s Echo Auto Assistant: Legacy automobile retrofit-relevant

Keep in mind my April 2023 teardown of Spotify’s now-defunct Automobile Factor?

Ditch the touchscreen LCD, broaden performance and that’s Amazon’s Echo Auto in a nutshell:

Proven right here and launched in mid-2019 is the first-generation model of the product, which I’ll be tearing down right this moment. It initially offered for $49.99 however was initially promo-priced at half that quantity ($24.99), which is the way it got here to be in my possession that very same summer season. The second-gen successor, launched three years (and three months) later with shipments starting in mid-December 2022, was smaller, with beefier mounting choices, equal claimed input-sound high quality (despite fewer built-in mics) and a supposed superior sonic output, together with a everlasting 24.99 value minimize. It’s nonetheless accessible for buy:

Contemplating that the first-gen Echo Auto has been sitting on my shelf for greater than 5 years now awaiting my dissection consideration, the beat-up situation of its packaging, as-usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for dimension comparability functions, could be comprehensible…besides that it’s seemed like this because it first confirmed up at my entrance door!

Rip off the retaining tape and flip open the highest flap:

and the contents come into sight.

Submit-removal, right here’s our affected person, alongside the equally clear plastic-clad (a minimum of for the second) dashboard mount:

the “cigarette lighter” 12V socket-based energy provide, flanked by (on the left) a 3.5mm TRS extension cable and (on the fitting) the USB-A to micro-USB energy cable, all three of which I’ll maintain on to for future reuse:

and, in fact, a number of slivers of documentation:

Subsequent, a few further seems to be on the adhesive sprint mount (and its accompanying preparatory dashboard-cleaning handi wipe), now freed from its clear plastic sarcophagus:

and the facility adapter, with a useful included second USB-A jack, and first rate combination output:

With the contents eliminated and its insides now ostensibly empty, the field nonetheless appears hefty, however I confirmed that there was nothing left inside. Should be all these folded cardboard layers:

And now for some preliminary views on our affected person, with dimensions of three.3” x 1.9” x 0.5” (85 mm x 47 mm x 13.28 mm) and a weight of 1.6 oz (45 grams). Entrance:

The left “mute” button, by the way in which, turns purple when energetic, as with different Echo units, as does the extra basic multicolor device-status gentle bar alongside the underside edge:

The system prime is relatively bland, though there is that inside access-tempting seam:

The perimeters are extra fascinating. Alongside the fitting are the three.5mm auxiliary analog audio output and the micro-USB energy connector. The previous was a key motivation for me to initially purchase the Echo Auto, as none of my automobiles have built-in Bluetooth, removed from Apple’s CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto companies—solely my spouse’s newer automobile does—however their sound programs all have AUX inputs.

And on the left? No, that’s not a SD card slot. Consider it or not, it’s the aperture for the built-in speaker, pointing towards the automobile’s driver (a minimum of generally):

Lastly, the system bottom, revealing (amongst different issues) the FCC ID (2ALV8-4833) and magnetic sprint mount inset (I belief there’s metallic inside, on the opposite aspect of the chassis):

Talking of “inside”, let’s get to it. A preparatory peek beneath one of many rubber ft seemingly wasn’t promising:

So, I turned my consideration to the aforementioned prime aspect seam. The primary “spudger” I attempted slipped inside pretty simply however was too flimsy to make any separation headway:

Its beefier Jimmy sibling, nonetheless, was no extra profitable:

On a hunch, I revisited these ft. That gray piece of plastic you noticed beneath the one within the earlier picture? Seems, it pops out too:

And beneath every of the plastic items is a hex screw head begging for consideration:

That’s extra prefer it:

FWIW, because it seems from my subsequent analysis, I wasn’t the one one initially flummoxed!

There’s that piece of metallic I’d beforehand forecasted could be on the opposite aspect of the dashboard mount inset. Under it, alongside the underside edge, is a portion of the sunshine information meeting (presumably related to a to-be-seen row of LEDs on the PCB):

And right here’s our first glimpse of the system’s guts:

On the left (proper when considered from the entrance; do not forget that we’ve up to now eliminated the again panel) is the micro-USB energy enter, with the three.5 mm audio jack above it. Alongside the underside are—I advised you so—a row of 11 multicolor LEDs. On the prime is the PCB-embedded Bluetooth antenna. And on the fitting? That, consider it or not, is the mono speaker! Let’s get it outta there:

Lest there be any doubt as to its magnet-inclusive acoustic identification:

And now for some closeups, with views oriented per the transducer as initially put in within the earlier picture. Proper aspect, the place the sound comes out; I severely doubt it “goes to 11”:

Entrance:

Left aspect:

Again, exposing the speaker’s electrical contacts:

And eventually, the highest:

and backside:

With the speaker eliminated, now you can see the PCB-resident “spring” contacts that mate up with these on the speaker. Observe, too, that the PCB holes similar to mounting pins on the speaker bottom are foam-reinforced, presumably to suppress vibration whereas in operation:

And now let’s get the PCB out of there, a fortunately simpler course of than what’d beforehand been essential to get our first glimpse of it, because it now lifts proper out of the remaining chassis half:

The stuck-on RFID tag contained in the entrance chassis half is an fascinating story in and of itself. As this blogger additionally postulates (along with figuring out the supply—Inpinj—of the IC linked to the comparatively large antenna), I consider that it finds use in uniquely associating the system together with your Amazon account previous to its cargo to you. To wit, I occurred to note, in reviewing my Amazon order historical past to refresh my reminiscence of after I purchased the Echo Auto and what I paid for it, that the system serial quantity was additionally included within the related transaction itemizing. And on the backside is the different portion of the sunshine information meeting:

Right here’s the already-seen PCB bottom, now freed from its earlier plastic chassis environment:

And right here’s the first-time glimpsed PCB entrance aspect:

Let’s first eliminate that rubber gasket, which fortunately peeled off simply:

Observe the LEDs straddling the left-side swap, which generate the purple “mute” indication. Observe, too, eight whole round apertures for the microphone array, one in every nook of every of the 2 switches. And as for the ICs between the switches, let’s zoom in:

Sadly, I had no luck in figuring out any of those; I’m as soon as once more hopeful that insightful readers can fill within the lacking items. The one on the backside (U10), when accurately oriented (it’s upside-down marked within the picture) has what seems to be to be an “OXZ” firm brand stamped within the higher left nook. The three-line product marking subsequent to it seems to be like this:

L16A
0225
ZSD838A

I discovered related markings (albeit with second-line deviations) on an IC inside a 2018-2019 13” Apple MacBook Air, inside a Fb put up which I stumbled throughout due to Google Picture Search, however that’s all I’ve acquired. Above it are two ICs (U2 and U6) identically marked as follows:

YE08
89T

which could be 8-bit bidirectional voltage-level translators, particularly Texas Devices’ TXB0108. And in U10’s higher proper nook is one other (U9) with the next two-line marking:

T3182
3236A

Once more…

Let’s flip the PCB again over to its bottom and see if we’ve got any higher luck. The first step is to get these two Faraday Cages’ tops off:

That’s higher:

The IC at far left (U20), subsequent to a wire-wound inductor whose guts appear to have been inadvertently uncovered by the spudger whereas eradicating the cage, is labeled thusly (and faintly so):

25940A
TI 89I
AE24

“TI” stands for “Texas Devices”, I’m fairly assured, reflective of the longstanding partnership between that provider and Amazon additionally famous in a number of of my previous Echo product dissections. And Texas Devices does have a “25940” in its product line, particularly the TPS25940, the “eFuse Energy Change”, a “compact, feature-rich energy administration system with a full suite of safety capabilities, together with low energy DevSleep assist”. If that’s truly what this chip is, its proximity to the micro-USB energy enter subsequently is sensible. However the product web page additionally claims that the TPS25940 is meant to be used in SSDs. Hmm…

Above and to the fitting of it’s one other chip with “TI” within the markings (U14), however the first line fortunately makes its perform extra apparent, a minimum of so far as I’m guessing:

DAC
3203I
TI 88J
PL49

This, I consider, is Texas Devices’ TLV320DAC3203 “stereo” audio DAC with a stereo 125-mW headphone driver and audio processing. Proximity is once more a part of the possible identification tip-off right here, because it’s close to the analog audio output. Plus, in fact, there’s the first-line “DAC” mark…

Transfer additional to the fitting and the subsequent giant(r) IC you encounter (U19), additionally seemingly chipped in a single nook throughout my clumsy cages-removal surgical procedure, has the next two-line main markings (together with, above them, a combo mysterious swirl adopted by a seeming QR code):

W902B108
SR3F2

Google searches on the markings proved fruitless however, primarily based on another analysis I’ve accomplished on this technique, I’m nonetheless going to take a guess. The Amazon product web page signifies that along with the primary system SoC (maintain that thought), there’s additionally an “Intel Twin DSP with Inference Engine” inside. The related DeviWiki product web page additional clarifies that it’s an “Intel Quark S1000 Processor.” Indulge me in a short historical past diversion: a bit greater than a decade in the past, Intel introduced its Quark line of defeatured 32-bit x86 processors (much more so than its Atom CPUs) for wearables and different cost- and power-sensitive purposes. The Quark household, which Intel obsoleted in 2019, additionally included a minimum of one coprocessor, the S1000, which embedded two Cadence Tensilica LX6 DSP cores. Supposed for speech recognition, I assume that the S1000 additionally dealt with echo cancellation, background noise suppression and different array mic capabilities on this specific design. And I’m additionally guessing that, though there’s no Intel brand mark, it’s this chip.

Now for the primary system SoC (U23), which is to the fitting of the earlier “thriller chip” and is fortunately extra simply identifiable. It’s MediaTek’s MT7697, launched in 2016 and described as a “extremely built-in 1T1R 2.4GHz Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.2 software processor with an Arm Cortex-M4 and an influence administration unit”, MediaTek being one other provider with a longstanding Amazon relationship.

Which leads us to the final chip I’ll showcase, to its proper, with a two-IC PCB identifier (U17/U18). At first, I assumed the “MT” mark may additionally point out MediaTek sourcing however, provided that the MT7697 already additionally handles Bluetooth and energy administration capabilities, I couldn’t consider anything this one may deal with. However then I remembered I hadn’t but talked about reminiscence, both unstable or nonvolatile. This perception led me to suspect that “MT” most likely as a substitute stands for “Micron Expertise” and that it is a stacked module containing each DRAM and flash reminiscence (capacities and particular know-how sorts and generations unknown).

In closing, I’ll (re)level out two different features of this aspect of the PCB; the eight MEMS microphones whose apertures you noticed earlier on the different aspect, and the PCB-embedded top-edge Bluetooth antenna that I first famous when the PCB was nonetheless chassis-bound. And with that, having simply handed by means of 2,000 phrases, I’ll wrap up with a reiteration of the invitation to help me with any/the entire ICs I used to be unable to ID, and/or to share another insights or different ideas, within the feedback. Thanks as all the time prematurely!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line publication.

Associated Content material

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• Teardown: Amazon Echo Dot will get improved sonic efficiency
• Disassembling the Echo Studio, Amazon’s Apple HomePod foe
• Teardown: Amazon Echo Dot vs Google Dwelling Mini

The put up Amazon’s Echo Auto Assistant: Legacy automobile retrofit-relevant appeared first on EDN.

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