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Equalizer Bar

A project log for Dissecting Low-Cost Electronics

This is a place to dump tear downs of low-cost electronic gadgets

timTim 10/24/2023 at 22:030 Comments

This is a small USB power equalizer bar with an integrated microphone. Different modes and color settings can be selected with push buttons on the rear side. There is also a version with an integrated battery.

The device is surprisingly well made. The PCB sits at the bottom of the casing with white light diffusing cavities on top. The bar is illuminated by 32 addressable RGB LEDs in 3528 form factor.

I close-up of an LED is shown above. This seems to be a "TX1812" based device, which currently seem to be the lowest cost WS2812 clones. They can be found from several "no name" suppliers.

The rear side of the PCB holds push buttons and the remaining electronics.
A single 8 pin MCU without markings controls the entire device. The manual claims that it is a 32 Bit ARM based process with 72MHz clock. The microphone can be seen in the center of the image. There is a surprising amount of analog electronics, most likely to condition the microphone signal. Other than that there are a few unpopulated footprints to allow for a battery operated version.

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