Teardown Tuesday: Amazon Echo Dot v2

The Amazon Echo Dot version 2 is out. Here's a look inside.

The Echo is Amazon's smart speaker and voice-activated Wi-Fi-enabled system, activated by the name "Alexa". The Dot is a smaller version with the same functionality, released in March of 2016.

This October, an upgraded Dot was released with improved voice recognition and the ability to determine the proximity of someone issuing commands, allowing for better cooperation between multiple Dot or Echo units.

Let's crack one of these new versions open and see what it's made of.

Disassembling the Echo Dot

The Second Generation Amazon Echo Dot is held together with four M2.2 x 1.6mm thread-forming screws whose T8 heads are covered by the anti-slip mat at the base of the dot.  

Begin by carefully peeling back an edge the soft rubber-like mat to reveal the clear rigid vinyl base layer. Use a sharp tool to lift the clear rigid vinyl base away from the Echo Dot to reveal the four case screws. Remove the case screws and gently shake the case to release the circuit boards and other components. The speaker can be removed with one or two firm raps against a hard surface.

Overview of the parts and pieces that are inside the Echo Dot

The two circuit boards inside the Amazon Echo Dot v2

Unfortunately, many of the components in the Amazon Echo Dot are very small and do not contain manufacturer's identification markings—this makes positive identification difficult and time-consuming. But confirmation, once known, should be fast and easy.

I have supplied the information as it appears on the component. If you are familiar with these components and can provide a link to the manufacturer or distributor web page or datasheet, please comment below and we will update the table to include information that is not available at the time the article was written.

Circuit Board #1

Top of Circuit Board #1

The top of the first circuit board has the following components:

• Four tactile switches (red) that control volume, the microphone mute button (in white), and an action button
• One microchip U3 that appears to be a light sensor or color sensor (orange)
• Also visible are 6 equidistant perimeter holes and one central hole for microphones located on the opposite side of the circuit board

Image of front of topmost circuit board from inside the Amazon Echo Dot

Closeup image of the optical sensor highlighted next to a switch

This little green window is about the width of a grain of rice

Hyper closeup image of the sensor

Bottom of Circuit Board #1

The bottom side of the topmost circuit board has:

• Two variations of surface-mount microphones (red)
• Twelve RGB LEDs (yellow) that are used to indicate volume, action, and microphone off
• Four two-channel analog-to-digital converters (orange) that convert the microphone outputs to digital signals
• A microcontroller (blue) that connects the switches and the LEDs
• A ribbon cable connector that leads to the bottom circuit board

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Circuit Board #2

Top of Circuit Board #2

The second circuit board has the following components:

• A ribbon cable connector that leads to the top circuit board
• Two mechanical spring connectors (light green) that connect to the speaker
• A digital-to-audio converter (orange)
• An unknown microchip marked "MJ" (yellow)
• An unknown microchip marked "XL" (purple) connects to the silver micro USB port
• An audio jack that is mechanically fastened to the circuit board next to the micro USB port
• Printed copper antennas (on the far left and far right of the circuit board)

Top-view of the second circuit board

Bottom of Circuit Board #2

The bottom of the second circuit board houses:

• The power-management IC (yellow)
• The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip (green)
• A 64-bit quad-core processor (orange) that is also used in multiple tablets
• 4GB of memory (red) used as a data buffer or for firmware upgrades
• Unknown microchips marked "YA" (pink), "UL 1K16" (purple), "Jb 6mm" (cyan), "VB6MC" (brown), and "SKB" (pink)

Bottom view of the second circuit board

Speaker

Two spring clips that are soldered onto the bottom of the second circuit board connect to two metal contacts on the speaker housing. The speaker housing is a hollow plastic cavity that amplifies the sound volume.

Conclusion

The second generation Amazon Echo Dot is built around Mediatek microchips. Mediatek, unfortunately, does not provide datasheets or technical briefs for these microchips on their website.  

This little device is quite easy to disassemble and reassemble and, as an added bonus, it works after reassembly.

Thanks for checking out this Teardown Tuesday! Be sure to come back next week to see what else we're tearing down.

Next Teardown: Wireless Home Remote