Name that Ware April 2009

The Ware for April 2009 is shown below. Click the photo for a much larger version.

This is a platitude, but using a flatbed scanner produces awesome results on circuit boards. Somehow over the years I never got around to buying a flatbed scanner that I didn’t take apart, but recently a coworker put an old one up for grabs. I actually wasn’t the first one to claim it but thankfully the first claimant was a Mac-only guy and the scanner only had drivers for the venerable PowerPC Macs. Well, his loss is your gain, at least for wares with only low-profile components. The scans are good enough to image process and use automated image recognition techniques to pull out connectivity; makes me want to delaminate a circuit board and give it a try.

9 Responses to “Name that Ware April 2009”

  1. Loïc says:

    It’s a Cradlepoint PHS300 Personal WiFi Hotspot, see http://www.mulliner.org/hardware/cradlepoint_phs300/ :)

  2. SlavoT says:

    For me it’s kind of pocket usb wifi router/AP like a http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/03/logitec_lanwgra_pocket_wifi_router.html

    Slavo T.

  3. Loïc says:

    I should explain how I found the answer :
    – the main CPU is a Ubicom IP3023 “Wireless Network Processor”
    – on the left there are are switch, a power plug and what seems to be a USB plug

    So my first guess was : USB wireless network adapter or access point.

    Searching google images for “IP3023 access point” gave me the final answer.

  4. stuarty says:

    It’s a Stingray Network Daughter Card (with 802.11a/g radio)

    http://www.kestrelink.com/pdfs/products/KL-DPB-STINGRAY-12.pdf

  5. roby says:

    even if the correct answer has already been given, why this unit seems to have ubicom ic “re-worked” (solder paste traces) and no traces of solder for metal shielding plate???

  6. Nate says:

    Note the 10-pin JTAG header at upper left and what appears to be light damage to the flash chip on the lower right. bunnie must keep every type of device company in business personally and have a warehouse in his back yard to store it all.

  7. Oren T says:

    Two important pieces of evidence led me to identifying the class of this device:

    * It’s got a single USB type A connector.
    * It’s got a simple on-board printed antenna.

    This a USB master, not a slave peripheral. And it is not a USB wireless extender – they all seem to have multiple USB connectors. It appears to be designed to accept a specific USB slave device into it – for a specific purpose. And it’s a device that could not have been built in to the device for a certain reason… Finally, they don’t care much about maximizing wireless performance. It is designed to be used at close range.

    Unfortunately, I peeked at the other comments before I managed to recognize the specific device. I could have had at least the satisfaction of doing it by myself…

  8. Theo says:

    I initially thought it did DSL, given the pinout of the top left connector. But it has an ISP1105 chip next to it, which is a USB transceiver.

    Printed antenna on the daughtercard, and shielding points… it could be there’s a metal plate in the casing that presses against the PCB to form the shield. So I was assuming some kind of wireless USB device, but one beefy enough to require an external power supply.

    There’s a surprising quantity of discretes for such a simple board… 10-pin U13 labelled ‘8051’ could be a tiny microcontroller – 8/10 pin 8051s do exist (eg Philips P89LPC90x (8 pin)/P89LPC910x (10 pin)) but only the 90x is in SOIC. But I think it’s likely to be something else.