Echo Dot Gen 3 Teardown / Reverse Engineering (Part 1)

Some ad-hoc reverse engineering & teardown stuff on the Echo Dot. The boot messages shown can be searched to fin dinteresting stuff (for example, bootloader seems to be based on github.com/ariafan/platform-b....

[@brettgipson3806]

*I like the old style Echo Dot because it's small also **Newest.Technology**, gives out decent sound and doesn't take up a lot of shelf space if you want to put it on beam in the workshop or shed.*

[@stevecobb76]

I cant wait to see a echo dot root kit.

[@razorr1920]

You and Joe Grand are the grand maestros of reverse engineering.

[@markuscwatson]

Nice job Collin. I’m loving these hardware hack videos.

[@gsuberland]

If you look at the bottom right when you are measuring the period you can see the frequency is shown.

[@johann351]

Hello can I change the aux output to an input?

[@GoGreenMan]

Think its possible to tear one of these apart to put in a custom housing? Or would it make more sense to just start from scratch with a raspberry pi?

[@sbergman0894]

Press fit shields allow for AOI inspection first of components underneath.

[@damiansuess]

Great breakdown!! Are there any example i can make the UART decoder using an Arduino rather than buying some expensive hardware?

[@SrGallo420]

Torx size??

[@SuperSourabhdas]

Great work

[@vandiecarlos]

hello, congratulations on the work, I have a doubt .... I have an echo dot clock and the dsn has been disabled by amazon. reason? I requested a guarantee. then the question comes ... would you enter your setup and have it re-registered on dsn? thankful.

[@subhasishde7749]

Please sir tell me how 3gen echo dot unblocked?

[@kaboooom2000uk]

Very cool man. wish i had your smarts.

[@xaviera2127]

Can you repurpose these parts and put them to good use?

[@dickfirm9849]

Hello sir,I'm in the UK,I bought an echo dot the taller one,it didn't arrive so I got money back,then arrived but it's blocked,can I remove Alex from it to use as a normal speaker if plugging a 3.5 jack from my phone?Many thanks

[@ANTandTEC]

I am wanting to mod my Echo so that the LEDs stay on full brightness and do not dim. I am looking for the datasheet for the light sensor, do you happen to know the part number? Mine is a gen5 and it looks like the light sensors are different, but info on the gen3 would help.

[@alex-dn9to]

I understand you don't care but you still want to be able to put it back together... right? to get the ribbon cable out, lift up the black tab running across the top. of the connector. It's a tiny hinge that holds the cable down. it snaps right back into place

[@otakuholly8885]

i got one 2nd hand and its LED and MIC doesn't work, i tore it down stared into its soul and cant see the issue, did all the standard recomendations and theres nothing i can figure it out other then it is defective in a componenet, it still is recognizaed though as an alexa and i can use it as a bluetooth speaker basically, LOL.

[@CesarBastardo]

Hi, can I convert the device into a powered speaker? if so were should I connet the input signal?

[@SE09uk]

It can be used as a good Wi-Fi or Bluetooth speaker out the box The sound is amazing

[@richardrangel3122]

tengo un echo dot 4ta generacion y tiene problemas con el wifi

[@inerlogic]

I love the part where it turns into an electronics podcast with no video.....

[@lifeofshelly45]

can i remove motherboard and change into bluetooth speaker ?

[@dickfirm9849]

I'm interested in that also

[@luisfer_silva]

Do u know the details of the speaker? Watts? mm?

[@playaspec]

I get the feeling that there's two, possibly three UARTs at play. One of the last messages is that one is being disabled (uart0), and another enabled (ttyMT0). Also the BAUD rate is 921,600. It's specified in the kernel boot parameters along with a reference to a 'uart1', and in one other message. The message "[TOOL] USB enum timeout!" indicates that it's looking for a USB OTG peripheral, probably their Ethernet dongle.

[@texasblaze1016]

Why do they stick that pink piece of laffy taffy on the shield?

[@SirFrag32]

heat transfer probably

[@gramurspel]

The tag is a NFC tag. Try it out. It connects the Device via Bluetooth.

[@playaspec]

I knew it! They also use it in Amazon's shipping center. As they pull a box off the shelf, the tag gets read and associates it with your account. Every Firestick I installed automatically knew it was mine.

[@utterchaos2]

@@playaspec fun fact only related due to the NFC tag topic lol.... But Victoria's Secret bras or at least the PINK brand of VS bras (I'll assume all of them from VS but don't know for certain) each have one of those NFC tags woven into the bra tags with the size of bra and washing instructions. For inventory reasons and warehouse storage is what I have learned anyways. Kinda cool though to know. 🤓

[@gabedestellano]

This was so boring that I literally died. I have come back from the dead just to post this comment in hopes that I can save a life.