Electronics Online Challenge Sponsored by Texas Instruments
Back by popular demand! Texas Instruments (TI) is one of the largest semiconductor design and manufacturing companies in the world. That means we make amazing technology that is inside many of the most innovative electronic products you use every day. For example, you may not have realized it but TI technology is at the heart of the VEX IQ controller and many TI components are used inside the device. We want to challenge you to look at your world with the eyes of an engineer and explore the inner-workings of an electronic device of your choice. Once you choose a product, you will deconstruct the device, catalog what you find inside, and then submit a final report with your findings on what you discovered.
TI technology is also probably inside many of the electronic products you use every day. For example, TI components are inside the VEX IQ controller, BEATS headphones, GoPro Hero 4 camera, Tesla cars, and the Samsung Galaxy. We challenge you to find a device (we recommend choosing something you don’t mind breaking apart, for example an old phone), and carefully deconstruct the device so you can find out what electronic components are inside. Most semiconductor chips are labeled with the company name and component name. Then conduct online research to discover what the component does and what its role might be within the entire system of the electronic device.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Smart phone, tablet or mobile device
- Camera, voice recorder, video camera, tv remote
- Headphones, speakers, music player
- Watch, Pedometer, GPS navigator, Garage door opener
- Computer components like mouse, monitor, keyboard
SAFETY TIPS: Before starting this challenge, make sure to have your chosen device approved by your team coach/leader/mentor/parent for safety purposes. Also note that some devices contain capacitors that hold a charge and extreme caution should be used. Any electrical device that contains a power source must be disconnected or removed before disassembly (unplug all cords and remove all batteries). You must wear safety glasses during the disassembly process.
Entries
AMC Robotics
AMC Robotics was founded in August 2020. We are a dedicated group of students passionate about STEM and excited to build great things this year.
Accel Middle college is a highschool on a community college campus, and is the result of a collaboration between Evergreen Valley Highschool and Evergreen Valley College
TI Electronics Essay
This is an essay written by our VEX Robotics Team. They dismantled a laptop and researched the components. This was a challenge for the students because all of the work was done virtually, never meeting in person, but they did a great job.
Panasonic DLP Projector
We are Emma, Deonna, and Mia and we are on team 74177Z, a team of six girls from Pinecrest Sloan Canyon. This is our second year competing. For this project, we have deconstructed a Panasonic DLP projector. We were determined to find a device with TI components inside, and we were lucky enough to receive a giant ten-year-old projector that used to be installed at a casino in Las Vegas as a donation. It was a challenge to work together on this project while apart, but we had many Zoom meetings and shared documents so we could still work together and discuss. This was a huge task, but...
Samsung Galaxy Tab A Deconstruction
My name is Tyler. I have deconstructed the Samsung Galaxy Tab A for this project.
Apple AirPort Extreme Deconstruction
We are a team from Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon located in Henderson, Nevada. This is our second year competing in teh Vex IQ competition. For this project we deconstructed and studied an Apple AirPort Extreme Model A1143. During the process we learned how the device funsctions and how it send signals to other devices.
Motorola Mpx220 Deconstruction
I chose a Motorola flip phone. I found it sitting around our house and I had never
seen a phone like this before. I thought it would be cool to take it apart. The phone is a MPx 220. It was made in 2005 and was considered a "smartphone." This was before Apple invented the iPhone and what we think of as a smartphone today.
Rayhaan Saaim SHEAR
Entering the TI Electronics Online Challenge. Part of Sweet Home High School SHEAR.
Eletronics Online Challenge
We disassembled a Samsung POWERbot electronic vacuum for the Texas Instruments Electronics Challenge. We chose to disassemble the vacuum because we would learn about more modern technology. Learning about modern technology would be more useful in the real world because everything nowadays is more digital and less mechanical. We would also have a better chance of applying what we learned to build our own robots that do tasks.
PH-1 Cellphone Robo Royals
I had a great time working on taking apart of this cellphone.
Deconstruction of a Calculator
We worked as a team to deconstruct this calculator. It was a challenge to do so because of social distancing. We never met face to face only via zoom. We both learned a lot.
1104A - TI Challenge Entry
We are team 1104A of the Brampton Robotics Organization, part of the Discobots alliance.
This is our entry to the Electronic Online Challenge Sponsored by Texas Instruments.
For our entry, we decided to open up the Samsung Galaxy S III (model SGH-i747M) to explore the technology found within old mobile platforms. Surprised by the level of sophistication from technology 8 years ago, we decided to make a write-up on our findings.
The report was set in LaTeX (we used Overleaf to...
33691B - Vex Cortex Electronics Entry
We are Team Navy Knights and we have decided to take apart the Vex Cortex.
Texas Instrument Nintendo Wii
The Nintendo Wii. One of the most infamous early age videogame consoles following the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation3. Nearly everyone in the 2000’s had one and anyone who didn’t wanted one. Of course, having the opportunity to use this console for our project, we took it and proceeded to disassemble the Wii.
The first thing we see is the optical drive and its board. The optical drives board has 16 megabits of SDRAM and computes and sends information to the Wiis motherboard. The motherboard is just passed the metal casing right under...