I recently was given a promotional item that is called a "Video Greeting Card". Pretty much, when opened it is designed to play a promotional video or an advertisement. Original name, right? It was sorta neat, but not neat enough for me to remember to take a photo or video of it. But it looks like this:
The one interesting part of the card is that it had an exposed micro USB port. Out of curiosity, I plugged it into a spare computer I had laying around to see if anything interesting happened, like having it try to install Chinese spyware or a fresh new IE toolbar. It didn't. Whomp. Whomp. The Micro USB was strictly for charging. So I put the device over in the corner for a rainy day.
Well, the rainy day came quicker than expected. I had an idea I wanted to use the card for, but it required that I figured out how to change the video on the device. So I plugged the device back in and started to poke and prod on the USB port. It just seemed either excessive or clever to use MicroUSB strictly for charging, there had to be more to it -- but at this point, I was sure that there was nothing connected to the data portion of the USB port.
Time to tear it apart. I still getting used to this 'Put Shit on the Internet' stuff -- so wasn't thinking, and didn't take pictures. But, I can say I found a new favorite tool in the process -- X-Acto Wood Chisle Blade. Heat this bad boy up a bit, and it'll scrape right thru cardboard adhesives. It also is great for scraping hot glue. Seriously, A++, will scrape shit with it again.
Once inside, this is what it looked like. And the problem was immediately obvious. You can see the stubs from the yellow and white wires where they were cut. The only wires left connected are power and ground.
Really, the only interesting chip on this board is the "AT-J2273B" which is made by Action Semiconductors. It's very common in very, very, very, very, very cheap MP3/MP4/MP5 players.
The screen is a 'TA070-F5015E48A', which I have found in mainly Russian Video players, but It seems to be a common low res 7" screen, relabeled based off of the supplier.
That Hot Glue.
Look at that subtle colouring. The tasteful thickness.
Oh my God. It even has a watermark.
The board is Labeled "73B16 REV:02" and "2015*05*10" -- Which we can assume is a manufacture date. (Or at least the date the screen print was made)
Lots and lots of foam, and even more hot glue. The battery is labeled '1800mah 3.3v' .. And looks like one of the good 'Burn your house down' Li-Ion batteries you can buy off EBay for a few bucks. I may tear it down later as I'm curious if it has any protection circuitry on it.
You can see form the picture the plug side of the MicroUSB did still have all 4 wires connected. Then it was drowned in hot glue -- because, why not. Once you removed all the hotglue, each solder point was labeled -- and the labels matched on both ends. I spent a solid 7 seconds googling what the letters stood for. Found nothing, so I'm guessing --
V = Very
M = Much
P = Phucking
G = Glue
Not my best soldering job. But the excess glue really made it a PITA. I think I need to get a good heat gun to help with this in the future.
I cleaned off the hot glue, de-soldered the points, and then soldered in some new fresh cable between the connector and the board. Added in some fresh tape to hold in the guts, and I think it was time to test this bad boy.
w00t. Pw0n3d. All your USB are belongs to us!
(Do people say pw0n3d anymore? I sure hope not. )
$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 10d6:1101 Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd D-Wave 2GB MP4 Player / AK1025 MP3/MP4 Player
[ 422.229609] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 10 using dwc_otg
[ 422.330599] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=10d6, idProduct=1101
[ 422.330624] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 422.330642] usb 1-1.4: Product: media-player
[ 422.330658] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: actions
[ 422.330674] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: \xffffffe3\xffffff88\xffffffb1\xffffff88\xffffffb1\xffffffe3\xffffff90\xffffffb3\xffffff90\xffffffb3\xffffffe3\xffffff98\xffffffb5\xffffff98\xffffffb5\xffffffe3\xffffffa0\xffffffb7\xffffffa0\xffffffb7\xffffffe3\xffffff9c\xffffffb8\xffffff9c\xffffffb8\xffffffe3\xffffff94\xffffffb6\xffffff94\xffffffb6\xffffffe3\xffffff8c\xffffffb4\xffffff8c\xffffffb4\xffffffe3\xffffff84\xffffffb2\xffffff84\xffffffb2
[ 422.335025] usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 422.335866] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0
[ 423.374841] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access actions media-player 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 423.377735] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 215808 512-byte logical blocks: (110 MB/105 MiB)
[ 423.378145] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 423.378172] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 12 00 00
[ 423.380788] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: disabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 423.384925] sda:
[ 423.387474] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 423.412167] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
This is how it shows up once plugged it. It just mounts as a disk, and you can copy over an .mp4 / .mp3 / .avi to the device, and it will autoplay them on load. One interesting note is that the device shows up as a 2GB player in the usb listing. However, it only mounts as ~110MB. I didn't recognize any large storage on the board, so I'm guessing the larger chips on the board are super cheap NOS flash storage and it is mis-identifying. I was also very surprised this wasn't write protected -- the controller supports it, could of been a cheap jumper or solder bridge. shrug
I 3D printed a name plate for it (It was a "Gift"), and then after some sanding, and some primer, I used Rustoleum Specialty Glitter Spray Paint to give it that special touch... This stuff is rad. But holy heck does it smell bad. There is no way this stuff can be safe. I had the final product it in two Ziplock bags and could still smell it. So, don't use the Rustoleum Glitter Spray on anything you plan on keeping inside, or around humans. Unless you have no sense of smell. Otherwise it's great. A++. Will Glitter with it again.
I'll see if I can get permission to post the final video I made for it.