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Reverse Engineering Motherboard

1. Challenges of Using Flatbed Scanners for PCB Reverse Engineering

Many articles on reverse engineering PCBs suggest starting with a flatbed scanner to capture images of the board. However, if you are trying to understand a PCB with components, flatbed scanners may not be the best option.

The primary issue is that flatbed scanners focus on objects that are directly in contact with the scanner bed, losing focus on parts that are slightly elevated. This shallow depth of field means that components, which are not perfectly flat, appear blurry and indistinct in the scanned image. As a result, it’s difficult to get a clear, detailed view of the PCB and its components using this method.

For those aiming to reverse engineer a PCB with components, alternative approaches may be more effective.

2. Picture

After putting a few hours of effort, I found a way to take a good picture of the motherboard PCB. I used an iPhone 15 camera and tried various angles and finally settled with the best picture I can do. You can use the magnifier app in iOS to find the part numbers of each component.

Main Components

Part No Manufacturer Model
U23 AllWinner A33
DU1 Nanya Tech NT5CC256M16EP-EK
U13 Macronix MX30LF2G18AC-TI
U12 X-Powers AXP223
U16 Realtek RTL8189ETV
U1 GigaDevice GD32F103VCT6

Description

  • A33 - Allwinner

    • ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core CPU
    • ARM Mali400 MP2 Dual-Core GPU
    • DDR3/DDR3L controller
    • NAND Flash controller and 64-bit ECC

  • SDRAM - Nanya Tech

    • 4 GBits DDR3L
    • 933 MHz Maximum Clock Rate
    • 1866 Mbps Data Rate

  • Flash Memory - Macronix

    • 2 Gbits NAND

  • AXP223 - X-Powers

    • Power Management IC
    • 21 Channel power output
    • 12-bit ADC
    • Voltage/Current/Temperature monitoring

  • Realtex WiFi module

    • 802.11n Wireless LAN

  • GD32F1 MCU - GigaDevice

    • 108 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 core
    • 48 KB RAM
    • 256 KB Flash memory

Circuit (Highlevel)

Connectors

Part No side Pins Rows Type Pitch Component
J48 Top 6 1 GH 1.25mm Dust box sensor / Water box detector
J15 Top 2 1 XH 2.5mm Rolling brush power
J5 Top 8 1 GH 1.25mm Front fall detect R & L IR sensor
J17 Top 5 1 PH 2.0mm Lidar sensor
J34 Top 3 1 GH 1.25mm Mop pad sensor *
J27 Top 2 1 PH 2.0mm Right wheel power
J26 Top 16 2 SHD 1.0mm Right wheel encoder / Sweeper motor power / Right side fall detect IR / Right hit detect sensor
J50 Top 5 1 SHD 1.0mm Debug pins for Micro-USB
J18 Top 2 1 GH 1.25mm Speaker
J45 Top 3 1 GH 1.25mm Proscenic M6 Remote Board (TS-Y430-01C)
J2* Top 2 1 PH 2.0mm Power-In from dock station connection
J16 Top 4 1 PH 2.0mm Vacuum pump
J24 Bottom 2 1 PH 2.0mm Left wheel power
J25 Bottom 16 2 SHD 1.0mm Left wheel encoder / Dustbox power / Left side fall detect IR / Left hit detect sensor
J36 Top 3 1 GH 1.25mm
(* indicates that its a guess)

Other Components

Part No side Component Purpose
Q4 Top NCE30P30K
Q5 Top NCE30P30K
Q24 Top UTT30P06L
Q23 Top D444
U31 Bottom XPT4871 Audio Power Amplifier
U2 Top CN3704 Battery charger controller for 4 cell li-ion battery
U10 Top 74HC14D Inverter Schmitt trigger
U3 Top CJT1117B 3.3 Voltage regulator
U25 Bottom 8870 Motor Driver