Linksys BEFSR41 Teardown

Duration: 45 minutes

Steps: 6 Steps

Live teardown fun straight from Maker-Faire 2010—let’s see what’s inside!

Step 1

– Take a good look at your device from above. This will give you a clear view of what’s going on and make it easier to spot where you need to focus your attention.

Step 2

There aren’t any screws or notches hidden under the rubber feet on this model. Just give the front blue panel a gentle tug – it’s held on by small recesses/notches on each side, so a little force is all it takes to pop it off.

Step 3

– After you remove the front blue panel, simply slide the top panel back and it’ll come off easily. It’s held in place by a couple of plastic notches connecting it to the bottom panel.

Step 4

– Take out the tiny Philips screw holding down the logic board—this lets you lift off the bottom panel.

Step 5

– Once you’ve unscrewed that single screw and slid off the bottom panel, you’ll find yourself face-to-face with the main circuit board. Keep your eyes peeled, this is where the magic happens!

– Main Components

– Barrel-plug power connection / CAT5 / Reset button

– Power Control

– Line-drivers (these nifty components let CAT5 cables carry data over 100 meters—no sweat!)

– RAM (2Mb) (Holds MAC tables, network info, and other essential bits—think of it like your device’s memory bank.)

– KS8695 ARM922 (ARM Core with 5 switchboards, plus a tcp/ip/udp packet interface—this is your device’s brain. Impressive, right?)

– RAM (1Mb) (More memory! Your device loves to keep things running smoothly.)

Step 6

– Here’s the view from the bottom side of the circuit board.