in your household, there is a chip you can easily decap. Can you guess what it is? (feddit.de)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Second image

Transcript

Low-quality photo of a cleanly decapped chip with no resin around it, lying in a recessed rectangle in black plastic or ceramic. It is protected with some clear coat, and there are gold bond wires connecting it with 14 pins embedded in the package material. Two of them on opposing sides are connected and form a bed that the die.A structured square takes up most of the left half of the die and appears significantly darker. The rest is usual chip design with minor rectangular structures. The second photo uses crappy dusty lenses instead of digital zoom. It is slightly less cropped so it is revealed that the entire thing is within a deeper recess, possibly with a tab that keeps a cover on?

I don't have a camera better than my phone, sorry, and the magnifying glasses did not really help.

The pics are purposefully cropped to make the guessing a little harder. The chip continues to work now that I’ve undone this.

You may ask follow-up questions. I will post the full story and pics once you guess correctly.

~~Please use the spoiler syntax for your guesses so that people can enjoy guessing with follow-up hints without spoilers!~~ You really don't like doing this, apparently. I thought it would make it more fun for people to take a guess even after someone guesses correctly.

I will do the same with any hints and answers I post in the comments so that everyone can choose the difficulty.

all 17 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

::: spoiler Humidity sensor, because they come with an opening Already. :::

[-] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Answer

Lovely guess but no. This one has more pins, the integrated circuit is more complicated and many people don't have one at home.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Ah...

try 2

optical mouse sensor? might have the right pin count if it's the primary ic

If I'm wrong, I'm out of ideas, my house is far from a normal house, so my reference points are wrong.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Congratulations!

Thanks for using the spoiler tag. It’s working now.

And yes, I took into account that electronic nerds’ houses are different from most others.

The story

My Genius optical mouse was tracking poorly, even on patterned surfaces and mouse mats. I cleaned the lens and that didn't help. So I used a knife to open the chip, which is a pinhole camera with a die that integrates the sensor, a basic image processing system, button, wheel and LED controller and a USB (or maybe also PS/2) interface. I cleaned the chip with alcohol (mainly to remove the dust that had landed on it while it was open) and reassembled the mouse to find that it made no effect on ots functionality. I ultimately found out that the focus distance was off and I fixed it by removing the rubber pads at the bottom.

The chip appears to have no alphanumerical marking.

Full picture of the PCB with this chip – it is slightly damaged because I needed to scrape off parts of it to allow the cover to come off; I also did this because I thought of readjusting the focus by slightly lowering the chip (by bending its legs).

[-] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Pringles?

[-] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Answer + hint

Despite their fame, if you are reading this, you are more likely to have this kind of chip in your house than Pringles.

[-] omgitsaheadcrab 2 points 8 months ago

SIM?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Answer

That’s not a 14-pin chip. The device is apparently thicker, and it continues to function now that I reassembled it.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Bank card.

I'm just doing this to be noncompliant with your silly attempt at rulesetting.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Sorry for the inconvenience, I’m just trying to help people find hints in comments without someone ruining their experience by accidentally revealing the answer without a spoiler tag. This will keep the game fun even after someone guesses correctly.

Okay, I’ll drop the rule but I hope the correct guessser will retroactively do it anyway.

It’s not a bank card for the same reason it’s not a SIM (form factor)

[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Thermostat

[-] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

No.

Answer

A thermostat chip uses a big transistor to control a relay, and is usually integrated with a touch/button and display driver, and it can be inside a conventional package. The thermistor is usually a discrete component created with different technology and away from heat-dissipating components.

However, your idea that it’s a sensor that needs to interact with the outside world in a special way is not entirely incorrect.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Pringles

[-] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

No cap

this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023

7 points (65.2% liked)

Electronics

1885 readers

1 users here now

Projects, pictures, industry discussions and news about electronic engineering & component-level electronic circuits.

Rules

1: Be nice.

2: Be on-topic (eg: Electronic, not electrical).

3: No commercial stuff, buying, selling or valuations.

4: No circuit design or repair, tools or component questions.

5: No excessively promoting your own sites, social media, videos etc.

Ask questions in https://discuss.tchncs.de/c/askelectronics

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]