Pictures of Internals of V5 components

[sazrocks]

I got some requests to post the pictures I took while disassembling and reassembling my V5 components, so here they are.

[DISCLAIMER: Don’t take this as a guide in any way. Don’t do this unless you really know what you are doing and are willing to replace the part you are messing with. For the curious of you (like me), I took pictures so you wouldn’t have to do this.]

Let’s start things off with the motor:
Front cap removed:

Casing separated:

Better look of rear assembly:

Rear cap removed:

Better view of back of PCB:

Front of PCB:

Next we’ll move on to the joystick:
Front casing removed:

Button casing removed:

Button casing:

PCBs removed and rumble motor:

Rumble motor:

Battery:

Better look at PCB surrounding the Competition Port:

Processor:

And finally, the brain:
Rear cover removed:

Casing separated:

Top of PCB w/ARM A9 based SOC:

And that’s it! I didn’t open the battery because I’ve heard that those are sealed (glued), and also poking screwdrivers near lithium cells is not something I wanted to do. Ask any questions about the pictures below and I’ll try to answer them.

[Barin]

THANK YOU!!!

Edit: Is that just an 18650 powering the controller?

[Ankush_G]

THANK YOU!!!

Edit: Is that just an 18650 powering the controller?

lasts for days

[sazrocks]

Is that just an 18650 powering the controller?

Don’t know for sure; I didn’t see any markings on it. They might have been under the adhesive. But yeah, as phantom said, the battery life is more than enough. I actually just now charged it up for the first time in like a month (granted its been used intermittently but still).

[Barin]

Don’t know for sure; I didn’t see any markings on it. They might have been under the adhesive. But yeah, as phantom said, the battery life is more than enough. I actually just now charged it up for the first time in like a month (granted its been used intermittently but still).

18650 = 18mm diameter, 65mm length
You can just measure the battery to determine.

[sazrocks]

Updating this with pictures of the Gear cartridges (unfortunately I can’t seem to edit the OP any more so I’ll put them here):
I’ll do an individual teardown with the green cartridge, then I’ll show all the cartridges side by side for easy comparison.
Top of green cartridge:

Bottom:

Cap off:

Top bracket removed. Interestingly, there’s a plastic (nylon?) disk here, presumably to reduce friction:

First gearset and second bracket removed:

Close up of last set of gears:

That’s about it for the green cartridge; it seems to be a 1:6 on the bottom and a 1:3 on top.
Here’s all of them together:

Interestingly the blue cartridge is a single stage 1:6. It’s bracket is also completely overkill in terms of sturdiness.

[KMonkeys]

I see no grease on these gears. Was grease not necessary? I would imagine it is best to have some grease on these gears.

[sazrocks]

I see no grease on these gears. Was grease not necessary? I would imagine it is best to have some grease on these gears.

There is some grease on the gears. Not a lot but definitely noticeable. You can actually see some on the the ring gears.

[KMonkeys]

There is some grease on the gears. Not a lot but definitely noticeable. You can actually see some on the the ring gears.

I see. Thanks for the tear down. I do wish VEX would add more grease to those gears.

[sazrocks]

I see. Thanks for the tear down. I do wish VEX would add more grease to those gears.

AFAIK it is legal to add more yourself; it has been legal to add grease to the inside of 393s for many seasons.

[KMonkeys]

AFAIK it is legal to add more yourself; it has been legal to add grease to the inside of 393s for many seasons.

But my point is this. It is a $10 Cartridge. It doesn’t hurt for the manufacture to add extra grease (maybe thicker type) to the gears.

[epedemont]

Just curious, does anyone have some pictures of the brain around the microUSB area? I’m curious as to how strongly they’re held in place.

[technik3k]

Just curious, does anyone have some pictures of the brain around the microUSB area? I’m curious as to how strongly they’re held in place.

This is the inner side of the processor board, with connector to the power distribution board:

And this is the top side of the processor board with the connector to LCD:

[technik3k]

Also, here are some more pictures of the V5 power distribution board:

Of the special interest are the RS-485 drivers ( http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn65hvd1781.pdf )

Power limiting eFuse chips ( http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps25927.pdf )

And a mystery chip whose datasheet I couldn’t find:

[sazrocks]

And a mystery chip whose datasheet I couldn’t find:

Looks like its the same one/similar as in this ebay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PCS-LPC824M201JHI33E-HVQFN33-LPC824M201JHI33-824J-IC-CHIP-/371951985944
Which in turn seems to have this datasheet: https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/LPC82X.pdf
Which would line up with the M0 mentioned in the V5 system Arch:

The eight 3-Wire ports now make up a smart device. A dedicated Cortex M0 microcontroller has the sole responsibility of reading inputs and toggling outputs.

So it seems like it deals with the triports and making them talk over the internal smart port.

Edit: though it is on the opposite (lateral) side of the board from the triports so maybe not?
Edit 2: and there’s another NXP 824J on the SoC PCB (though once again on the opposite (lateral) side of the PCB from the triports), so two M0s???

[Joe_574C]

Really interesting thread tbh. slightly off topic here, but In terms of the controller, do we know how to use the rumble motor, or will there be an update allowing use for it? I had also considered opening some of the v5 stuff but decided it was not a good idea with the limited availability, so it’s nice to see someone else took the risk lol

[sazrocks]

Really interesting thread tbh. slightly off topic here, but In terms of the controller, do we know how to use the rumble motor, or will there be an update allowing use for it? I had also considered opening some of the v5 stuff but decided it was not a good idea with the limited availability, so it’s nice to see someone else took the risk lol

AFAIK it is usable in VCS and PROS, and presumably RMS as well.
And yeah, it was kinda risky to do this, but years of pent-up curiosity won out. Won’t be doing it again though (unless something dies).

[Joe_574C]

Very cool

AFAIK it is usable in VCS and PROS, and presumably RMS as well.
And yeah, it was kinda risky to do this, but years of pent-up curiosity won out. Won’t be doing it again though (unless something dies).