
BB-8 Droid Teardown - fictivmade
https://www.fictiv.com/resources/starter/hardware-dna-bb8-teardown
======
joezydeco
It's great to see a teardown that also analyses the product engineering going
on. Very nicely done.

~~~
morley
I was reminded of this blog's analysis of the Apple Watch manufacturing
process from its announcement video:

[http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-
wa...](http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-watch-is-
made)

The site also has a similar analysis of the Mac Pro.

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daviding
The actual toy moving:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Y2WfcCb4M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Y2WfcCb4M)

My dog would love it.

~~~
delecti
Your dog might, but I speak from experience when I say that your cat
definitely would not. (assuming it's anything like the original Sphero)

~~~
jarnix
My cats love to hunt the original Sphero, but you need to make it move slow
and then fast, play hide and seek, etc.

You could be interested in the "mousr" :
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/525985345/mousr-the-
rob...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/525985345/mousr-the-robotic-
mouse-that-plays-with-your-cat)

(I'm not involved with the project, just curious, and a cat person)

~~~
fictivmade
I've wanted to get my hands on one of those for my cat!

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cyanbane
We have one and I think myself and the kids played with it most of last
weekend. I was hoping that the Bluetooth sequences might be able to be decoded
so one could emulate commands (or create new ones) from a Bluetooth equipped
broadcasting PC. If anyone has any info on anyone attempting this, please
post.

~~~
rocha
The original Sphero has an SDK, but BB-8 is build on a newer version of their
platform. It uses BLE like Ollie. It should be possible to reverse engineer
their BLE service, for example: [https://github.com/hybridgroup/cylon-
ollie](https://github.com/hybridgroup/cylon-ollie)

------
Bedon292
Very interesting to see how it works in there. Though it is sad that it had to
be cut apart though, it would be fun to upgrade it.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
I had to saw my Sphero open to replace its batteries (lesson learned - don't
leave it charging). Its guts are very similar, and I used some plastic-
specific adhesive and then clear repair tape to hold it shut. Ideally the
shell would have screwed open and shut, given the wall thickness (I have seen
some other repair / upgrades that used clear plastic balls, like xmas
ornaments, as the replacement shell). The polycarbonate is very strong, my
Sphero once fell ~12 feet onto hardwood, without any damage - physical,
mechanical, or electrical.

~~~
binaryblitz
The nice thing about the way they make it is that it's waterproof!

------
jbit
> _Also note the lead weights used here to make the product feel more
> substantial_

Are these weights really made of Lead? Or is "lead weight" just an industry
term for anything heavy? If they're actually Lead, how do toys like this
conform to RoHS?

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I'd be surprised if it was. Children's toys get tested for lead and just
breathing it in is dangerous for kids.

Also, lead has a certain look and feel to it. When I open up toys and gadgets,
the weight in there doesn't look like lead to me. No idea what it is, but I'd
guess a zinc or iron alloy.

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vtlynch
what are good resources to learn more about the product/material engineering
they discuss in this article?

~~~
funkedelic_bob
I'm pretty the site of this article has a bunch engineering resources and
articles.

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stcredzero
I start scrolling to read the article, and -- okay, what is this dev doing?
I'm outta here!

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rancur
Someone please make someone stop using large fonts on my phone that are hard
and slow to read

