V-Smile hardware specs?

Anyone ever have a look under the hood of this beast...Wiki says the hardware bewteen V-Smile & the handheld V-Tech system are very close, but what are they sporting??

 

That power house of a games console with such delights as Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob The Builder. Not opened one up yet, but it seems to be Xavix based (a lot of single game consoles are based on this chip surprisingly....).

 

I just bought one of these for my 13month old son, and I was also wondering what it is based on?

 

ive got one in the garage that was given to me and doesnt power up, ill strip it down in the next few days and post some pics if you want

 

Sounds good.

 

funnily enough my daughter wants one of these, but says that she prefers the PS or DC contollers!lol

 

thus far havent had much success in opening it up, took all the screws out, but cant seem to find any of the clips that hold it together, so i think more drastic measures are needed! (time to bring out the big tools)

will keep you posted.....

 

the magic persuader?

 

eventually got it open!

to be honest theres nothing really to look at, just a small pcb with a slot for the cartridge, 2 chips which are covered in nasty epoxy, and another chip which i cant identify

pic attatched

 

like the epoxy! lol is that for a stealth chip look? lol

 

Those are commonly called "glop tops". It's for when the manufacturer is too cheap to use proper chips. You see them a lot in cheap Chinese electronics.

(You don't have to punctuate every sentence with "lol" by the way, this isn't gamefaqs.)

 

sorry, dont know that website.... im just a humerous person.

 

thanks for the info, im slowly learning about this kind of stuff!

well if anyone wants the now dismantled vsmile they can have it for free as long as you pay postage as its of no use to me

never know, someone may have a use for it, dumping the chipdata etc, may be useful for emulation of the system (although doubtful)

at least ive got my daily fix of destroying something in the name of science (and curiosity)

 

It does look a lot like the standard Xavix type layout.

What does the bottom of the PCB look like?

 

not much there to be honest, no chips etc. mostly solder points for the front side, and a single reset buttom on the top left, ill take another pic when i get back from picking the kids up from school if you want

 

v-tech

Anything from vtech doesn't have much chips on it mostly black blobs

 

Sometimes they cover the chips with epoxy resin to prevent (skilled Chinese) people hacking the chips for their own special projects/clones.

 

http://www.tripoint.org/kevtris/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html


You're right, anyway, glop tops can be a bitch to RE, but determined hackers will usually find a way.

 

i m no chemistry master, but aren't there appropriate solvents for epoxy?

 

Not that are safe to use on motherboards or delicate chips. Heat guns are suprisingly effective as long as you have patience and careful motor control :lol: