ICHK - Gibbon - Free Learning

Back to Search Results

Teardown and Rebuild (Electronics)

Time 4.7 hrs

Difficulty Intermediate

Prerequisites Teardown Lab

Departments Human Technologies

Authors Ross Parker

Groupings Individual
Pairs
Threes

Minimum Year Group None

Unit Overview
Enrol
Content
Resources
Exemplar Work

Blurb

We buy things, use them, and then throw them away. But lots of the electronics we buy can be used in a different way: we can take them to pieces, learn how they work, and then put them back together. In this unit, you get to do just that.

License

This work is shared under the following license: Creative Commons BY-SA-NC

Outline

The Pitch Why should I bother learning this? The companies who make computers, printers, speakers, phones and other electronics do not want you to take them apart: but I do. Learn to take things apart, learn how they work, and put them back together.
Resources What is needed to run this unit? Hand tools (various Philips heard screw drivers, small electronic-specific screw driver set) Old electronics to take apart.	Interdisciplinary Links Do not try and force this. What areas of other subjects might this reflect and/discuss language. For IB, links with ToK. ...
Teacher Reflection What was successful? What needs changing? Alternative Assessments and Lesson Ideas? What other Differentiation Ideas/Plans could be used? ...
Credits Any CC attribution, thanks, credit, etc. Service centre thumnail by mactrovector on freepik under Freepik License.

This page requires you to be logged in to access it. Please login and try again.

5 mins

Bending The Rules

The Pitch

The companies who make computers, printers, speakers, phones and other electronics do not want you to take them apart: but I do. Learn to take things apart, learn how they work, and put them back together.
By bending the rules a little, we can learn how things work, and how to fix them when they go wrong.

5 mins

WARNING!

Electricity Is Bad For You

Electricity is a powerful force: IT CAN KILL YOU!
AT NO POINT IN THIS UNIT ARE YOU TO PLUG IN THE DEVICE YOU ARE WORKING ON.
This unit is for practice only: do not test your work using power.

This will come in later units.

15 mins

Screwing

Using A Screwdriver

Many electronic devices are held together with screws, and so can be opened up with the right size screw driver.
Watch the (somewhat dull) video below to learn about how to correctly use a screwdriver:

Some of the key ideas you should now have are:

Turn left to loosen, right to tighten (aka "lefty loosey, righty tighty").
Choose the right type of screwdriver for your screw (e.g. Philips, Flathead, Torx, etc).
Choose the right size of screwdriver head for your screw.
Push downwards whilst using your screwdriver.
Keep the shaft of the screwdriver parallel to the screw (this takes some skills, as the tendency is to move the screw drive to the side, as shown below):

45 mins

Partial Teardown & Rebuild

Hands On

Choose an item from the school's supply of old electronics.
DO NOT PLUG IT INTO THE POWER!
Collect the tools you need from your teacher.
Use this time to take apart the device, and get it back together.
You will most likely not have time to do a complete teardown, depending on the complexity of the device: keep an eye on the time, and do as much as you can.
Remember to keep your screws and parts organised, and don't lose any.

70 mins

Full Teardown & Rebuild

Hands On

Take the same device as last time: now you know it better, you might be able to do a full teardown and rebuild in the time given.
DO NOT PLUG IT INTO THE POWER!
Collect the tools you need from your teacher.
Remember to keep your screws and parts organised, and don't lose any.
Take some photos or video as you go.

70 mins

Teardown, Rebuild & Analyse

Hands On

Take the same device as last time: now you know it better, you might be able to do a full teardown and rebuild in the time given.
DO NOT PLUG IT INTO THE POWER!
Collect the tools you need from your teacher.
This time take it apart as fully as you can, given the time available, but leave time to look at all of the parts, and try to work out what they do.
Ask for help with this analysis if you need.
Remember to keep your screws and parts organised, and don't lose any.
Take some photos or video as you go.
The video below shows a very thorough teardown (more thorough than you need, and he destroys the machine, which you should not do), but his method of investigation and analysis is very interesting:

70 mins

Evidence

Finishing Up

Your task now is to produce a neat, hand drawn diagram of how the main parts of your device and how they work together.
In doing this, it might be worth thinking of your device as a system:

Many systems have multiple inputs, processes and outputs, but simple systems might only have one of each.
As an example, consider a DVD player:
- Inputs - electricity, the DVD disk, front-panel buttons, remote control
- Processes - converting digital data on disk into moving image and audio that a screen can display, dealing with button presses, outputting information to the LCD display
- Outputs - back-panel connectors to TV and external speakers (e.g. HDMI, RCA connector), LCD display on front panel
- Sometimes input and output are coupled together, as in network connections (Ethernet, WiFi)
Your diagram should be more detailed than the example above!
Submit your evidence to finish up the unit.

Images

Embeds

Records 1-2 of 2

Unit	Students	Work
	Katie Shared on 01/03/2019	Click to View Work Student Comment I enjoyed this unit because I learnt how to tear something down and rebuild it. It was interesting because we could see the inside of a computer and how it works etc. Teacher Comment This was more of a mini-tear down and rebuild. How could you have kept track of the right size components to avoid confusion? Is there a better way of keeping the parts in some sort of order? When you do work like this try and document all the stages of the tear down in pictures as well as words.
	Thomas Shared on 22/06/2016	Click to View Work Student Comment In this unit I learnt how to do a teardown and rebuild on a 2009 unibody macbook. I learnt how a computer worked and the parts of a computer. Such as a logic board, a hard drive, the CPU, GPU and the battery. I also learned that the hard drive is very small and half the size of a CD drive. I also learned that the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth antenna are a bunch of wires not a piece of plastic. Teacher Comment Thomas, well done on a fantastic unit, in which you have been exceptionally focused and hard working. The result is an excellent video which showcases a wide range of knowledge and skills on your part. On the ICT side, your knowledge of the components and how they fit together is excellent. You use a lot of technical vocabulary, and do so comfortably. I think the only technical error is that the HDD is most likely SATA2, not SATA3! On the media side, the video is really well produced, with catchy music, smooth video editing and a clear confident voice over. I am impressed that you filmed it all yourself, hand-held, whilst operating the tools as well. Towards the end a few bits are blurry, most likely because your phone's lens cannot focus at very short distances (you need a macro lens for this). The CC licensing and attribution was also very good, and shows that you can legally use the work of others to improve on your own. Given the high quality of your work, and the learning process behind it, I have selected your work to feature in the Exemplar Work and Showcase sections of Free Learning. Very well done, great stuff : ) I would highly recommend you include this video in your Student Exhibition Site to build up your online portfolio of work. Please see your personalised Visual Assessment Guide for an overview of your progress so far this year.

Unit

Students

Katie
Shared on 01/03/2019

Thomas
Shared on 22/06/2016

Single Sign-on

Login

Blurb

License

Outline

Images

Embeds