Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8 Star Wars toy
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Sphero BB-8 Star Wars toy teardown
Sphero BB-8 Star Wars toy teardown
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opens in theaters this December, but you don’t have to wait until then to get up close and personal with one of the movie’s new characters. Thanks to robot maker Sphero, fans can buy their very own version of BB-8, one of the astromech droids from the movie.
I got my hands one of the new BB-8 robots, and after taking it for a test drive I wanted to find what makes it work as well as what makes it different from Sphero’s other rolling robots.
For a complete walkthrough of the teardown, including a video of the process, check out my article, Sphero BB-8 teardown reveals the robot tech inside this rolling ‘Star Wars’ droid.
Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Box Contents
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Box Contents
Inside the box, is the BB-8 unit (spherical body and detachable head piece), special Star Wars-branded charging station (with cable), and product documentation.
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Dimensions and weight
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Dimensions and weight
The BB-8 measures 2.9-inches in diameter, stands 4.5-inches tall and weighs about 7 ounces.
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8:
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8:
Although the BB-8 has a fancy droid paint job and head piece, it’s very similar to the Sphero (shown in white) and Sphero 2 (clear SPRK Edition shown here).
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Sphero SPRK Edition
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Sphero SPRK Edition
Sphero SPRK Edition’s clear shell gives us an idea of what’s likely inside the Sphero BB-8’s body. To find out for sure, we’ll need to crack it open.
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Droid and charging stand
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Droid and charging stand
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Droid
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Droid
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Head piece
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Head piece
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Head piece rollers and magnets
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Head piece rollers and magnets
Magnets inside the head piece hold it to the body, while the tiny wheels allow it to roll across the spherical body.
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Spherical body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Spherical body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Cracking Open tools
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Cracking Open tools
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Cutting open the spherical body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Cutting open the spherical body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Opening the body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Opening the body
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Internal hardware revealed
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Internal hardware revealed
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the internal hardware
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the internal hardware
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Internal hardware with head piece attached
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Internal hardware with head piece attached
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the mast assembly
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the mast assembly
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the system board screws
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the system board screws
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the system board
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the system board
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the lower housing screws
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the lower housing screws
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the lower housing
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the lower housing
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the battery cover
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the battery cover
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Batteries attached to internal frame
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Batteries attached to internal frame
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Prying the batteries loose
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Prying the batteries loose
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the battery connector clips
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the battery connector clips
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the batteries
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the batteries
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the receiver coil for the induction charging system
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the receiver coil for the induction charging system
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the drive motors
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the drive motors
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the drive wheels
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Removing the drive wheels
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: System board
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: System board
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: ST Micro STM32 F3 MCU (72MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 core)
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: ST Micro STM32 F3 MCU (72MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 core)
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 6552G 508 A2
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 6552G 508 A2
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: CSR101x Bluetooth chip
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: CSR101x Bluetooth chip
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: ST Micro M24512-R512 Kbit serial I2C bus EEPROM
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: ST Micro M24512-R512 Kbit serial I2C bus EEPROM
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 134 A1508 032
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 134 A1508 032
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: HUATAI HT6292 battery charging chip
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: HUATAI HT6292 battery charging chip
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 3.7V 350mAh Lio-ion batteries
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: 3.7V 350mAh Lio-ion batteries
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Standard Motor FP130-KT drive motors
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Standard Motor FP130-KT drive motors
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Induction charging system receiver coil
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Induction charging system receiver coil
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Completely disassembled
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Cracking Open the Sphero BB-8: Completely disassembled
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