Ever heard of an app-enabled toothbrush? Want to see what's inside of one?
This toothbrush has an associated app for android and apple devices. This particular model is the HX6340.
The app-enabled toothbrush. Image courtesy of Philips.
Opening It Up
Easy open!
It seems like I’ve been saying this a lot lately, but this might have been the easiest device to open yet! A small flathead screwdriver was used to pull the bottom away from the rest of the toothbrush housing. The internal electro-mechanical assembly was then able to be slid out from the plastic housing as an entire assembly.
Circuit Board
The toothbrush's circuit board
There is a single circuit board inside of this toothbrush that contains numerous surface mount components. There is white silkscreen and an Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG) surface finish.
There are 27 test points and a programming header located on this circuit board. Holding this circuit board in place are two plastic clips and several through-hole leads.
The programming and test points on the PCB
Microcontroller and Bluetooth Radio
The Cypress Bluetooth SOC
Controlling all of the operations of the toothbrush is a Cypress Semiconductor Bluetooth SOC, part number CY8C4247LQI-BL483. This is an ARM Cortex-M0 based microcontroller with a Bluetooth radio built in. This system on a chip is in a 56-pin UFQFN exposed pad package.
The Bluetooth trace antenna
To transmit the Bluetooth signal, there is a trace antenna on the bottom edge of the PCB. Unlike some wireless applications, this Bluetooth connection is only intended to operate within a range of a few feet.
Battery and Charger
The Sony Li-ion battery
Powering this toothbrush is a single cylindrical Li-Ion cell Li-Ion. Based on the labeled this battery is manufactured by Sony and carries part number 4235 010 27875. This battery has spot welded tabs that are then soldered to the circuit board. This cell appears to be a Sony SE US14500V with a nominal capacity of 680mAh.
The induction charging coil
Located at the bottom of the assembly is a relatively large coil of wire. This coil of wire is used for the wireless charging on this toothbrush.
The battery charging through wireless power transfer is handled by a small 8-pin IC on the right side of the PCB.
The charging IC
Oscillation Mechanism
The FETs that control the electromagnets
Inside of this toothbrush there is a relatively complex electromechanical assembly to produce the oscillations at the head of the toothbrush. The electrical lever there is connected to two MOSFETs to allow the microcontroller to control the magnets. These FETs are in an 8-pin exposed pad package.
One of the electromagnets
The FETs control two electromagnets. These electromagnets are pulsed at around 250Hz.
Below is an oscilloscope capture of the power going to the electromagnet. The magnetic fields that these produce cause a neodymium magnet to oscillate.
The pulses to the electromagnets
This observation, 250Hz per electromagnet, is in line with 31,000 strokes per minute that Philips claims!
The neodymium magnet is joined through a series of mechanical linkages to the head of the toothbrush. The head of the toothbrush is welded together with several spot welds.
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