"Apple Pencil" is disassembled into pieces and reveals precision structure at a level that can not be repaired by oneself

Disassembled group iFixit, which breaks apart every time when new hardware is released and publishes its contents, is a stylus pen exclusively for iPad Pro "Apple Pencil"Is being disassembled immediately. The Apple Pencil seems to have been considerably difficult to disassemble because there are no buttons or seams on the surface, and eventually it breaks the Apple Pencil in force and breaks the internal structure open to the public.

Apple Pencil Teardown - iFixit
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Pencil+Teardown/52955

Apple Pencil is a stylus pen developed exclusively for iPad Pro, pairing with a length of 175 mm, a diameter of 8.9 mm, Bluetooth 4.1 and use it. Compared with tapping the display with your finger, Apple Pencil detects twice the data point, and after fully charged it can be used continuously for 12 hours.


For Surface Pro 4 released at the same timeNew Surface PenCompared with the Apple Pencil, the axis is slender and longer.


Sketch application "Paper"Stylus pen developed for"IPad Pencil"It is as follows as compared with it.


Apple Pencil comes with a spare pen tip and an adapter for charging with Lightning cable.


Although the appearance cap like an eraser sticks with a magnet, "It is highly likely that you can lose the cap because you can not fix the cap to the pen during charging," iFixit says.



If you turn the pen tip a few times, it is easily removable.


Remove the pen tip and you will see small metal parts behind the shaft. IFixit analyzes that "This part is connected to the emitter, measures the inclination and direction of Apple Pencil against the screen, and reflects the stroke of Apple Pencil on the display."


To remove the Lightning terminal, warm the tip and melt the adhesive.


The model number of the Lightning terminal is "A1603", it is a new model number which was not found in Apple products so far.


After removing the parts from both ends of the pen, looking at the surface of the plastic pen shaft, we could not find any seams and forcibly open the pen shaft with the electric cutter.


Cut by the cutter from the end of the shaft to the end, and it opens in a ditch with a tool like iron ... ....


Finally succeeded in taking out the cylinder part of the pen.


Screws securing the cylinder and cover are small special screws that can not be handled with existing drivers.


for that reason,Disassemble Apple WatchI will remove the screw with the same driver as I did. There is a gold 4-pin connector near the screw, iFixit guesses "Is not it a connector Apple uses for terminal diagnosis?"


After removing the screw, further cut the cylinder in half in the laser cutter.


Most of the cylinder is occupied by a cylindrical 3.82 V · 0.329 Wh lithium battery on the top of the image and the battery capacity is about 5% of the iPhone 6s. In addition, the new Surface pen uses a single AA battery, power consumption is 0.4 ~ 0.9 Wh.


The logic board is so small that it can not stop briefly at the fingertips, and weighs only 1 g. With a structure in which an extremely thin logic board is folded in half, iFixit evaluates as "It is the smallest logic board among machines that have been disassembled so far."


Looking closely at the logic board, the part surrounded by orange is the chip AS5C Y533 made by STMicroelectronics, the chip surrounded by red is STML151UCY6 of ST microelectronics microcontroller also.


The part surrounded by light blue on the back is CSR 1012 A 05 of Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth control chip acquired by Qualcomm.


Next I will peel off the case wrapping the pen tip to find the pen pressure sensor.


There is a board for judging pen pressure on the pen tip, and the pen tip and the board are connected with three small connectors. IFixit guesses that "I'm detecting the pen pressure by measuring the movement of the connection part." On the chip surrounded by the red frame of board, "8529043 343S00008-A1" and the model number are written


I decided that further decomposition is impossible iFixit took an X - ray picture of Apple Pencil. From the X - ray picture, it is said that the spring part is used for the battery part ... ...


It turned out that two emitters were used on the axis.


The decomposition difficulty level of Apple Pencil that iFixit gave is the most difficult "difficulty 1" in 10 steps. As reasons why it is difficult to disassemble, "It is impossible to take out the contents unless the shaft is destroyed", "It is impossible to reach the logic board unless the contents are finely divided", even if the battery deteriorates, it is replaced by itself It is impossible to do. In addition, I comment that anyone can easily remove the pen tip and cap.