Make: Volume 91

109

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WHAT’S INSIDE THE K18?

The K18 is an exercise in min/max design.

Maximum functionality from minimal, or at least

minimal-cost, parts. Under the hood, there aren’t

any overly specialized components (Figure

A

).

Some basic power management, a few resistors,

diodes, capacitors, a coil, some buttons, a

potentiometer, some LEDs, a Li-ion battery, a

speaker, and a pleasant surprise!

Before doing a teardown, I imagined that some

piece of custom silicon had been developed and

widely shared to handle all the various sensor

and output functions. Chinese manufacturers

have a way of sharing IP among themselves that

Bunnie Huang has termed gongkai ...