Mid-last year, in one of my more recent LED light bulb-themed teardowns, I noted the feature set extension that manufacturers were undertaking with the aspirations of differentiation, competitive isolation and consequent profitability:
Such innovations are fundamentally enabled by LEDs’ inherent low power consumption and heat dissipation, along with their inherent reliance on a DC voltage source. Several of these differentiated offerings (color temperature, multi-color, network connectivity) have also found their way to my teardown table, while others (integrated speakers, candelabra and other shapes) are still awaiting their turns in the analysis spotlight.
What I admittedly didn’t expect, however, were devices that were lightbulb-shaped (to not draw attention to themselves) but that (mostly, at least) dispensed with the illumination function, leveraging the AC power coming out of the socket for other purposes (including, it turns out, speakers). Today’s teardown victim, LaView 4 Mpixel Bulb Security Camera, is one such example:
(there’s also a nifty 360° product view on the company’s website)
Back in February I picked up a two-pack on sale for $35.06 plus tax at Amazon. One’s showcased today; the other is destined for donation to charity. The broader product family is quite diverse:
- Colors:
- White (mine)
- Black
- Connectivity:
- 4 GHz Wi-Fi only (mine)
- 4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
- LTE
- 5G and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
- Quantity:
- Single
- Pair (mine)
- Five-pack
- Eight-pack
As usual, I’ll start with a series of packaging shots:
Lift the lid and move aside the flaps on the outer box and the camera pair comes into view:
Next comes extraction of one of the two:
The literature suite:
includes one sliver of paper specifically devoted to initial setup:
To get the camera as close as possible to the Wi-Fi broadcast source during this initialization process, LaView included an adapter (as usual accompanied by a 0.75″/19.1 mm diameter U.S. penny in the following photos for size comparison purposes) to temporarily alternatively power the unit via a conventional AC plug:
LaView also included an extender in case the camera won’t as-is fit in the intended final-destination light bulb enclosure:
And here’s today’s patient, for which I can’t find standalone dimensions-and-weight specifications online, only those for the packaged unit(s). My tape measure suggests that it’s about 6.5” long and 3.25” at its widest point, and the kitchen scale reports it weighs 10.8 oz.
Reviews on the device are at-best mixed, but I’ll give LaView kudos for at least (and in contrast to other devices I’ve dissected) making the “remove plastic before using” warning prominent:
The left- and right-side views are predominantly unmemorable, so I’ll point out the mid-body seam that enables side-to-side camera rotation (with implementation to be revealed shortly), along with a more subtle lower seam around the “globe”:
The back, thankfully, is a bit more interesting:
A clarification before proceeding: the camera can perhaps obviously be mounted at any angle to the horizontal, depending on the mated light bulb socket’s orientation. However, for consistency purposes (aligned with the frontside markings), I’m going to assume that it’s installed thusly:
Therefore, I’m claiming that this sticker is toward the top:
And the speaker (used to communicate via the mobile-device app with a front-door potential burglar, for example) is toward the bottom:
Orientation also matters when it comes to water resistance. LaView claims that the device has an IP 66 rating, which is:
- Totally dust tight. Full protection against dust and other particulates, including a vacuum seal, tested against continuous airflow (first “6” digit), and has
- Protection against direct high-pressure (fluid) jets (second “6” digit)
Again, user feedback both on the company’s own website (awkward) and at Amazon, for example, renders these claims a “bit” dubious. But they’re clearly only valid at all if the ventilation vents on the bottom end are pointed downward, away from rainfall and such:
On the top end, of course, is the base, cap-protected as packaged, that screws into the socket:
Time to dive inside. The aforementioned “more subtle lower seam around the globe” seems like a promising place to start:
Voila:
And there’s the speaker!
It turns out that, reminiscent (at least to me) of a couple of Matryoshka dolls:
there’s an inner case, too:
Yep, you guessed it:
A wiring-passage orifice, a couple of airflow vents, and four more screws to go:
In the midst of popping open the inner case, by the way, I came across the flap-covered access to the microSD card slot and reset button shown in the earlier “stock” diagram:
Here’s what it looks like on the other (intact) unit, after I rotate the camera lens out of the way:
And now back to our patient; we’re finally inside at least this portion of the device:
To the right is the formerly screw-attached motor whose bracket affords vertical pivots:
And to the left is a PCB, connected the remainder of the device’s electronics by several cable harnesses (one of which had a connector glued in place, which I therefore initially left as-is):
and held in place by six screws:
We have liftoff:
Hey, look, it’s a camera! (duh):
For reasons I’ll explain shortly, I suspect there’s no IR filter over the image sensor in the center:
The IC in the upper left, AltoBeam’s ATBM6012B, is the Wi-Fi transceiver (as if you hadn’t already guessed from the embedded-antenna markings in its upper right corner on the PCB). The IC doesn’t also support Bluetooth, but as this setup video shows, it’s not necessary; cleverly, the camera instead receives its initial network setup information visually:
One other comment before proceeding; notice the (unpopulated) matching IC site to the upper right of the ATBM6012B? Always makes me wonder what was originally planned to be there.
On the PCB’s other side is (among other ICs) the system SoC, an Ingenic T31 toward the left:
In its upper right corner is a Winbond W25Q64JV 64 Mbit serial NOR flash memory, presumably storing the system firmware. Above it is another set of PCB-embedded Wi-Fi antenna markings. And at far right are the enclosure for the microSD card slot and the reset switch.
Now let’s return our attention to the earlier-glimpsed front bezel. Behind that glob of adhesive is the microphone:
Remove the three screws shown:
And the front cover comes off:
Two more to go:
And the LED assembly is free:
Let’s pause on this last photo for a minute. LaView’s website makes the following claims:
Vibrant Nights with Starlight Color Night Vision
Illuminate the darkness like never before with our cutting-edge security camera, featuring Starlight Color Night Vision. Equipped with a powerful starlight sensor, our device captures crystal-clear, full-color images even in the faintest lighting conditions. Rest assured, whether it’s day or night, you’ll experience unparalleled visibility and security for your home.
I found this assertion confusing when I read it. Typically, in dim lighting, a security camera will bypass the IR filter normally ahead of the image sensor, resulting in still-meaningful albeit monochrome captured images. The lens assembly’s wiring harness, shown in earlier shots, whose on/off status controls the positioning of the IR filter, suggests that a similar technique finds use here, not to mention the seeming mix of conventional (primarily intended, via mobile-device app control, to shine light on a front-door potential burglar, for example) and IR LEDs in the above photo.
How, then, is LaView getting dim light full color (or at least a semblance) images out of the camera? A clue comes from the “Starlight” branding. My guess is that the Ingenic T31 (which touts a “Starlight ISP” with “Dedicated optimizations for low light and surveillance scenarios”) is mixing together whatever conventional ambient light remains usable from the image sensor with IR augmentation. So, is it “full color”? Arguably. But (maybe) still better than IR-only.
Speaking of which, let’s take one more look at that lens assembly from multiple angles:
A revisit of the PCB, this time with that final originally glued connector now severed:
And, last but not least, let’s see if we can figure out how the camera rotates horizontally (per that earlier mentioned thicker seam running around the center of the device). The answer, I suspect, lies behind this single screw:
Alas, what’s underneath is thoroughly “potted” (aside from the obvious additional motor):
Oh well. That’s all for today, then. Share your thoughts in the comments!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
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