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One portion—battery-operated outdoor-optimized devices—of Blink’s security camera product line (bought by Amazon in December 2017, followed shortly thereafter by Amazon’s acquisition of Ring, and with both brands still viable market options), has already gotten plenty of coverage attention from yours truly. But the product line in its entirety is much more diverse, both generationally (battery-operated outdoor cameras are now in their fourth generation, for example) and operationally (both indoor and outdoor variants, both battery- and AC-powered). The Blink Mini 2, another example, is intended for both indoor and outdoor AC-powered setups:
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And here’s the Pan-Tilt variant of the original Blink Mini:
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That said, the first-generation Blink Mini, which was introduced in early 2020 and is still sold by Amazon, is what we’ll be tearing down today:
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Like its siblings, it comes in both white and black color options:
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Key to my acquisition motivation was the following excerpt from an early review:
It comes with free cloud storage through the end of this year, and if you already have a Blink account through an older Blink camera, you’ll continue to get free cloud storage as a perk.
At intro, the Blink mini cost $35 (for one) or $65 (for a two-pack), plus the optional Sync Module 2 for an additional $35. Why’s the Sync Module optional, in this case, versus required for my battery-operated cameras? That’s because, as I explained in detail in one of my initial posts in the series and summarized in the subsequent sync module teardown:
Each of the cameras in a particular network implementation connects not only the common LAN/WAN router over Wi-Fi, but also to a separate and common piece of hardware, the Sync Module, over a proprietary long-range 900 MHz channel that Blink refers to as the LFR (low-frequency radio) beacon.
The Sync Module also connects to the router over Wi-Fi. And the cameras, which claim up-to-2 year operating life out of a set of two AA lithium batteries, are normally in low-power standby mode. If the cameras’ PIR motion sensing is enabled, they’ll alert the Sync Module over LFR when they’re triggered, and the Sync Module will pass along the operating status to “cloud” servers to prepare them to capture the incoming video clip.
Similarly, when you want to view a live stream from a particular camera using the Blink app for Android or iOS, or over an Amazon Echo Show or Echo Spot (or through the Echo Show mode available in recent-edition Amazon Kindle Fire tablets), it’s the Sync Module you’ll be talking to first. The Sync Module will pass along the app’s request and activate the selected camera, turning it back off again afterwards to preserve battery life. The Sync module itself is AC-powered, via a USB power adapter intermediary.
The difference this time, of course, is that the cameras themselves are also AC-powered; low-power standby operation to maximize battery life therefore isn’t relevant in this situation. As such, the key enhancement supported by the 2nd-generation Sync Module, at least for the Blink Mini, is local storage to a plugged-in USB flash drive, for folks who don’t want to spring for a $3/month/camera (!!!) cloud storage subscription and aren’t (like me) “grandfathered” legacy users. Thereby explaining why the Sync Module 2 isn’t bundled with Blink mini cameras, as it is with battery-powered alternatives, but instead is a now-$49.99 accessory (that said, I just bought a “nonfunctional, for parts only” one off eBay for future-teardown purposes!):
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In January 2023, I picked up a ”used-good” condition Blink mini 2-camera kit for $18.99 (plus tax) total from Woot, an Amazon subsidiary company. The original purchaser’s shipping sticker was still affixed to the front box panel when I got it (a separate shipping box apparently hadn’t found use); I’ve done my best to peel it off in the first of the photos that follow:
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Flip open the box:
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and the two cameras inside come into view:
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Here’s today’s patient, along with its accoutrements: some optional mounting hardware:
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The USB-to-micro-USB power cable:
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The 5-W output “wall wart”, as usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes:
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And the camera again, now standalone save once more for the aforementioned US penny (the camera’s dimensions are 1.9 x 1.9 x 1.3 in/48 x 48 x 34 mm, and it weighs 1.7 oz/48 grams with an additional 1.5 oz/42 grams for its mount). Front:
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Left side:
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Back, revealing the micro-USB power input (the QR code finds use during initial setup):
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Right side:
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Let’s get that protective clear plastic off:
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Still reflectively shiny. That said, the LEDs to either side of the lens (green/red to the left, blue to the right) are a bit less obscured now, as is the microphone below the lens. Not visible here but located in the upper right corner of the lens is an 850 nm infrared LED for “night vision” purposes. And the lens has a 110-degree viewing angle and captures 1080p images:
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Up top is the speaker:
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And down below are rubberized pads to prevent the camera from marring whatever surface it’s sitting on, plus a (comparatively) heavy metal disc to keep it from tipping over:
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You probably also noticed the two optional mounting-screw holes in the bottom-view photo, which are related to the earlier-shown baggie-enclosed hardware. Here’s how you gain access to the holes’ topsides:
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And under the camera itself is a hardware reset switch:
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Time to dive inside. As I go along, particularly when I get to the PCB and lens assembly, you might want to also periodically reference my earlier teardown of the Blink XT battery-operated outdoor camera for compare-and-contrast purposes. Let’s start by extracting that metal disc:
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Although, after all that effort, we didn’t get very far:
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It turns out, however, that a firm tug is all it takes to separate the base from the camera body:
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Giving us now a clear view of, among other things, the camera’s FCC ID (2AF77-H1931660):
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If you visit the FCC site using the above link, you’ll see that the applicant name is “Immedia Semiconductor LLC”. As mentioned in previous Blink-themed posts, Immedia was originally founded in 2009 as a chip supplier but pivoted to become a consumer electronics system supplier in 2014, branded as Blink, with a highly successful Kickstarter unveil that July. 3.5 years later, as previously mentioned, Amazon acquired the company, and Immedia Semiconductor, LLC continues to operate as an independent subsidiary (thereby explaining the FCC info).
Onward. Fortunately, prior to striving to get inside myself, I’d done a bit of online research. This intrepid hacker had spectacularly mangled her camera’s case during disassembly:
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only afterward, alas, stumbling across a video that greatly simplified (not to mention doing much less damage in) the process:
For likely obvious reasons, I followed in the second person’s footsteps:
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Voila:
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Here’s the now-exposed inner case topside speaker:
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and underside:
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The notched grooves on both sides; right:
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and left:
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And the inside-outer-case clips that originally fit into those grooves. This time, as you can see from the respective damage-or-not, the thinner, more flexible iSesamo “spudger” panned out more intact than its stronger but also thicker and more rigid Jimmy counterpart had. Right:
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and left:
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Oh well, our objective is now in sight, and any collateral damage done along the way is relative:
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I want to first draw your attention to the two large gold-color rectangular PCB contacts in the upper right, to the right of an unpopulated seeming screw hole at the top of the PCB. Note their proximity to the speaker vent holes at the top of the outer case? Now let’s look at the inside of the inner case:
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Yep, that’s again the speaker at the top. And when assembled, those two “spring” contacts mate with their PCB counterparts to drive it with an audio signal.
Back to the PCB. Although that top hole doesn’t have a screw in it, the two on the sides are populated. Let’s fix that:
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We have liftoff:
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Going forward I’ll be referring to this as the “rear” PCB, to differentiate it from the “front” PCB still currently existent in the outer case. Looking first at the “rear” PCB’s now exposed frontside:
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there’s, for example, the connector at bottom right that originally mated it to the “front” PCB and held it in place even after the screws were removed, necessitating the earlier-shown Jimmy-as-crowbar to prod it into detaching. In the upper right is a Faraday Cage whose contents we’ll see shortly. In the upper left are Immedia Semiconductor markings. And in the center is the lense assembly; the two-wire harness routing to it suggests that, as in past teardowns of products like this, there’s likely an IR filter normally between the lens and image sensor that can selectively be moved out of the way for “night vision” applications.
Back to the backside of the “rear” PCB:
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Note again the two large contacts in the upper right that feed the speaker. Accompanying them are numerous smaller contacts spread across the PCB, which presumably act as test points, assembly-line firmware programming landing pads, and the like. And speaking of which, in the lower left corner is a Winbond W25Q32JW 32 Mbit SPI serial NOR flash memory.
Two more screws remain in the center of the PCB; I’m guessing from past experience that they hold the other-side lens assembly in place in front of the image sensor. Let’s test my hypothesis:
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Yep (to the lens-assembly removal scheme, moveable IR filter inside and sensor underneath):
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And here’s the as usual dallop of dried glue that holds the lens in position after its focus and other optics characteristics are fine-tuned on the assembly line:
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Before switching our attention to the “front” PCB, let’s revisit that Faraday Cage:
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Inside is the application processor, Immedia’s AC1002B. Since it’s Amazon-proprietary, there’s unsurprisingly no public documentation available, aside from a brief mention in the camera documentation of “4 cores / 200 MHz”. That said, I’ll note that it’s different than the Immedia ISI-108A SoC I found in my earlier Blink XT teardown , although the Blink XT2 successor switched to it. And while I’m on the teardown-comparison topic, the flash memory is 4x the capacity of that seen previously.
Last, but not least, let’s switch our attention to the remaining “front” PCB:
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Two more screws to go (by the way, note that in addition to the earlier mentioned unpopulated screw hole site at the top of the device, there’s now an additional one at the bottom!):
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And the “front” PCB is now also free:
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It’d be hard to miss the PCB-embedded antenna in the upper right corner, even if you tried to overlook it! The markings on the shiny IC below it are pretty faint, so take my word when I tell you that the first line identifies it as Infineon’s CYW43438 1×1 single-band Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) + Bluetooth® 5.1 combo chip (unsurprising given its antenna proximity; it seems that the IC’s Bluetooth facilities are unused in this design). Below that, at the lower right edge, is the reset switch. In the lower left is the other end of the PCB-to-PCB connection scheme. And in-between them, directly below the lens “hole”, is the MEMS microphone, whose input port is on the other side of the PCB. Speaking of which…
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In the upper right quadrant is the earlier mentioned 850 nm infrared LED for use in dim ambient light settings. To clarify, it’s not a PIR module, as was found in the earlier Blink XT teardown. in this particular camera model case, an alternative technique called Pixel Difference Analysis (PDA) finds use in detecting object motion in the scene. On either side of the lens “hole” are the two LEDs, respectively labeled D2 (blue to right) and D4 (green/red to left). And below the lens “hole” is the MEMS microphone input port. By the way, I’m struck by how many seemingly unpopulated-component solder pads there are on both sides of this PCB. Readers, agree?
With the PCBs out of the way, all that’s left to do is push the front panel out of the case:
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Note that there’s an additional “hole” site above the lens opening, which is currently plastic-filled. As with those unpopulated component sites I just mentioned, along with the unused screw holes I noted earlier, whenever I see something like this, I wonder what it was originally intended to serve as…a second microphone for ambient noise-cancellation purposes, perhaps?
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I’ll close with a confession. At some point in these final teardown steps, the crooked rubbery white plastic widget in the lower right corner of the previous photo fell off, and I was admittedly baffled as to what function it served…until I retraced my earlier disassembly steps (and photos) and remembered that it was the inherently elastic interface between the PCB-mounted hardware reset switch and the outside world:
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And speaking of disassembly steps…since my removal of the Faraday Cage “lid” and more general dissection were so “clean” (mangled side clip aside), after this writeup is published I’m going to strive to tediously and patiently reverse course and successfully reassemble the device back to a fully functional state. Wish me luck; I’ll post the outcome in the comments. And as always, I also look forward to reading your thoughts there; thanks in advance for them!
—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.
Related Content
- Blink: Security cameras with a power- and bandwidth-stingy uplink
- Blink Cameras and their batteries: Functional abnormalities and consumer liabilities
- Teardown: Blink XT security camera
- Blink: Security camera system installation and impressions
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