[xaueious]

When I was doing research on the A81 a little while ago, I stumbled upon a Chinese webpage describing the build quality of the A81. There has not been a lot of news on this device, even in China. There was a writeup about the lack of build quality in the A81. I am wondering if this is still true for the A81E. For a device so cheap with said specifications, there had to be corners cut somewhere. That's the main reason I am holding off on recommending this. But if someone can give some conclusive input on this, I would like to learn more. At the time, I posted my findings at ArchosFans: Forum.ArchosFans.com - View topic - Wits A81 / A81EI'll repost the information. Original discussion at imp3 bbs

This is from early productions WITS A81, way back from February. Things seem to have gotten better since then. * * *One person who has it actually praised the build quality:

Not really. Build quality is a lot better than I was expecting from a chinese clone, despite the couple of obvious corners that have been cut. I was *extremely* impressed with the quality of the audio hardware, my Grados bring everything out and there was *no* discernible background noise at all. With "standard" usage of a pair of mid-range or cheap headphones and mp3s, that's gonna take some beating. Sound quality was noticeably better than on my son's Shuffle.

Now that same owner runs a blog, and has his teardown on Flickr: A81E Teardown - a set on FlickrHere are the pictures mirrored. I don't know PCBs, so can someone take a look and tell me how this looks?

 

[xaueious]

 

[xaueious]

If someone has their A81E shipped, can you guys do a teardown as well and compare?This device is being pushed at a really low price point for the hardware in it.Anyhow, here's another quote from "H.P.":

Simon,I appreciate the continuing report. Battery life is a indeed a plus, and good to see that the hardware is clean. This particular model has been around for a while, so not too surprising. The pics posted prior in this thread look like from an engineering sample.I actually would've preferred that the battery be an internal type rather than removable, as it'd be easier to source replacements for the internal soft-pack type than the Wits proprietary(?) sized hard-pack.Re: Ergonomics - I prefer the small bezel, although a rubberized finish would have been nice to have. I think that'll come in time. The netbook market was the same--the early netbooks were fingerprint-magnets, and only when they needed to differentiate did vendors resort to better finishes.Still, the takeaway is that the OS isn't ready, and "wait and see" is still advisable. The Wits looks good over all, but so does many of the upcoming crop. Should be interesting for the rest of the year. Will keep tabs on the Wits' FW progress.

 

[wuffi]

hello, i search a video to see about open the a81e.thank you

 

[plasmadis]

Hi there. Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been wanting an Android tablet since the aPad, etc. came out, but held off thinking something better would come along. After waiting and reading up on the various units, I'm pretty sure the A81E will be the one for me. I've been loading this forum everyday the past week, the progress made on the unit so far has been exciting.Thanks for finding these pics, I was looking for a teardown and wasn't able to find one. This answers a lot of questions.I noticed a few people were asking about the GPS, what was up with the extra $15 and if it was a module they could just pop on. The pics answer that, it's both a chip and antenna that are soldered on at the factory. I read somewhere that it was a uBlox chip. I guess the only issue with it in Android is the driver.The internal micro SD slot is very interesting, I wonder if that's where the built in 2 GB comes from? If so then it would be easy to expand the built in memory.Too bad the TV out was left out, would've been nice for going to a friend's house and putting on a quick movie or clip, but I guess nowadays more people would've complained about it not being HDMI.Heh, those are surface mount capacitors where they've got those pairs of white/black wires soldered to. They go to another area on the board where another capacitor is supposed to be. Instead of using 2 capacitors, they "borrowed" use of the capacitor for the other area. Maybe they didn't have enough capacitors for a batch. As with the Chinese writing on the copper strip, hopefully this was something that only happened to a handful of units.The other area of possible concern are the "fences" around sections of components. These fences are supposed to be sections of metal to keep one area from interfering with another, as I've seen in laptops and cell phones. Instead they just left the gobs of solder there. I guess they weren't necessary, or maybe put them there if they needed to get FCC approval down the road.Other than those issues, I see nothing terribly wrong with the PCBs. Everything looks well assembled and laid out. For a real mess, you ought to try looking inside one of those pirate NES consoles, most of them are handmade.Again, thanks for the pics, and I'll be keeping an eye on this board for more news. I also hope to be participating more when I eventually do get my unit.

 

[plasmadis]

Ah, now I see what's going on. In the pics from the Chinese website, on the bottom corner of the board it says WITS_MID_V2.0. In the guy's Flickr pics it says W_MID_V7.0. The first set of pics are from a very old board. The newer board doesn't have the issues. Nice to see they made so many improvements between boards.On the old board, those "fences" were used to solder pieces of foil on top of the chips, where the Chinese writing is. On the new board they don't use them. The new board doesn't have the capacitor sharing issue either. The new board also doesn't have the internal micro SD slot, instead there is a missing chip, I wonder what it's for.

 

[plasmadis]

Heh, hate to keep buggin y'all, but I think I see FIVE pins going into the headphone jack. I betcha one might be for a mic. Someone with a pair of headphones with a mic, like this, should try them on the unit and see if they can record or talk through Skype.

 

[dataslut]

The internal TF slot is being used for internal storage. Should be easy to upgrade it!

 

[wildkun]

Here it is

Wits A81-E hardware photos ? cnPad.info - aPad iRobot Moonse

 

[xaueious]

??????? WITS A81-E :: ??????????? ????? ?? ???????? eBay is the original linkGoogle translate: Google TranslateI thought you guys said the copper stuff might be a problem...

Someone know Russian? Seems to be a recent teardown of the A81E.

 

[wildkun]

I know russian, what you are interested it?

Seems to be a recent teardown of the A81E

yes

 

[plasmadis]

Thanks for finding more teardown pics, the insides or our unit are getting more interesting.Looks like the copper is needed to keep the CPU from interfering with the GPS antenna. It wasn't present on the other guy's teardown without GPS. Not really a problem, I was just wondering what the solder globs were for, and the Chinese writing someone scratched onto it on the earlier unit was unnerving.

Ah-hah, I was wondering why there were 5 wires going to the power button in the other teardown pics. There's an LED to either side of it, though you can't see them through the case. I bet they were going to have them shine through a clear power button, then decided not to keep costs down. So there's first easy mod for our devices, replace with a clear plastic power button to have it light up.

I bet the other LED is red to indicate charging.

 

[bcpk]

I'm not entirely sure what to look for in these pictures, but is there anything like an internal USB that would facilitate the addition of an internal 3G modem?

 

[plasmadis]

Yes, above the Mini USB port, where you see a chunk of the board cut out, there is supposed to be a full size USB A female port for plugging in a device. The 4 holes for the port could easily be soldered to. I don't see why they wouldn't work for an internal device.

 

[ficklecycler]

http://photofile.ru/photo/yurovalexandr/150521088/large/162036158.jpg[/IMG]Ah-hah, I was wondering why there were 5 wires going to the power button in the other teardown pics. There's an LED to either side of it, though you can't see them through the case. I bet they were going to have them shine through a clear power button, then decided not to keep costs down. So there's first easy mod for our devices, replace with a clear plastic power button to have it light up.

I bet the other LED is red to indicate charging.

I don't understand. We already have a clear plastic power button...and yes the power button already glows green or red or a combo of both. Have you not actually seen an A81-E?

 

[plasmadis]

Haven't got mine yet. In all the videos/pics I've seen, the power button is black and does not light up, and they've been showing it with the unit on.

 

[plasmadis]

Sorry, I'm stupid. No one's ever shown that button lit up. I can't edit or delete posts on this thing either.

 

[mingnon]

can confirm he power button is clear, and lights up when connected to mains power, greenand red show when charging and green only when fully charged

 

[Visual.KaMM0ti0n]

another thing, the red and green led's stay dimly lit up even when completely switched off..

 

[mingnon]

[quote name='Visual.KaMM0ti0n;40012]another thing' date=' the red and green led's stay dimly lit up even when completely switched off..[/QUOTE'] Yes they do, is an issue that has been reported since first model came out, also occurs on W1060