While browsing through old items, I found a second-hand router I bought back in college.
It can be seen that its condition is already quite worn, reminiscent of battle damage. After all, it was a second-hand item bought many years ago, and I couldn’t bear to throw it away despite moving multiple times, which has caused further wear over the years.
I remember I bought this router because it could run the OpenWRT system. After bringing it home, I learned how to install the OpenWRT operating system by following articles from experts in community forums, and then I played around with it. Today, let’s give this router one last chance to shine as we take a closer look at its PCB.
Upon opening it, the PCB looks like this:
I wonder if anyone noticed the production batch printing on the front of the PCB. I only realized it was produced on July 27, 2007, which is now 17 years ago.
After such a long time, the current router solutions should no longer use these chips, so analyzing the chips and circuits is of no value; let’s just appreciate the PCB.
I must say, the layout of the components is very neat, especially the row of resistors and capacitors in the middle, along with the printed component designators, which is very satisfying for someone with OCD.
The curvature of the RF signal traces also looks pleasing. I noticed there is an LDO 1117 in a SOT223 package, which is still in use today.
The network switch chip and transformer look quite large.
The ADSL interface comes in through a surface-mounted transformer, then exits through an SOP8 ADSL interface chip. The signal from the interface chip goes into the main controller.
The DCDC uses this kind of through-hole inductor, which is glued in place. I tried to bend it, and it feels quite solid.
At the power entry point, there is a filter inductor, followed by two 1000uF, 16V electrolytic capacitors.
Let’s look at the main chip from another angle.
As you may have noticed, the ICs on this board are mostly from Broadcom. The main chip is BCM6358, the network data switch chip is BCM5325, the wireless network card chip is BCM4318, and there is an SOP8 packaged ADSL interface chip model BCM6301KSG (the so-called ADSL is somewhat like the previous dial-up internet, but slightly more advanced than dial-up). What chips are used in current routers? Let’s open a newer router next time and take a look.
The article ends here. I welcome everyone to leave comments for discussion. Thank you to all the viewers for your appreciation, which allows me to buy a more complex product for disassembly. If you find this article useful, please help by clicking the “Like” and “View” buttons at the bottom right, thank you very much.
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