Reverse Engineering Project
In this project, my group and I took apart the FR 300 weather receiver (radio) and we tried to reverse engineer it while also trying to solve a problem with the radio. We successfully took apart, sketched, and solved an issue with our radio.
Here is a exploded sketch of the radio. Even though the radio was extremely complicated, this sketch helps to make it easier to understand.
The main issue we saw with the radio was it was cheaply made on the inside; this resulted in the radio being larger than it needed to be and prone to damage. The chips in the radio were actually partially melted on the circuit board despite minimal use of the radio which showcases the spotty quality of the radio. We also observed that some chips of the circuit board which required certain chips such as a 330; but instead had a 331 chip. Small differences in the circuit board chips reflects the overall quality and the lack of care for the inside of the radio.
Our group theorizes that the majority of the budget that went into the radio went into the outer casing and design of it, and not the inside electronics and mechanics. Our solution to the lack of quality on the inside of the radio is to dumb the radio down and upgrade the inside electronics. To maintain the original price of the radio, we would compromise on making the outer shell of the radio smaller and worse quality.
Shown below is our final report and final slideshow that went with our project:
Reflection:
Overall I worked very well on this project. I was focused in class and I completed a majority of this assignment just with the time allotted in class. I did lots of research and I understand how the radio worked much better than I did before in the last project.
My major downfall this project was delegating tasks to my team and maintaining a nice and friendly role while also being a leader and forcing teammates to meet deadlines. Even though I finished my work on time, another one of my team members didn't and this reflected poorly on our project. In the future I need to be more supportive and be more on top of making sure all of the work is done and completed on time.