Reverse Engineering Project

Aug 2017 - Oct 2017

Associated with Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Binghamton University

Had a team project to recreate a bathroom scale product from Amazon
We disassembled the product, then drew CAD models of each part then digitally recreated it on the computer.
Meanwhile, we created a Bill of Materials, Gannt Chart, Flow Charts, Team Minutes during the process.
After analyzing the parts and their uses, we generated a report and presentation on the different components used in making the bathroom scale and a breakdown of what is needed to reverse engineer the product.

Task:

For this project, we had to take apart a product completely in order to find out how it worked. Our product is a Bluetooth scale by the company TopMax. While taking it apart, we had to label each piece to organize them, and then we had to write about each pieces’ functions. We created a Bill of Materials, which is a chart of all our pieces, their material composition, and their function, as a way to store all the pieces that we had in order to reference back to. After taking the scale apart, we had to rebuild these parts on Solid Edge, a computer program that allows engineers to create CAD designs. The program allowed us to manipulate the pieces and allowed us to create Assemblies by combining them together. A presentation would to be made about our process of reverse engineering our scale, such as the disassembly process or problems we faced, and then we would also make sure all our necessary materials are prepared for the final report. 

Process:

At first, the group decided upon what we wanted to reverse engineer for the next project. Although we picked out different things, after discussing our options, we had finally decided upon the Bluetooth scale. After ordering it and picking it up, we met together in order to start the disassembly process of the project. We labeled each piece and created the Bill of Materials in order to make sure we stay organized. After the Bill of Materials was created, we assigned parts to each other to rebuild on Solid Edge. We had to take measurements for each piece and the intricate little details that each piece had, and recreate them on the program. After that was completed, were were able to then reassemble them together on the same program. Doing so, we were able to see how each piece fit in, and were able to deduce and better understand how each piece functions in the scale. This helped us learn about the product, and helped us find ways in which we could improve upon it and possibly create a better product. 

Conclusion:

At the conclusion of the project, we learned what reverse engineering is, and learned its importance in the engineering world. Reverse engineering allows you to learn about a product through its components, in order to better understand it or make improvements. Making the functional decomposition chart of our pieces was important because allowed us to see all the different capabilities and functions our scale had, as well as learn how the pieces interacted with each other in order to fulfill those intended functions. At the conclusion of the reverse engineering process, although we faced many issues with the product and the company itself, we had learned that nothing is perfect and that there is always room for improvement, whether it is improving the product itself, or making the company more able to help consumers when they need help. After we disassembled the scale, we had seen that the scale was just an ordinary scale, where its leading selling points did not work. Although the main function of measuring the user’s weight worked, its other advertised functions, such as measuring bone mass or BMI, or even its Bluetooth capabilities, did not work. When we sought help from the company, we were not able to find any information about them or their product, so we concluded that if we were to improve the product, we would make sure all advertised functions would work, such as relocating the Bluetooth chip, as well as create a website of the company so other users could seek help when they need.

Device Information

Manufacturer/Background:

Top Max is a foreign company with little background available online. With only a Facebook page available, they sell individual appliances on Amazon without any company descriptions. Unfortunately no website is available to link, besides the Amazon link in the references below. The product also comes with a manual, but it provides little to no information of the origin of the company or any part materials/ identification symbols. It does tell how to use the product and a few of the products features.

Description of Device:

The scale is about 12 x 12 inches with rounded edges and is powered by 4 AAA batteries. The top is covered by a thick slab of tempered glass that is connected to a white plastic bottom casing. The scale itself is kept elevated off the ground by four small legs that also act as the electronic sensors of the scale. The scale looks aesthetically pleasing, with a nicely lit LCD screen in the middle and is easily readable from standing height. The top is smooth and clean, which looks nice, but could be a potential safety issue if it is wet. The scale is not too big and not too heavy, so it is easy to carry around or relocate. The scale we got, however, had no label of the company name like the picture of the scale on the box cover. Also, right under the LCD screen in the middle of the scale are three buttons that allow you to access the other functions of the scale, where you can change the units of weight the scale reads and store up to 10 people's body information into the scales database. In our use of the product, the touchpad buttons became an annoyance, since any touch, whether by hand or foot, changes it to the “settings change” screen. Accidentally touching it with a foot when trying to measure our weight changes the screen, and repeated touches to the touchpad would commence to get it back to the main screen, where potentially it could happen again. 

Customer Reviews:

The reviews for this product are split. 33% rate the product 1 star and 33% rate the product 5 stars. However, the 5 star reviews aren’t very informational. One five star review is written by Jennifer Ortiz, who wrote, “Love it.” (Reference 1) Not only does it seem like a fake review, it also doesn't tell us why it's good in any way. The other five star review is written by “Danny” and he titles it, “100% satisfied and recommend. (Ref 1) In his comment he talks about how easy it was to set up and how the app worked once he downloaded it. Danny also talks about the great price and nice aesthetic. The 1 star reviews, like by “francis r caraballo” however, talked about how the scale worked but wasn't accurate and how the phone app is in Chinese which is makes hard to use. Another 1 star reviewer talks about how inaccurate the scale is, changing numbers after getting off and on again. Similar products such as the iDOO Multifunction Bluetooth Scale also have mixed reviews, but the reviews are mainly negative with seemingly fake positive reviews. (Ref 2) They both have the same functionality and similar designs. However both seem to be non-satisfactory. We did find another scale around the same price but with much better reviews. It called the Qingta Bluetooth Smart Body Fat Scale. We found out the main reason for the difference customer reviews between our scale and the Qingta one was that the “Bluetooth function on that scale works” and this company has “great customer support”. (Ref 3)

Team’s Review:

Our first impression upon unboxing the scale, was that the product appeared to have a quality build.  When we turned it on, it began working instantly, and began reading accurate weight results to us.  However, in order to fully utilize the scale’s many features, it required us to download the mobile app and sync it to the scale. This is when we ran into the majority of the problems. The scale would not pair with the phone, no matter how well we followed the on screen instructions. We then turned to the user manual in order to work out this problem, where we discovered that there were no instructions and no website for the company to seek help on.  We were unable to get the scale synced to the phone before we began deconstructing the device and therefore were not able to properly use the smart functions of the scale. After deconstructing the scale we believe that it was due to the bad placement of the Bluetooth clip inside the scale that caused the problem. Another bit of annoyance with the scale were the three buttons below the LCD screen. The buttons were very sensitive and changed to the settings menu every time something touched it, so while standing on the scale, any touch from your foot was enough to activate it. We decided to give their product only 2 stars on Amazon for the experience we had with it. 

Pros/Cons, and Changes: 

The scale itself worked and was accurate, so the primary function of the product worked. It allows users to store up to 10 people's body information into the database, and is surprisingly very sturdy for how light it is, which allowed it to be easily carried and relocated. However, there were many aspects of the scale that did not live up to expectation. The scale is advertised as a smart scale that will connect to your phone through Bluetooth and track your body measurements, but we were not able to access this function due to the malfunction with the scale. We were able to download the app, but were not so successful in connecting the app to the scale. The three buttons below the LCD screen were also an issue. Some changes to the scale that would make it better include making the buttons only work once you’re off the scale, relocating the Bluetooth chip inside the product so that it can function, and improving the phone app so it could connect better to a user’s phone.

What we found:

As stated in the customer reviews, we found that many other people had trouble with the corresponding phone app. This is part software issue and part hardware. After disassembling the product we deduced that the placement of the Bluetooth chip inside may have caused this malfunction. In order to fix this issue, we could add a new Bluetooth chip or relocate the original one. Unfortunately, the software cannot be changed because we do not have the resources to do so. Inside the scale, below the LCD screen, there are two green circuit boards, which is where all the software is located.

Team’s Conclusion:

Based on our time with the device, we conclude that the device is mechanically sound and performs its primary function adequately.  The majority of the problems reported with the device are the software issues, which we are unable to fix through our reverse engineering project. Based on our research of the company, we would not purchase this product because of the lack of information on the company and due to the disappointing product.