Pwnagotchi Teardown

Written By: Kuromi

Comments: 0

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

Time Required

3 - 5 minutes

Introduction

This is a teardown showing how a Pwnagotchi works.For this guide, I am doing a teardown of my Pwnagotchi build

Every Pwnagotchi is different in some way, except most will have an E-Ink display such as a Waveshare and the Raspberry Pi Zero. Some Pwnagotchi units can run on different Raspberry Pi units or computers that work like the Raspberry pi!

Parts

Step 1

Before removing the casing from the Pwnagotchi, there are two LED's with different functions
The green LED is the Rasperry Pi Zero's data indicator. This will flash as the SD card is being read/written to
You have the option to disable the LED if you connect to your Pwnagotchi and change it in the settings
The Blue LED is from the embedded battery in the Pwnagtochi casing. This LED only turns on when the battery is being used

Step 2

This step is Optional if you have a Pwnagotchi without a case.
If possible, remove the outer casing of your Pwnagotchi. For this guide, our case has a removeable top and bottom so we can access the screen and battery

Step 3

With the Top cover removed, we can see that the Pwnagotchi has a Waveshare E-Ink Display.
This area is covered by the 3D printed case to protect the display ribbon and electronics
The GIPO Ports all go inside the raspberry Pi Zero, you will not need the white, 8-pin header (It can be removed if you want to have a slimmer pwnagotchi)
This Pwnagotchi utilizes the V2 Display because of the better refresh rate. There is less ghosting on the display compares to the V1

Step 4

Removing the bottom case, there is a 3.7 Volt Lithium-Ion Battery powering the device with 1200mAh
When building the Pwnagotchi, you can use a battery (shown in the picture) or an external power source, such as an external battery pack

Step 5

Upon removing the E-Ink Display, there is a Raspberry Pi Zero WH that runs the Operating System for the Pwnagotchi
The SD card runs the OS behind the Scenes, and for this case, is protected from accidently slipping out or being removed

Step 6

To access the battery, we will be removing (4) of the M3 screws holding the Pi down with a Phillips head screwdriver

Step 7

Once the screws are removed, separate the Pi and the PiSugar Battery
These Pins connect to the Pi and provide power for the Device

Step 8

The battery is connected to the board via magnet and can be separated from the board to get a better look at the workings
Be careful when separating the magnets as there are two power wires connecting the wire and the board

Step 9

There are different connectors for this build, to better understand them, this is what they are used for:
Connectors/Ports on the raspberry pi zero
Mini HDMI Port
USB OTG (On-The-Go) Port
Power Port (Rated around 5-5.25V)
Ports/Connectors on the battery
Battery Power port
Battery Power Switch