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Samsung's Connect Home is the one smart router to rule all your SmartThings. What sort of dark magic gives the Connect Home all this power? Let's tear it apart and take a look!
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So what can this circuit-filled puck do?
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Wi-Fi: 400 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz, 866 Mbps @ 5 GHz (AC1300).
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Up to 1,500 square feet wireless coverage.
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SmartThings connectivity via Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z Wave.
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If you opted for the shinier Connect Home Pro, you get upgraded Wi-Fi capability:
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Wi-Fi: 800 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz, 1,733 Mbps @ 5 GHz (AC2600).
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No, it's not a new probe droid—just the backside of the Connect!
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Ever the minimalist, the Connect Home sports just three ports for power, WAN, and LAN, plus a reset pinhole.
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Grill vents line all four sides of the bottom panel to keep the Connect cool.
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We start our search for screws in one of their favorite hiding places—under a rubber foot.
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These are not the screw holes we're looking for. Oh wait, yes they are! Standard Phillips #00 too—kudos to Samsung for using common screws.
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Not only do these opening picks get us inside some stubborn cases, but they can also give any device some cute flippers.
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It must get really hot in here—the first thing we spy is a massive ducted heatsink! What could this be cooling?
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And if we thought the Home had a big heatsink, the Connect Pro gets a fan too!
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We take a look under the Connect's heatsink to find a large shielded area—just another barrier to our chip curiosity.
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On the back of the board we spy the Z-wave antenna (the black rectangle on the left), and some metal contact clips mounted in the case.
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The board has some coaxial connectors, but seems to be using spring contacts instead—a nice repair-friendly, low wear connection option.
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And finally, a lone LED handles the task of communicating the Connect's status to the world. Stay strong little guy!
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With the EMI shields unsealed, let's see what treasures lie revealed:
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Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC—the main brains of the device, and the reason for the giant heatsink
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Qualcomm Atheros QCA8072 ethernet switch on a chip
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Sigma Designs SD3503 serial interface modem SoC
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Samsung K4B4G1646E-BYK0 512MB DDR3L SDRAM
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Samsung KLM4G1FEPD-C031 4GB NAND Flash memory
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Silicon Labs EFR32MG1B232F256GM48 Zigbee radio controller
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Qualcomm (formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio) CSR8811 Bluetooth 4.1 radio
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How does the Pro version compare? Here are the major differences:
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CPU upgrade: Qualcomm IPQ8065 SoC quad-core network processor (vs. IPQ4019)
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Ethernet switch upgrade: Qualcomm QCA8337 (vs. QCA8072)
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RAM upgrade: Two Samsung K4B4G1646E-BYK0 512MB DDR3L SDRAM (instead of one)
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Two Qualcomm QCA9984 802.11ac radio SoC's, which allows more devices to connect at faster speeds.
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More power sources and converters to handle the added load.
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We have reached the end of the tour. Thank you for choosing iFixit as your site for repair manuals and cool teardowns.
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- The case is held together with standard screws and reusable plastic clips.
- All antennas easily detach from the main board thanks to spring contacts.
- While they're not likely to need replacement, the ports are soldered onto the main board, complicating repair.
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Is that a hidden USB port at the lower left of the first images of Step 6 and 7? If so, does it work?
Yes! It is a hidden micro-USB port. We guess that it’s for debugging/programming purposes. No, we have not tried it yet.
Does the coexistence design applied in this router like PTA ? How was the zigbee performance while a big file is downloading through this router ?
How is this difference from Samsung’s smarthings wifi mesh system ??? Specs wise
Where can I buy mother board for this device? Mine is not powering up, I don’t see any light coming up. Kindly suggest.
