I do not expect 52Audio to do a teardown of the Sony WH-CH520, so we are only left with the FCC photos. The WH-CH520 is Sony's affordable wireless headset this year, Like the previous WH-CH510 and WH-CH500, this new model is wireless only without a 3.5mm jack (more on that later). Thankfully the operating time of up to 50 hours is plenty enough for most users, but once the battery dies, these become useless.
So start off with the right side.
We have the main PCB, the battery, and the 30mm driver. There is not much else inside. The battery is unfortunate covered by a plastic cover which is obscuring the battery details. There does appear to be more space around the battery compartment for a larger battery, but since Sony is using a standard size in most of their devices, probably a 621733 battery, so a larger compartment is not required.
From this WH-CH500 battery replacement guide on YouTube, we know the WH-CH500 capacity is 300mAh. And luckily this WH-CH510 battery replacement guide shows us that the same battery is used again. Likewise the same clear plastic cover is also present in the WH-CH510 as in the WH-CH520.
My guess is that the exact same battery, 300mAh is used in the new WH-CH520 as well. I have found another set of photos and it shows the battery.
This confirms that the battery is identical to the WH-CH500 and WH-CH510, 300mAh at 3.7V.
Moving to the left side, we just have the driver. If Sony would have kept NFC, it would probably be on this side.
When we compare the WH-CH510, we can see a similar setup, identical drivers and the same battery compartment.
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| Sony WH-CH510 |
Funny enough, both the left and right sides have the plastic battery compartments, something gone in the new model. Not sure why there are 2 compartments. The new model appears to be more of an evolution of the design rather than something new.
The WH-CH500 is a bit different, with the battery on the opposite side, and the presence of an NFC PCB beside the battery.
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| Sony WH-CH500 |
Otherwise the drivers appear to be exactly the same ones as in the 510 and 520 and the construction is more or less identical with 3 bolts holding in the driver and the earpad sliding onto the plastic housing.
Looking at the WH-CH520 PCB, we can see everything is soldered on, with no connectors.
So any battery replacement would require some soldering knowledge. From the bottom left, we have the USB type-C, next the notification LED, then the button controls. The numbers at the top, 220513 is most likely the date when this version of the PCB was finalized (May 5 2022), the PCB manufacture date is most likely the 2 numbers on the other side, 2221, or the 21st week of 2022, which is is end of May 2022.
Flipping the board to the other side.
We can see the Bluetooth SoC here, the Airoha AB1561M. This same chip is found in the WI-C100. In the top right hand corner of the board, we have the wireless antenna. Now returning to the 3.5mm jack issue. While there is no space on this board, Sony could easily have modified the board and fit one in if they wanted to. I do not believe adding a 3.5mm jack would have increased the costs much but I guess Sony thinks it is not required on such a lower end device.
Comparing the WH-CH510 PCB, we can see the boards are similar in design and layout.
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| Sony WH-CH510 PCB |
There are some differences on the surface of course, the Bluetooth chip is different, RTL8763B in the WH-CH510. I doubt you could swap the boards from the new to the old and vice versa but it does look like one could. The WH-CH510 board design is from December 7th, 2018 and this particular one was manufactured in the 50th week of 2018, or middle of December 2018.
The WH-CH500 is a lot more different.
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| Sony WH-CH500 |
The USB port and buttons are also in a similar area but there is no notification LED at the bottom but instead is on the side with the Bluetooth SoC, positioned at the top under the black circle. The WH-CH500 PCB design is from July 24th, 2017, and the PCB was manufactured at the end July 2017.
Funny enough the older WH-CH500 also used an Airoha Bluetooth chip, the AB1522, so why Sony opted for the Realtek chip for the WH-CH510 is a mystery. There is also the NFC coil on the other side.
Anyways, that is everything from the FCC documents.
Hello, I accidentally dropped my Sony WH-CH510 headphones. I wanted to remove its battery as soon as possible but it took some time for me to remove it. Meanwhile, I saw the indicators of that blinking strangely. Then I was able to dry everything with the help of hot air. After that I attached the battery carefully then I saw the blue indicator was blinking like it was pairing will a device. But within 30 seconds the red indicator turned on and slowly lost its brightness. then I even tried to change the headphones but it did not give any response. I received these from a friend after he using them for about a year. It was in good condition too. I really want to fix this because I can't buy new headphones. So does anyone here know how can I fix that or if the problem is on the circuit, where I can buy the circuit of WH-CH510?
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