Huaqiangbei-based news here. This time from Scotty Allen from Strange Parts, who attempts to construct an iPhone 6S from surplus components bought from various market stalls throughout the “Silicon Valley of Hardware” sector of Shenzhen. The video below is lengthy but includes some shots throughout the district that might intrigue hardware-minded makers. That place really does have one of everything – or more likely a few thousand of everything! Also a few surprises like the laser engraver housed underneath a stairwell (4:15) and the ‘bubble remover’ machine (7:50) show anything really is possible!

From the primary components down to the various screws and buttons necessary to construct a functioning device, this is an epic undertaking indeed.

I built a like-new (but really refurbished) iPhone 6S 16GB entirely from parts I bought in the public cell phone parts markets of Huaqiangbei. And it works!I’ve been fascinated by the cell phone parts markets in Shenzhen, China for a while. I’d walked through them a bunch of times, but I still didn’t understand basic things, like how they were organized or who was buying all these parts and what they were doing with them.

So when someone mentioned they wondered if you could build a working smartphone from parts in the markets, I jumped at the chance to really dive in and understand how everything works. Well, I sat on it for nine months, and then I dove in.

Read the full story here on strangeparts.com.