thank you for making this video! I have FOUR of those Tiles and was dreading having to spend $200 to replace them as they are all dying. I'll have to try out this method!
Very good idea creating the hole, so the new battery can live in the middle, and not add thickness to the repaired tile. Mine just died, so I bought a nice replacement for my wallet, and I plan to fix my dead one and put it in my backpack, since it doesn't have to look pretty all taped up!
Have a 4 month in use Tile 2022. Just got a notification "Weak Battery". It was an extremely ugly green and substantially cheaper than the regular colors. Maybe it was old and they were trying to move the merchandise. I'm going to see what happens. The weak battery may not show up again. If it dies, I see what they say. Never soldered, but I'd be willing to give this a shot with a cheap Amazon soldering gun kit and a hot glue gun. I see 8 comments here and everyone's in the same boat. Ugly doesn't matter, it's not leaving the wallet other than maybe to find the phone. Not going to swear but there's a saying, change the word "It's already bleeped, you really can't make it more bleeped". If anyone else but the CZcamsr does the fix, please post your results. One commenter already has. I've subscribed so, I can come back in the future to take another look if needed.
I just bought mine. I will have to try this when my battery dies. I have a mini spot welder that I might use to create tabs to solder to when the time comes. I wonder if there are flatter and wider lithium button cells than the CR2032.
I just took two short pieces of wire, soldered to the Tile's PCB and the other ends I just stripped and fanned out the wire strands, then used tape to press it on flat to each battery side. I used a CR2032 and it works like a charm! Note that you may have to hold the Tile's button for 10 seconds to force a reboot if your phone is not recognizing it. Be careful that you are observing battery polarity when doing this mod.
Opps When I pryed it open I tire off the part that connects to go over speaker🥺. Will it still track from app or not. I realize it won't make alarm sounds. Unless there is some magic way to reatach it to motherboard, but maybe that is just silly nonsense. I still was fascinated to open it up anyway. they really make sure people have a hard time with that adhesive , So we almost have maybe 25% chance to open it up.
Seems insane they don't make a version with a replaceable battery... "Throway" electronics that work perfectly well, it just annoys me! You can buy various types of CR2023 battery holders, so if one fitted nicely could solder to THAT instead of the battery directly. In fact there are other similar batteries with less (not sure if there is one that's more) capacity like the CR2016, the latter being thinner so would fit in that case more neatly, but of course last less like 1/2 the time or whatever. A real pro with time on their hands would wire a few in *parallel* and get maximum capacity, plenty of space in that case :)
-Me starting to watching the video - "Hey maybe I can do this" 🤔 -When he goes "Well if you do this wrong the battery can blow up" 😮 "Yeah this is going to be a pass"
thank you for making this video! I have FOUR of those Tiles and was dreading having to spend $200 to replace them as they are all dying. I'll have to try out this method!
Very good idea creating the hole, so the new battery can live in the middle, and not add thickness to the repaired tile. Mine just died, so I bought a nice replacement for my wallet, and I plan to fix my dead one and put it in my backpack, since it doesn't have to look pretty all taped up!
I did do this myself and it did work.
Thank you for the video
Awesome job. Did you use dremel to open it so neatly? They are polish wielded, i tried to open mine, but it just doesnt budge 😢
Have a 4 month in use Tile 2022. Just got a notification "Weak Battery". It was an extremely ugly green and substantially cheaper than the regular colors. Maybe it was old and they were trying to move the merchandise. I'm going to see what happens. The weak battery may not show up again. If it dies, I see what they say. Never soldered, but I'd be willing to give this a shot with a cheap Amazon soldering gun kit and a hot glue gun. I see 8 comments here and everyone's in the same boat. Ugly doesn't matter, it's not leaving the wallet other than maybe to find the phone. Not going to swear but there's a saying, change the word "It's already bleeped, you really can't make it more bleeped".
If anyone else but the CZcamsr does the fix, please post your results. One commenter already has. I've subscribed so, I can come back in the future to take another look if needed.
I just bought mine. I will have to try this when my battery dies. I have a mini spot welder that I might use to create tabs to solder to when the time comes. I wonder if there are flatter and wider lithium button cells than the CR2032.
I just took two short pieces of wire, soldered to the Tile's PCB and the other ends I just stripped and fanned out the wire strands, then used tape to press it on flat to each battery side. I used a CR2032 and it works like a charm! Note that you may have to hold the Tile's button for 10 seconds to force a reboot if your phone is not recognizing it. Be careful that you are observing battery polarity when doing this mod.
The CR2016 should work as well, 3V half the thickness as the 2032, might wanna connect two in parallel for the same capacity as a 2032
Opps When I pryed it open I tire off the part that connects to go over speaker🥺.
Will it still track from app or not. I realize it won't make alarm sounds.
Unless there is some magic way to reatach it to motherboard, but maybe that is just silly nonsense.
I still was fascinated to open it up anyway.
they really make sure people have a hard time with that adhesive , So we almost have maybe 25% chance to open it up.
What battery did you use? I tried a CR2016 and its not working
Seems insane they don't make a version with a replaceable battery... "Throway" electronics that work perfectly well, it just annoys me!
You can buy various types of CR2023 battery holders, so if one fitted nicely could solder to THAT instead of the battery directly.
In fact there are other similar batteries with less (not sure if there is one that's more) capacity like the CR2016, the latter being thinner so would fit in that case more neatly, but of course last less like 1/2 the time or whatever. A real pro with time on their hands would wire a few in *parallel* and get maximum capacity, plenty of space in that case :)
-Me starting to watching the video - "Hey maybe I can do this" 🤔
-When he goes "Well if you do this wrong the battery can blow up"
😮 "Yeah this is going to be a pass"
You are scared of a coin sized battery blowing up? Just wear some safety glasses. It’s not dynamite.
My guy. soldering directly to a battery. Nooooo. 😅 Just buy a battery with tabs on it, solder to the tabs. Come on.
Imagining it's gonna blow in your pocket 😂