I had a leftover remote from a Fire Stick and decided to see if I could fit an AirTag inside. I figured if people are drilling holes through these things, there was no DIY project too stupid to pass on.
Cracking into the remote was a bit like removing the front from a gen 1–5 iPod, but with a lot more plastic tabs to prize apart. I had to cut away a bit of the support inside near the IR transceiver to make room for the AirTag.
The AirTag was similar; no screws and a lot of time spent working a razor back and forth between the gap in the plastic. The speaker is kinda structurally integral to the AirTag, so it came apart as soon as I got the circuitboard exposed.
I briefly toyed with the idea of repurposing a dead EarPod for a speaker but couldn't make room in the remote.
There wasn't any room for a battery either, so I wired it in parallel with the remote since they're both 3v. This had the added benefit of making it so I don't need to take the whole thing apart to replace the batteries.
Interestingly, the AirTag wont turn on unless there are three points of contact with the battery, so I had to bridge the outermost contact points.
Putting the remote back together was the biggest PITA, but all in all, it was a pretty fun DIY project for someone with an Amazon device for television and Apple devices for… literally everything else.
PS: Yes, I know and am sorry about how bad I am at soldering. I'm a good person and have many other redeeming qualities, I swear.
Cracking into the remote was a bit like removing the front from a gen 1–5 iPod, but with a lot more plastic tabs to prize apart. I had to cut away a bit of the support inside near the IR transceiver to make room for the AirTag.
The AirTag was similar; no screws and a lot of time spent working a razor back and forth between the gap in the plastic. The speaker is kinda structurally integral to the AirTag, so it came apart as soon as I got the circuitboard exposed.
I briefly toyed with the idea of repurposing a dead EarPod for a speaker but couldn't make room in the remote.
There wasn't any room for a battery either, so I wired it in parallel with the remote since they're both 3v. This had the added benefit of making it so I don't need to take the whole thing apart to replace the batteries.
Interestingly, the AirTag wont turn on unless there are three points of contact with the battery, so I had to bridge the outermost contact points.
Putting the remote back together was the biggest PITA, but all in all, it was a pretty fun DIY project for someone with an Amazon device for television and Apple devices for… literally everything else.
PS: Yes, I know and am sorry about how bad I am at soldering. I'm a good person and have many other redeeming qualities, I swear.