Bluetooth trackers are a great addition to anyone’s cluttered key chain, Last year I got a Tile Mate as a present. A nifty little key-chain Bluetooth connected sounder for when I loose my keys, or when I loose my phone.

So far given one years use I have maybe used it seriously to find my phone 2 or 3 times, it works very well for it. Anyway now that I’ve had a years use, the Tile app decided they wanted more money as the battery was getting low. Interestingly enough in the newest versions of the Tile Mate the battery is replaceable, however in this version (replaceable or not) the method to open the case is rather destructive.

Forgive the image, it was rather late at night, As you can see there was a replaceable CR2025, so changing the battery was as simple as replacing it with a battery I had spare. I wonder what ’62’ means?

I couldn’t get the data-matrix to scan on my phone app unfortunately, but the board is very pretty and its clear a lot of thought has gone into keeping the size small. I like the little Pogo pins on the right for the piezo on the lid and the little pcb antenna. Also featured, the timing crystal oscillator, microprocessor and what looks like a version number for the board.

Anyway, then I put it all back together nice and snug inside its now fairly tarnished case and used some 5-second-fix glue to glue it back together and jobs-a-gooden, almost. It seems like the message on the app still persists.

Anyways, I’m still happy with it, it’s served its time and I think I’ve broken it a little too much to replace it again. In the future perhaps with the latest version, tile could offer some sort of slot so that the battery can be replaced a little less destructively (or maybe I did it wrong, oops). Nevertheless I don’t advise doing it yourself. TTFN, Aidan.

Cya later, Mate.