Apple’s Find My network has seen its fair of hacks to devices, but perhaps the most unusual we’ve seen is before us today. [biemster] has added a Lidl Parkside smart connected power tool battery to the network, not by concealing an AirTag within it, but by hacking its on-board firmware.
Opening up the device reveals a Tuya BT17L Bluetooth module, the hackable nature of which due to other projects prompted a port of a previous Find My project which provided open source access to the network. The result is as he describes, the world’s chunkiest key finder, and also we’re guessing the one with one of the longest battery lives too.
The European budget supermarkets are well known for their budget bargain aisles, and Lidl’s Parkside range has some surprisingly robust tools among it. They might not quite be up to replacing IKEA in the hacker source stakes, but those of us who live in countries served by them know to keep an eye out in the hope of fresh gems alongside those awesome AlpenFest apple crumble cakes. This one certainly isn’t the first Parkside hack we’ve seen.
Definitely a hack! But findmy ‘coins’ are $5 including a case and battery and can be stuck to or embedded in just about anything…
Ugh, what triggered a return to the lame “not a hack/is a hack” comments? We’d been without them for a good while now, and been better for it.
Link? That’s a lot less expensive than any option I’ve found.
I wouldn’t be surprised if an airtag had longer battery life because of internal resistance of the battery and more efficient BLE hardware.
And the AirTags use non-rechargeable CR2030 lithium cells – the quality of those varies, but they usually have a very low self-discharge, and you can get 2-3 years on a good one.
The tool battery has LiPo cells which tend to self-discharge much faster. So I’d expect the battery life to be lower due to the self-discharge.
Added to which, he probably uses the tool batteries for tools? In which case they’ll either be charged or flat depending on his habits!
Nevertheless, neat idea.
FindMyTool is very usefull when you are doing jobs on a (bigger) construction site and pack your tools into the van/truck at the end of the day and you are missing one.
The BlueTooth power consumption is near zero compared to the power needed by the machine and even if you exhaust the battery there will be enough left for the transmitter.
Not to mention, if someone steals a tool, there is no airtag for the thief to remove.