Hey all! So I got another Tile (blue tooth key finder) for Christmas. This new one is a tile pro with a replaceable battery. I vowed to never get another tile, due to their one year life span and then the battery goes dead and they want you to toss it and buy a new one. I had disassembled a tile last year, but even if I had re-soldered a new battery their was no way of putting the case back together. I have decided that I was gonna remove the dead battery, solder some wires for the 12V +/- to a 12v to 3v step down regulator ($1 ebay) and then attach to a constant hot wire in my HHR. So now I have a blue tooth HHR tracker. Once I get it installed, Ill give an update on the range.

 

LOL! Bluetooth has a normal range of 10 meters (33 feet) although Tile has managed to stretch that to several hundred feet.
I really cannot see any value in what you are proposing to do, unless you lose your car in your driveway.

 

Isn't it for finding lost keys?

 

Yes RJ-RS-SS_350 the tile is for lost keys.
Casa Del Gatos, yes bluetooth has a short range, but there is a large network (people with the tile app on their phone walking around everywhere). My hopes would be that someone with the tile app walks near my car if, god forbid, it ever were to get stolen. Tile advertised the range to be 100ft, but in reality I would suspect it to be more like 50-75ft.

sure this is a bit of a long shot, but for an expired tile and a $1 step down regulator and some soldering, I think it is worth it. I did some further research and come to find out I am not the first to try this.


Initially I will mount mine down in the battery bay. Easy location, no need to cut into wiring harness, out of the elements. I'll have to test range and see if this location is viable. If I wanted to get really crazy, I could subscribe to tile premium and then see how many times my tile gets pinged over the course of 30 days. It would log every time someone walks past my car at the grocery store, driving down the street, parked at work etc.
My second choice of location would be inside the BCM module compartment. There is a snap off door for easy access and I could use a fuse piggy back to pull power off a constant 12v fuse. Again, it is all about best range.

 

As sensitive to a questionable battery charge as the HHR is, I would hesitate to add something that constantly draws from it.

 

And wouldn’t those people walking around have to pair to the tile via Bluetooth , it doesn’t connect automatically to a smart phone , and isn’t there a password or code to pair it ? Like pairing your phone to the HHR or one of those jawbone ear buds.

 

No. When a stranger walks by my tile it merely retrieves the tiles ID number and then the phone sends that along with the phones current GPS location to the tile server. This is all done unknowingly to the stranger. It is a pretty neat network. The more people that get onboard, the stronger the network becaomes. Until recently Tiles had non-replacable batteries, I was not gona get another after this one dies, just because of that. Then they came out one with a replacable battery, so with this it may encourage more people to get onboard, if tile has not already gotten a bad rep with their disposable tiles.

 

I didn’t realize, my Bluetooth could be used without my permission, good to know!

 

FYI: one of the dog owners several blocks away tracked his run-away dog to our place with a Tile attached to the dogs collar. We found the dog running loose AGAIN, so grabbed him.

We didn't even get a thank-you, but oh well, the owner is in Jail now - but that is another whole story. :)

 

I'm sure the Tile app won't download to your phone unless you give the required permissions.