Modifying a Bose Soundlink to operate without battery - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: spd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2019, 06:55:16 pm
content: I want to modify a Bose Soundlink 1 to operate without a battery. The battery for this is very expensive and I would like to use just any power supply. So far I have tried to use another power source (ordinary rechargeable cells) to the inside prongs, where the battery connects, to give it approximately 7.4 volts, but it works only for a few seconds before shutting down.I wonder if somebody has any experience of this and is willing to share ideas.Is a circuit diagram for this available anywhere?Thanks.spd

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2019, 08:12:45 pm
content: Check if there are other pins and what they're for. It could be as simple as a thermistor (common with phone batteries), or a complex DRM-like authentication chip.

author: jogri
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2019, 10:47:20 pm
content: Do you still have the original battery? It might have a NFC chip inside to detect counterfeit replacements, you could try to detect it with your smartphone. But judging from amazon offers, this battery pack has an integrated protection circuit. Would make sense to have the five leads as ground, 3.6V, 7.2V and two terminals for charging.Looks like the battery casing isn't glued:

author: spd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2019, 11:24:42 am
content: Thanks amyk and jogri for your replies. It is quite possible the batteries have a chip and/or some encryption circuit because even the physically similar batteries do not run unless the number is same. Many substitute battery sellers warn this to buyers before accepting an order.I did come across a post by somebody who had substituted an rc 7.2 volt battery and this had worked with battery but not with the adapterhttps://community.bose.com/t5/Portable-Archive/bose-soundlink-mini-1-dead/td-p/72264By the way jogri, the video you are showing is for Bose soundlink air is a bigger model, the soundlink mini 1 is smaller and has only two very small speakers.Best wishes.spd

author: jogri
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2019, 12:36:54 pm
content: Since the battery looks similar to the one in the video i posted i suggest that you check if you can unscrew the battery case. If that's the case, you could simply desolder the original 18650 cells and feed 7.2V to the board. You might also have to provide 3.6V to satisfy the protection/balancing circuit.

author: spd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2019, 01:48:18 pm
content: I was finally able to run this using 6 regular rechargeable cells. Later I was able to replace these with a two buck dc to dc stepdown power unit giving about 7 volts.Thanks, amyk and jogri for your replies.Best wishes.spd

author: madhobodisease
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 26, 2020, 01:58:41 am
content: Hi, I know this post is old, but I came across it when searching for a solution to the same problem.Just wanted to share what I ended up doing.I gutted the battery pack and took the connector off the board and glued it back in place. I stuck a 12VDC to 7.5VDC transformer in the place the battery cells were, and wired that to the barrel jack in the base. I should have used a much smaller gauge wire to get it to fit better in the base, but I used what I had. It works pretty well! I was able to reuse the Bose wall adapter that came with it.

author: ms85140
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 16, 2020, 02:44:47 pm
content: Good EveningNeed to replace the battery in Bose sound link & saw your earlier post stating it was done by -two buck dc to dc step-down power unit giving about 7 volts.can you please suggest the specification? Any DC-DC step-down buck converter power supply module readily available? kindly suggest.The battery is costing 9.5K which makes it difficult.Thank youregdsM Srinivasan

author: gkgkgk
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 20, 2020, 01:45:57 pm
content: Hi, I would like to do the same. Please let me pinout info of this socket.Thanks,

author: ch_scr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2020, 07:13:22 pm
content: The "just put DC to the internal battery connector" does not work for me, sadly. Seems like the device does not boot correctly.It's just stuck and does not react to any button presses, even thought the LED light up

author: JonasCz
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 25, 2020, 05:05:13 pm
content: Just because I stumbled upon this thread while trying to fix mine (or do the same thing as OP if I didn't succeed in having it working with a battery)..I have a broken soundlink mini 2, which had (has..) a flashing red battery indicator. Bought a new (Chinese copy) battery, which still doesn't work, but I might have shorted the battery positive onto the i2c wires while soldering it in (this one has the battery soldered in, very short wires, and hard to get at the connections to the board without completely taking it apart (which seems even more of a pain to do).Looking at it on the scope (picture below), it looks like the device is talking to the battery pack on i2c, but nothing back from the battery, and I guess it's refusing to work because of that (the battery pack still puts out the 7.2v it's supposed to).IIRC it has a TI gas gauge and BMS IC (which also has some DRM features), maybe I'll try to replace just that and hope they're not using the DRM features.Tl;dr: the soundlink mini 2 refuses to work just by putting DC on the battery connection.

author: malch1
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 08, 2022, 05:18:31 pm
content: Any other updates on this topic?I have been trying to hardwire my Bose Soundlink I without success. I'd greatly appreciate any hints or success stories.Thanks.

author: djsan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 01, 2022, 06:45:08 am
content: Hi guys. Just wanted to share the solution and fix for knowledge: Bose made 2 different battery types for the mini1. The first one (manufactured between 2013 and 2014) has S/N 061xxx. and the second one (manufactured between 2014 and 2016) has S/N 063xxx.Bose Mini1 Devices made in 2013-2014 uses: 061384, 061385, 061386.Bose Mini1 Devices made in 2014-2016 uses: 063404, 063287.Note: for finding the manufactured year and day date, check the serial number on the botom of the device, the eight number will tell you the year, nine, ten and eleven, will tell you the day of the year. For example: xxxxxxx5211xxx means 5 (2015) and 211 (july 1).As you can see those batteries, externally, physically and even mAh are exactly the same, BUT, internals are different. Yes 063xxx batteries BMS has some kind of DRM protection that won't allow to use a 061 with 063 between them. I gess bose did this for avoiding people changing the batteries and also fighting against chinese counterfeits batteries...Now, 90% of chinese bateries on the market, are 061xxx version wich means they will ONLY work with first manufactured products (2013-2014). Finding a 063xxx is really really hard and it gets worst when chinese shops on Amazon, ebay, ali, etc, will tell you that you can use a 061 for a 063. Missinformation everywhere unfortunately.There is a German battery manufacturer that makes a working battery for 063 version as shown here but is expensive (the only one who tells you the truth):https://www.ebay.com/itm/334459136589?hash=item4ddf516a4d:g:vmwAAOSwmQ9ilZZKSo be careful when you are going to buy a new battery for your product.Bye!

author: Progrip
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 06, 2023, 03:55:11 pm
content: Quote from: JonasCz on October 25, 2020, 05:05:13 pmAny chance somebody can get more info about communicarion scope , i want to build emulator and use external battery , its too old speaker to give 40E for battery . Thank you

author: rfengg
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 26, 2023, 01:28:37 pm
content: Anyone who knows of a dependable source for the 063404 battery? I got hold of one from Amazon that said "063404" but did not work......any other sources?

author: BobaV
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 01, 2024, 05:31:20 pm
content: Do you have a solution for the bose sound link 2 to work without battery?

author: rfengg
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2024, 10:10:32 pm
content: Sorry man, still hunting.......might end up using an amp plus bluetooth module as none of the batteries I procured work.

author: BobaV
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 13, 2024, 10:24:08 am
content: hello, I did some experimenting with my bose soundlink 2 which did not have a battery, I connected a voltage of 11.2V 3x Li Ion and one resistor between the positive and Tx terminals, it does not cut off except when the battery is empty😀 maybe it is not a practical solution because I charge the battery with independent charger-balancer. there is also a problem that it draws 100mA while it is turned off - but I will solve that as well. It's important to me that it works and I don't depend on the battery, which is expensive and who knows if it would work. If you need details, ask!

author: rfengg
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2024, 08:59:58 pm
content: @Boba.....could you please furnish more details on this? I just want mine to work as well.