AirTag + Alienware x15 r2
I recently bought my first-ever gaming laptop, an Alienware x15 r2. Considering its value and how great AirTags are at tracking just about anything, I wanted to install one inside the laptop to give me a little more piece of mind while traveling.
The inspiration came from this video from Andrew Ngai deconstructing an AirTag to make it wallet thin:
After searching, I found some people who had put entire AirTags into a laptop, but no one who had modified one like in Andrew’s video.
The Alienware x25 r2 definitely didn’t have enough internal room for a whole AirTag, but it did appear to have an empty M.2 bay:
Upon receipt of my new laptop, I confirmed The space could work, but the AirTag would have to be significantly thinner.
To see how thin I could make one, I went ahead and stripped an AirTag’s guts from its housing:
I was left with a remarkably thin little PCB, magnet, coil, and a CR2032 battery.
Now, dear reader, I hope to pass the learnings of my mistake onto you. Do you see that very thin gold ‘paint’ on the side? Turns out that’s part of the antenna and cutting any of it away (as I did to make it EVEN THINNER) results in a non-functional AirTag 😩
Again: DO NOT cut any gold plastic area!
Having learned my $30 lesson, I tried again with another AirTag, this time ensuring I didn’t cut or scrape away any of that gold area:
Repackaging:
Having removed the plastic housing, you're left with a few options on how to power the thing.
Run wires to a separate batter somewhere (as Andrew did in that video above), or
Put the battery back in place and ‘gently coerce’ it to make contact with the terminals.
Because I was already on the road while doing this and lacked a soldering station, I picked option #2. However, I didn’t like the idea of the battery possibly touching things on the PCB other than the terminals, so I used a bit of gaffers tape to mask it:
With some more gaffers tape I held the battery in place with the terminals and made a stupid little package
And Voila! It fits!
It barely sticks up in profile, not enough to contact the back plate of the laptop, which was a concern as I didn’t want flex from the case to translate into the motherboard via the AirTag:
Success? Seemingly, yes!
I’ve now had the AirTag in my Alienware laptop for 2 months and it seems to work well. The magnet and speaker have been removed so there’s no beeping, and the transmit distance is only ~3ft, but it’s definitely working on the AirTag network as I’ve received alerts about it being left behind in a new place.
I was also a bit concerned about how hot this laptop can get. I push it pretty well when doing mobile VR, and while I’ve not measured it, I’m sure the motherboard is getting -very hot-. My worry is more to do with the CR2032 battery, but they apparently have an upper limit of 132°C, so 🤷♂️
All that said, I wouldn’t recommend you try this unless you’re willing to risk the device you’re using.
