Cathedral Radio battery swap

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Well, today we're back on the desk and we're going to work on an old project of mine. Um, this is like 10 years ago or something like that. I think I put a label on the back here. I can't read the label, but this is back when I was uh doing the drain-o web stuff.

[00:00:16]Um, this was made um as a demonstration to the um I think it was the Vintage Radio Club of Australia, something like that. Uh anyway, my uh senior engineer was / is a member. There's not many of them left.

[00:00:31]Anyway, they argued that you couldn't bend MDF timber.

[00:00:35]I argued that with a living hinge pattern, it was perfectly doable. So, I made this cathedral style radio thing to demonstrate that. Now, this has a Bluetooth um module in it and uh I was hoping to have auxiliary in, but I realized that only works when there's a switch.

[00:00:52]And now, the lithium battery in this, which is an 18650, has stopped working.

[00:00:58]There is also a little NFC tag here for pairing with it.

[00:01:02]Um, the only way I've got into this without actually undoing the glue seams that are along here is to take this small panel off. The problem is right up on the front the battery is stuck against the inner face of this.

[00:01:17]Um, I'm not sure how that's going to work. I'm pretty sure this ring is glued on as well.

[00:01:23]So, this could be a little interesting.

[00:01:24]I may have to improvise some tools.

[00:01:27]I hope, or at least I recall the battery being connected with a connector, so maybe I can reach in with a hook and pull it out. Don't know, but we're going to get these screws out. We're going to get the endoscope camera, have a look.

[00:01:39]Be a little bit close up here.

[00:01:41]We're going to open this and I need a light.

[00:01:45]So, sorry about the lawn mowing noise.

[00:01:48]Um, that's all started up the second I decided to do this.

[00:01:51]Okay, we can see in here there is an 18650 cell there.

[00:01:56]Um, can we get a closer look as to how that's connected?

[00:02:00]That is on the red and black wires.

[00:02:03]Can we see a little closer where those red and black wires go in?

[00:02:10]Uh it's a bit hard to tell from here.

[00:02:13]One moment.

[00:02:15]All right, we're going to go in here with a long screwdriver and try and move some stuff out of the way so we can see what's happening.

[00:02:23]Now, um Now, that is the DC power wires go right there and it does look like they are indeed connected to a connector, which is good.

[00:02:37]Now, if we go up here, the battery might just rip off the front from the hot glue.

[00:02:42]If we can have a look in there, we might be able to get a piece of coat hanger wire and just yank on that and it might come off if we're super lucky.

[00:02:52]Okay, I found myself some coat hanger wire. We're going to re-engage light here.

[00:02:58]And uh we're going to have to sort of like juggle camera and my ability to do this.

[00:03:03]Let's go in with some coat hanger wire.

[00:03:06]We are going to use our camera here to guide which ca- which cable we want to grab.

[00:03:11]But I think that's the one we want there.

[00:03:14]Okay. Now, if we're lucky, we can pull and pop that out.

[00:03:22]Then if we're really lucky, we can grab in between these two wires.

[00:03:27]I've got to change my angle up here.

[00:03:30]Get in between them. We're not too worried about knackering this battery cuz it's already knackered.

[00:03:36]Um as DankPods would call it, it's a uh nugget.

[00:03:41]Here we go.

[00:03:43]Oh, that's going to come out easy.

[00:03:44]Hopefully, we don't bugger the plug.

[00:03:47]We'll keep an eye on the battery here.

[00:03:48]Can we negotiate this between the other cables so we don't damage them.

[00:03:58]Whoops. Sorry about the camera angle, guys. It's a bit challenging here, but Okay, the battery came off easily.

[00:04:06]All right. Now, we are a bit tangled with other cable there, but this has gone significantly more successfully than I would have expected.

[00:04:17]Let's move our camera angle out and around a bit and zoom back out.

[00:04:21]Here we go.

[00:04:24]We can lift you out carefully. There's our 18650.

[00:04:27]And we've got our plug.

[00:04:29]That probably means I can come up with a way to actually plug that connector back in and put extendable wires and have the battery somewhere more accessible.

[00:04:37]Okay, so we've got the battery out. I've got the back panel on.

[00:04:40]Apparently, I need a couple of screws for the power connector.

[00:04:43]Um we're just going to plug this into 12 volts and yes, it is center positive.

[00:04:48]Um I just need to fire this up without the battery before I go to the trouble of spending money on this.

[00:04:55]Yeah, should turn on.

[00:04:59]Now, this has got a 12-V to 5-V um regulator inside.

[00:05:04]And it did fire up.

[00:05:06]And now, it's looking for something to pair with.

[00:05:09]Probably my wife's phone cuz she'll have Bluetooth on.

[00:05:12]All right. So, it is working, but I'm trying to feed Bluetooth to this from a video when I'm recording from the camera on the phone.

[00:05:21]It's a bit tricky. I need to find my other phone or pair it to a different Bluetooth source.

[00:05:25]All right. So, I have got it to work, but it sounds very washed out partly because I'm going to turn this down.

[00:05:32]Um volume down.

[00:05:35]Partly because it's chosen the telecommunications protocol instead of the audio protocol, which is irritating that Windows defaults to that for Bluetooth devices.

[00:05:45]Um and it is a little bit crackly cuz the power supply is not buffered by the battery. Let me swap protocols.

[00:05:52]Okay, we got the telephony mode disabled. Let's try now.

[00:05:57]That sounds better.

[00:06:00]And I've got to use royalty free stuff.

[00:06:03]Um, let's give it a moment. See what this sounds like.

[00:06:08]The low end's good.

[00:06:11]And the high end's all right. Let's see how it runs with a bit more power in That's good. It's working really nicely.

[00:06:24]Good low ends.

[00:06:25]We'll go and find a new battery for it.

[00:06:31]Three weeks later.

[00:06:33]All right, so I do have a battery uh on the go for this, but uh it got commandeered into my kids' bedroom to play sound for her TV because the HDMI lead's got some issues.

[00:06:45]I'm going to be hard-pressed to get this back for a while. This one might do another video when I get the battery to put it in here.

[00:06:51]In the meantime, it's being enjoyed uh in a whole different area.

[00:06:56]So, we'll leave it be for now.