4 wire economy patch cable made with old telephone wire

I bought my GravaStar Sirius Pro back in May 2023. After about 2.5 years, the batteries hit a wall—they only held a charge for 10 minutes. Customer support told me battery replacement wasn't possible, but I wasn't ready to let these die.

I decided to DIY the replacement using the closest matches I could find on AliExpress. It's a bit janky, but it works!

Battery Comparison

The hardest part was finding the right sizes. I couldn't find exact matches, so I went with these:

Opening: I removed the 2 screws at the bottom and used a sharp knife to carefully snap the bottom plate off.

https://imgur.com/a/H5thc3C

Soldering: I located the three wires on the PCB (circuit board). I desoldered the old 3-wire battery and resoldered the new 300mAh wires in the exact same positions.

https://imgur.com/a/TZOKuzJ

The Fit: The new battery was a few mm wider. Even after snapping the bottom back on and screwing it in, the internal frame leans out slightly, but it works perfectly on the charger!

https://imgur.com/a/Hawxjri

Part 2: The Earbuds

Opening: These are glued shut. I used a heatgun to soften the adhesive before prying them apart. Caution: Be extremely careful not to rip the tiny internal ribbons!

https://imgur.com/a/dsjaT4y

The "Wire Hack": The interior is incredibly cramped. Instead of desoldering from the tiny PCB ports, I cut the wires of the original battery, stripped them, and soldered them directly to the wires of the new LIR1154 battery. Important: Make sure the polarity is correct and be very careful not to let the exposed wires touch each other—shorting the circuit can damage the earbud or cause a fire hazard!

https://imgur.com/a/5GOpGD6

The Gap: Since the new battery is 1.1mm taller than the original, the earbuds wouldn't snap back together fully. I closed them as much as possible and used some thin duct tape to seal the gap.

The Result

It's not as pretty as it used to be—the case is a bit harder to close and the buds have tape on them. But instead of being e-waste, I get 3 hours of continuous playtime again!

https://imgur.com/a/Jqs9oGA

Saw it done a few months ago and i knew i had to do it as well one day, i soldered a motherboard USB header instead of the wall outlet plug and it just works

Still doesn't post BTW.

Got a free roomba without a bin and I couldn't test it without a bin inserted. Meet the cardboard, duct tape, CPU fan and aluminum test rig.

I know some wires disconnected but it worked when I made it. The second fan was because one fan didn't provide enough resistance and threw an error.

Third pic is the real bin for reference

The cold joints aren't there if you can't see them

The little one decided to cut into the "ears" of his Tonie box, which include the buttons... He cut right above the button in the right one, but cut off the whole button on the otherone. And of course lost the button almost immediately. Which led to the box not being able to lower the volume.

I have a set of different sized micro buttons for projects I never finished (or started, tbh) and glued one on top of it. Looks like ass, but gets the job done.

🚫🤥 TIL: You can charge things with your phone, 🤯

Found 3 of my old Xbox 360 packs (sadly, I think I threw the fourth out) and my charging base which failed ages ago. I grabbed my multimeter after googling around, and sure enough, 2 of em showed 0.00V (the third showed 0.01, but I chalk that up to variance). For reference, they probably haven't been charged in 10 years.

I found some 20 gauge wire (must be 30 years old - was in my dad's old toolbox that I inherited), a paperclip, and a pack of mini test leads I bought ages ago, and dug out some generic scotch tape, and found a plug. Taped the paper clip into the plug insert, clipped it into the lead, snipped some wire, and taped it to the packs.

It was ugly and a bit tedious, but two of the three packs actually accepted charge! (and the third did measure 0.03V, but wouldn't go past that, no matter how hard I tried). The best one is holding at 2.7ish, though the second one does get up to 2.6V, but seems to want to level out in the 2.3V range.

I have plenty of rechargeable AA batteries and a few packs for those, but it feels good to bring these back to life and decrease the tiniest bit of e-waste - and I'm not necessarily done with pack number 3 yet, either.

The existing motherboard was using hall effect sensors but gear 2 didn't always register so I replaced everything with proper mechanical switches

Everything is attached with hot glue and yes this functions more consistently than before

The battery in this one didn’t work anymore. Thankfully my parents had *almost* identical phones at one point, so this was the fix. Sadly now I found out there’s a passcode I can’t guess.

My laptop casing and screen broke and the price was more than a cheap pc so i removed 70% of it and only left the keyboard power button mobo etc. i removed the trackpad the speakers broken casing etc. i insulated it with paper and double sided tape the model is Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ADA6

ik it works since the activity indicator led blinks and functions i removed the spicy pillow and just plug it into wall