Reset microswitch through the antenna hole (HG board)
A Crouzet 83170.4 microswitch on the battery board's J6 pads, reached through the rear antenna hole, gives a CM5 a reset button without drilling.
What it takes
- Disassembly
- Soldering
- Purchase required
Difficulty 3 of 3 — advanced.
Details
davefrommars soldered a small Crouzet 83170.4 microswitch to the two J6 through-holes on the back of the HackerGadgets battery board — the pads HG provides for a switch, with the instruction to desolder R14 first: closed, the console runs normally; open the circuit and it resets. The switch is worked through the existing hole for the antenna cables, so the case is untouched. Ekklesia found a plain push button does the opposite of what you want (you would have to hold it to stay on) and used a toggle switch with a two-pin connector for easy removal; a hackerspace group designed a printed switch holder for the antenna hole, on Printables. wtsh's later mainboard fix restores the stock long-press power-off instead.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
beams' MSK12C02 slide switch uses the pads HackerGadgets reserved on the NVMe battery board to cut the cells — and the NVMe — without a hole in the case.
Swap the two 18650s for a single 10,000 mAh 9858102 pouch — 24–31 Wh measured — but only with a protection board that survives the uConsole's 5 A peaks.
null glued a lever-less D2MSL normally-closed switch behind a small hole in the case; a paperclip press cuts battery power when the console locks up.
bryank7bat's take on HackerGadgets' R14/J6 provision: a 2-pin connector on the board and a toggle or push-lock button in a hole drilled in the case bottom.
CRANK's 6 × 18650 plan: strip the holders off the battery board, wire two banks of three cells in parallel through bus bars, and house them in a printed back.
The 21700 version of HG's NVMe battery board fits the stock backplate and roughly doubles runtime: 4 h 31 min of 1080p playback against 2 h 27 min on 18650s.