Bose Soundtouch 10 Battery Mod


The Bose SoundTouch 10 has a good room-filling sound, but it lacks an internal battery. If you have Einhell power tool batteries sitting in your garage, you already have a good power supply. This project turns a static speaker into a rugged, long-range garden radio.

The Motivation: 

Why modify an old Bose SoundTouch 10 for the garden?

  • Bluetooth Range Sucks: Standard Bluetooth cuts out the moment you walk away or put the phone in your pocket.
  • WLAN Advantage:  I have good Wi-Fi coverage in my garden, so a WLAN-based radio is perfect here. If you take it away from home, you can just run a mobile hotspot from your phone for stable, long-range streaming.
  • Cheap and Sustainable: High-quality outdoor Wi-Fi radios are rare and expensive. You can find SoundTouch 10 speakers quite cheaply on the used market now, especially since Bose turned off the backend servers.
  • Long-Term Testing: I have had a black prototype of this setup running for over a year now without any issues.


Materials

To build the custom battery mount and handle, you will need:

  • Battery: Any 18V Einhell Power X-Change battery.
  • Connectors: Metal blade terminals to slide into the Einhell battery slots.
  • Fasteners:
    • M4x20 flat-head screws (for securing the main battery holder).
    • 3.5x30 screws (for mounting the handle to the frame).
  • A sountouch 10, obviously
  • 3D Printed Parts: You can access the CAD files to print the handle and mount and the main case. Do not judge me - the model is an absolute mess, but it works. There is a fiel on Makerworld, but I would recommend to download the files from onshape and slice yourself. On Makerwold I posted Verison 1, this might be slighly short dependent on material shrinking (but for me it worked on the balck verison). 

⚠️ SAFETY NOTE: Einhell Power X-Change batteries are specifically engineered with the Battery Management System (BMS) built directly onto the battery itself. This is a massive safety advantage for DIY projects, as the battery regulates its own cell balancing and protections. 

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