Moderate⏱ 20 min9 steps·Original on iFixit ↗

Tado Smart Radiator Thermostat v3 Plus Teardown

In this teardown, we will be disassembling the Tado Smart Thermostat v3, commonly found in many homes.

Step-by-step instructions

This is a Tado Smart Thermostat.
The first disassembly step is quite straightforward as it's the way to ***pair *** and to ***swap the batteries***.

Removing the cover with the "Tado" logo embossed is the first step to accessing the thermostat.
It is secured with 3 clips.
One right next to the little opening for the temperature sensor.
Two others are on the opposite side.
Once you remove the cover, you can easily pry off the serrated ring. This serration is connected to a little cogwheel, which transfers the turning motion to an electrical signal for setting the temperature.

The single PCB is secured with 2 cross-head screws and a ribbon cable, which leads to the "display".
By lifting the tightening cover of the ribbon cable, you can remove it.
By removing the 2 standard screws, you can finally completely remove the PCB from the assembly.
Pay attention to the aforementioned cogwheel. It will also fall out.
Additionally, two plastic pins transfer button pushes to the PCB. More for that to come when looking at the PCBs.

On this side of the PCB, you can see several important objects.
The red section is the sub-GHz antenna, which is the main communication antenna to the base station.
The blue section is where the cogwheel for setting the temperature is positioned.
The T1317 chip (green), I could not assign to anything. If someone has an idea what it is, please let me know.
The N52832 IC (yellow) is a [https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/pdf/nRF52832_PS_v1.1.pdf|low power Bluetooth transceiver] which is only used by the Tado radiator thermostat in app mode.

On this side of the PCB, you can see several more important objects:
In black, you see both AA battery connections.
The first button (yellow) is the button that is pressed when you screw lock the adapter plate back into the main unit when pairing or changing the batteries. It indicates to the device that it is mounted to a radiator.
The second button (teal) is the pairing button.
The RF antenna (red).
The antenna already mentioned is connected to the CC110L IC (magenta), which is a [http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc110l.pdf|sub-GHz transceiver].
In the last step, on the other side of the PCB, we saw a Bluetooth IC. On this side of the PCB, we can also find the antenna for it (green).

The shell consists of two parts. The outer one is painted black inside to block the light from the self-made LED display. The inner one houses all the rest.
++To separate the two, you have to open or part the two opposite clips by driving something. between them - these might be toothpicks, but also can be bits like in this case.++
When you spread the clips apart, you can slide the other shell off - revealing the self-made LED display and its cover.

Here you can see how they managed to implement a bent "display". The black part is made out of rubber, blocking all the light of the LEDs in the ribbon cable behind.

Removal of the motor is quite simple.
Behind the sticker, there are two more screws securing the 25BYJ412-56 motor.
Remove them, and the motor, including the ribbon cable and ribbon display, falls out.

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