Can Milwaukee M12 And M18 Batteries Be Tracked? What You Need To Know
Have you ever noticed that your battery packs seem to be inexplicably slippery? Even if you set a battery pack down on a workbench and walk away for five minutes, there's always a distinct chance it'll have completely vanished by the time you get back. It's incredibly frustrating, as you obviously need a battery pack to use your power tools and equipment. Assuming you don't have a bad case of garage gremlins, those packs have to be lying around somewhere, waiting to be recovered.
The ideal solution for a slippery battery pack is some kind of tracking system, one that can clue you into the pack's precise, or at least approximate, location whenever it suddenly vanishes into the ether. Some hardware brands integrate this kind of technology into their products – for instance, the Milwaukee hardware brand utilizes its proprietary One-Key system to detect and track tools and equipment. If you've misplaced a couple of Milwaukee tool battery packs, specifically the M12 and M18 models, could you use One-Key to track them down? As they are natively, the answer to that would be no, but through external tracking devices, there may still be a way to get a proverbial leash on those batteries.
M12 and M18 batteries cannot be tracked on their own
Milwaukee's One-Key tool-tracking system utilizes Bluetooth tracking chips, which are integrated into the associated tools' bodies. The One-Key app can find a registered tool by homing in on the Bluetooth chip, even if the tool is powered down. Milwaukee has integrated this technology into a variety of worksite implements besides tools, such as pipe inspection systems, jobsite lighting, and indeed, battery packs and chargers.
However, the hitch here is that only one series of Milwaukee battery pack currently has One-Key tech built-in, that being the MX Fuel series, including the XC406, the Forge XC8.0, and the Forge HD12.0. None of Milwaukee's other battery packs, including the M12 and M18 models, feature One-Key Bluetooth trackers in their constructions, which means attempting to track them down with the One-Key smartphone app wouldn't work. If your idea to fix this problem is to just use an MX Fuel battery on everything, that's a nonstarter – MX Fuel batteries only work on high-performance MX Fuel tools, not the regular M12 or M18 series tools. Even if they did, the MX Fuel XC406 battery costs over $500 a pop, substantially more than the modestly-priced M12 and M18 batteries, so that's not exactly an economically sensible choice.
One-Key Bluetooth trackers can be attached to M12 and M18 batteries
Even if M12 and M18 batteries don't have One-Key Bluetooth trackers natively, that doesn't mean you can't add them yourself. Milwaukee offers two kinds of standalone One-Key tracking tags, the Tick tracker and the generic Bluetooth tracker, both of which can be "glued, riveted, screwed, or zip-tied" onto just about any tool or piece of equipment. If you want to track an M12 or M18 battery pack with your One-Key app, all you need to do is attach a tracker tag to the battery body, then pair the tag with your One-Key app.
Once the tag is paired, you can track its location within 100 feet for the Tick and 300 feet for the generic tag. If you're specifically having a problem with battery packs going missing, the generic tag also has a small speaker built-in that can be pinged by the app once it's within 50 feet. If you're using Milwaukee tools at a professional jobsite, the One-Key app also allows you to track who is currently using a piece of equipment, so if a pack does vanish from the rack, you know who to yell at about it.