The iPod Nano was one of Apple’s masterworks, but it’s really tied down by its dependence on wired headphones. At least, that’s what [Tucker Osman] must have thought, as he spent an unreasonable amount of time designing a Bluetooth mod for the 3rd gen Nano. And it’s a thing of beauty — temperamental, brutally difficult to build, and fragile in use, but still beautiful. And while some purists try to keep their signal analog, [Tucker]’s coup d’etat is to intercept the iPod’s audio signal before the DAC chip, keeping the entire signal path digital to the Bluetooth speaker. Oh, and he also managed to make the volume and track skip buttons work, back across the wireless void.
Now we know you’re itching to use the beautiful instructions and source code at the link above, and try to replicate this hack. And if you *really* want to, go for it. But know that the soldering required is a nightmare, the case needs modification to fit the extra board, and the resulting device has a battery life measured in minutes instead of hours. But since when has that stopped us? And if more iPod hacking is your thing, check out [Tucker]’s other project!
Would love to see this mod on a 5th or 6th gen classic. If you swap the OG hard drive for a SD card there should be plenty of room.
Doesn’t these have the old dock connector? That has digital audio on some of the pins IIRC.
The 30 pin iPod dock connector only has analog audio, usb/firewire, 12v/5v power input and serial rx/tx for remote commands. The info is fresh in my mind as I am currently working on making my own ipod interface to a stereo that supports some advanced features of the remote protocol.
Starting with the Classic (same year as the 3rd gen Nano here) there is digital output on the dock port.
Some speaker docks make use of this I think.