I usually don’t post Engadget material since they get more traffic than us, but with all the E3 coverage going on I wanted to make sure Will’s iPod dock project got the attention it deserves. Will had originally planned on doing this all in one post, but there ended up being so much material we had to do it in four. The idea was to breakout all of pins in the dock connector into usable connections: everything from line-out to USB to serial. Even if you don’t have (or even like) an iPod you might find this project interesting because it’s really a tutorial on board design in disguise. Part 1 covers how to create a new component in EAGLE. Part 2 has how to create the schematic. Part 3 shows how to generate and tweak the board layout. Finally in Part 4 he goes through the process of actually etching the boards. What’s next? Well a decent case would be nice; which seems like perfectly good excuse for Will to build vacuum table. Look for that in the future.

Continue reading “How-to: IPod Super Dock” →

[josh mason] is in the process of converting his iTrip mini FM transmitter (cache) so that it will work with any device. The iTrip uses the iPod’s accessory port for power and control. The acc. port is what Apple used before settling on a standard dock connector. After he cracked open the iTrip, Josh compared it to an earlier hack we featured and noticed that the wiring was backwards which explains why the acc. port devices won’t work on different generations. He’s got a new headphone jack attached but still needs to construct a power supply. If he wasn’t making the device universal, he could get 3.3V out of his nano’s dock port.

Continue reading “ITrip Mini Universal Mod” →

[Francisco] had one simple goal with this project: access every pin in the dock connector. If you want to start experimenting with the iPod this will come in very handy. Francisco has provided a PDF schematic ready to etch. I’m surprised SparkFun isn’t selling something like this already.

Continue reading “IPod Dock Splitter” →

Usually when someone asks me how to build a USB charger I point them to Jason Striegel’s USB battery v2. It’ll work for a lot of things that only need 5V. Unfortunately [ian] has a 3G firewire iPod so he decided to build a switch mode power supply to generate the 8-30V required by firewire. The device is powered by 3 AA batteries and uses a PIC 12F683 microcontroller to regulate the output voltage. The device can power a dead 3G iPod, but it can’t charge it, so Ian is looking for some input from the community. Some have already suggested using FETs with a lower turn on voltage.

Continue reading “Switch Mode IPod Charger” →

Most factory radios in cars don’t include a line in. alfaGato decided he wanted to integrate an iPod into his system, but wanted to maintain the factory functions. His Saab 9-3 came with GM’s OnStar system (not activated) which he thought would make a decent in road into the radio. His instructions should work for most radios with a factory cellphone integration option. He opened the radio and cut the traces for the phone input to get separate left and right channels. These were wired to the external CD changer input. He didn’t have the factory changer and the phone input also had amplification on the line that would interfere with the iPod. He designed a circuit with two possible inputs: iPod connector or AUX. The circuit is designed to mute the inputs if OnStar is activated. The circuitry is contained within a Saab factory phone mount with an iPod holder attached to it. Check out alfaGato’s blog dedicated to the project and our previous auxiliary input projects.

Continue reading “IPod Integration For Factory Radios” →

2,000 songs. Impossibly small. Reeks of fish.

There is something very fishy going on with this conversion of a 4GB iPod nano to an 8GB nano. To start, the obligatory “new capacity” screenshot isn’t provided. Next, it is almost too simple: just piggyback the flash chips on top of each other. Wait, weren’t the chips in the 4GB nano mounted on a daughter card? ([Omikron]’s photos of the daughter card in his 4GB nano) The 2G version had flash chips on the main board, but those were Toshibas not these Samsung chips. There are really basic instructions provided that encourage you to buy a broken nano on eBay and salvage the necessary chips. If that seems a little hard, the author has plenty of the correct memory chips on hand and is willing to upgrade your nano, for a fee. This page is mirrored in an auction. What kind of person has a pile of 2GB iPod flash chips on hand? I don’t know, but they seem to have sold a lot of 4GB iPods in the last month. I wonder what capacity the iPods really were

Since the time it was first featured on MAKE, Steve Chapman has continued to develop his iPod breakout dock. The dock provides all of the possible connections that could be made through the 30-pin connector. Of interest is the iPod’s serial interface. I had seen a break down of the control codes before, but Steve has taken the time to develop a serial application that he can use to test the different commands. Now that he knows a little more about the interface he’s started programming a microcontroller to use it.

Continue reading “IPod Breakout Dock” →