Posted Aug 19th 2008 11:31AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: ipod hacks, portable video hacks, daily
[jongscx] picked up a Myvu personal media viewer and promptly began scheming about improvements. He decided he wanted to be able to
watch any input on the device, not just an Ipod.
After some messing about with different inputs, he eventually calls Myvu to ask some questions. Surprisingly, he gets the engineer who designed the thing. The engineer turns out to be pretty helpful and is happy to help him hack the device. [jongscx] ends up finally getting it to work and posts the schematic for the world to see.
He says his hands are full with some other projects right now, but hopefully he'll do an official write up with pictures of the final product soon.
[DrNathan] wrote in to note that [RetroPlayer] was responsible for much of the work as well as contacting the engineer.
[thanks, DrNathan]
Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:42PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks, misc hacks
If you thought there wasn't anything else to shove on the end of your iPod, [Alex] is here to set you straight. He used the DC power that's available on the iPod's dock to drive a cheap laser pointer. It's pretty easy to do - just get a dock connector (
sparkfun has em) and add a laser pointer module. If you'd rather access everything else, check out the
super dock I put together a while back. Hit the
read link if you'd rather see the picture in color.
Posted Feb 21st 2008 4:04PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks
[Ed] sent in his
latest iPod modding effort. Previously he did this on a
4th gen, and now he's following that up with a 5th gen version. He found an even smaller bluetooth module for the mod, but it requires replacing the hard drive with a compact flash card to make room inside the case if you want to keep the original back cover.
Posted Dec 24th 2007 10:53PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks
Red Wine audio offers the
iMod - a service that modifies the DAC in 4th, 5th and 5.5th generation iPods. Despite requiring some fine work, the mod isn't that difficult. [joneeboi] sent in his DIY DAC mod how-to, and even better, it's suitable for 3rd gen and 1st gen Nanos. The audio signal is tapped directly after the DAC, and the SMD capacitors in the iPod are replaced with high end Black Gate capacitors. This is just the mod feed the best possible signal to your headphone amp
Posted Dec 14th 2007 10:47PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: cellphones hacks, ipod hacks
The boys over at
engadget put this up while I was working it over, but I'm still gonna hit it. [Curt] sent in the
iPhone GPS he put together. He's using a micro-controller to send the ground toggle handshake we mentioned in the iPhone serial tutorial, along with a small NMEA serial GPS module. After the handshake is completed, the controller hands over the serial port to the GPS output. (Since the handshake only needs the ground toggle, I'd guess that the module is connected to the TX/RX lines all the time.) By the way, the GPS looks like this SiRF II board sold by
spark fun electronics.
Posted Nov 11th 2007 8:43PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks, portable audio hacks
I'm a fan of my Etymotic er6i (which have mysteriously vanished...) headphones, so
this simple hack caught my eye. [James C] sent in this simple method of upgrading the more affordable apple in ear headphones. The idea is simple, use a small hole punch to cut out the center of some cheap foam earplugs. Then replace the soft surrounds on the headphones with them. I'm guessing that this trick would work for quite a few in ear headphones that I've seen lately.
Posted Sep 19th 2007 11:19PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks, misc hacks
Apparently the iPhone jack isn't quite standard - it's a bit recessed to the point that third parties are offering adapters for it. [John] offers
this simple method for modding Etymotic's fine ER6i headphones. (If only I could find mine. I haven't seen them for 8 months.) I suggest using a utility knife over a pocket knife. It's simple, easy, and will probably work on most headphones.
Posted Aug 26th 2007 11:40PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: handhelds hacks, ipod hacks, misc hacks
I wasn't going to post
this - it's a freakin phone after all. But I've gotten quite a few tips on it, and I'd like them to end. [George] made a concerted effort to hack the iPhone - and it paid off. After his crazy
ebay auction that topped out at 99,999,999.99 last time I checked, he ended up trading his first phone for a Nissan 350z and a few more iPhones.
He documented his process, step by step - if you've got the skills, you can probably do it yourself. The soldering work is damn fine work - probably the hardest thing there is. The write up is a little hard to follow, so plan on taking some time to comprehend everything. (Blogging software isn't the best way to organize how-tos, trust me on this.) My hats off to [George], he did some great work. - So, why didn't I want to post it? All this work yielded one thing: carrier choice for the iPhone.
Posted Jul 6th 2007 5:29AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: home entertainment hacks, ipod hacks
This little how-to was sent in by [Ed]. The sound dock posts get quite a few hits, so I figured I'd share.
There is a solderless way to hack an aux input for the Sounddock.
(1)Go to Wal-mart (or elsewhere) and buy the Griffin Dock Adapter for iPod Shuffle (~$20) and a Belkin Speaker and Headphone splitter (~$4). (The Belkin splitter is needed in order to fit properly over the Shuffle plug on the device, but other cables/adapters might work.)
(2)Remove the existing adapter plate and replace it with the Dock adapter.
(3) Set the switch to speaker. (Very Important!) (4)Plug in one end of the Belkin adapter and you are ready to go! Any input signal automatically activates the Sounddock. Now you have a fully functional female and male stereo headphone input for your Sounddock.
-->Total cost ~$25 and no soldering required.
Posted Jul 3rd 2007 10:37AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks, misc hacks
[Daniel ] sent in this
one, from an O'Reilly book, it's older but the results are just stunning. The iPod dock has been done countless times, but the really interesting part is the custom dash molding technique. The cradle was mocked up with clay on the original piece, then a silicon mold was cast from the mock up. After that, the entire piece was re-created inside the mold. After some dremel work and a bit of sanding, it came out beautifully. It looks like a great way to make custom LCD/GPS dash inserts.
Posted Feb 7th 2007 11:47AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks
I've lost count of the number of emails from people looking for these things, so here it is. The hardest part of [Mike's]
little hack is the soldering. The pins on those iPod connectors are just evil to solder. You'll need the patience of a saint.
I've worked with these same connectors and I came up with an easier, if bulkier method of soldering those things in my
iPod super dock How-To.
Posted Jan 25th 2007 8:01AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks
[Blake] sent me
this one when my house was covered in ice. He put together a charger for his new iPod
nano er, shuffle. It's sort of in two parts: a USB to mini-jack and a 5v wall adapter to USB port.
Posted Jan 23rd 2007 6:57AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: ipod hacks
Someone else's apathy often becomes someones
motivation. The guys at
Gordian Labs got sick of trying to use Nike's website so they dug into their iPods to find the data generated by the iPod+Nike running shoe add on. Then they put together a
handy site for processing the data from the iPod. The site also accepts GPX data, so you can combine it with GPS data to track your runs and your routes. After they showed it to me, I prodded them and they put together a short
How-To on getting the data under Mac, Windows and Linux.
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