upr00ted

On top of my battery issues I’ve been having intermittent firewire connectivity issues. Sometimes I’ll plug in my iPod and my computer will launch iTunes immediately, other times I have to jiggle the firewire cable to get it to recognize. No longer.

I looked into the iPod repair programs available online, but the best available was $55. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I’d seen galleries of iPod disassembly over at ipodlounge so I knew it must be possible, but there are very few step by step tutorials on getting the device apart beyond taking out the battery.

After sweating a few bullets I jumped on in and took apart my little machine. I found exactly what I expected: a broken connection on the firewire port.

Not wanting to shell out $55 or risk melting the iPod with my newfound soldering ability, I went to the local electronics shop where they mostly work on CB radios and have never heard of an iPod. They fixed the connections for $5 and I brought it home, put it all back together and have a fully functioning iPod once again.

I’ve been afflicted with the dying ipod battery for some time now, and recently I decided to do something about it. Two things really.

For those of you who don’t know me, my dilema is that during the summer I spend 8 weeks out in the country working at a farm camp that I absolutely love but that has minimal access to electricity. So, with mid-June just over a month away I thought I should do something about my situation.

I still get a couple of hours of normal use on the internal battery so my first thought was to purchase an external battery that I could take with me and use to re-charge my ipod overnight. This would all be well and good if I had a dockable ipod. My original 5GB model just doesn’t seem to fit the bill.

After looking around for a solution I found Drew Perry’s site that has a great little “hack” for building your own battery. I’m not much for electronics and soldering, but I thought I’d take a trip down to Fry’s and see what I could bum up.

I also found a very similar external battery on ebay that worked off of 8 AA batteries. This seemed like a better plan to me since 9V batteries can be pricey at times. Roughtly $22 later I had a new soldering iron, batteries, battery holders, wire, solder, and most importantly a female 6-pin firewire plug which are hard to come by (Outpost part # 2534171, made by Pactech #PG-FWC6P.) I figured the actual parts cost under $10 (not bad compared to the Belkin version which also requires an outlet to recharge it.)

After an hour or so of shaky hand soldering I had a working prototype. At first I was a bit afraid of plugging it in and swore at my self for not buying a fuse and fuse holder, but I went ahead and plugged it in. I couldn’t believe my eyes, the ipod turned on and began charging. Still afraid, but now strengthened I got back online and bought parts for version 2. The parts arrived today so I’ll let you know how it goes.

The second problem was solved much more easily. I finally broke down and bought a new internal battery, which I am still waiting for, but which I got a good deal on.