WhistlinDixie

The iPod Project: Part 2

Ok, so it’s been a while since I started this project. Let’s just say that my last quarter as an undergrad was a ton of work and the thesis that I churned out in a week took a month to push through to final approval. So, here I am, ready to continue the project.

I actually did this a month and a half ago, but haven’t had the time to write about it. I tried what I outlined in the first post, and, sadly, it didn’t work as planned.

The particular FireWire cable that I purchased didn’t appear to be up-to-spec since it did not have shielded twisted pairs, instead having only a single braided shield for the whole cable. In an attempt to increase the fidelity of the audio being delivered to my car stereo, I used some old stereo cable, which has each channel individually shielded, to carry the audio and the FireWire cable just to carry power to the iPod.

After I assembled all of the parts, I installed the cable in my car to test it. The audio worked great. After plugging in the adapter, I was able to hear my music out of the speakers in my car, without any noticeable distortion. I noticed rather quickly that the charging icon was not appearing on the display. To make sure that it should show up, I pulled out my USB charger and plugged it into my iPod while it was playing music. Sure enough, the charging icon showed up.

I am not sure why the iPod refuses to charge when given approximately 12V to its FireWire charging pins. I can only figure that Apple got rid of the circuitry for charging at FireWire voltages. Since I do not have an official FireWire adapter, I cannot test this theory.

So, I will attempt an M2 of the project the next time I am home, around Christmas. In this revision, I will use a USB car adapter to provide power and hook it up to the USB charging pins in the dock connector. I am hoping that I can find a place to tap into the cigarette lighter circuit in the car so that I’m not required to have the adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter at all times.

Gallery of iPod Doc Connector M1