The Apple diyMod: My Take on the Famous iMod [56k killer] Featuring 3G, 4G, 5G and nano 1G!

[pcyl]

Originally Posted by aaronylee

Many thanks to everyone on this thread, it's been unbelievably interesting and helpful.

I took the dive and started the process on a 5g-video and I got the two caps near the DAC off. Some pics here:




As I turned to the dock side of things I noticed some traces going to bare metal pads (green arrows). Specifically:



I confirmed with a multimeter that L2 and L3 are connected to these pads (green arrows). In measuring resistance I found that they both have 1 Ohm resistance stably. Meaning that little things pointed at with the red arrows are probably resistors. I also confirmed with multimeter that the top series of pads newly exposed near the DAC are indeed connected to the metal pads (green arrows). Obviously the lower series of newly exposed pads by the DAC are not connected (but confirmation is good to ensure no crossbridging).

A few questions:

1) Can we just solder from the DAC to these pads and then get rid of L2/L3?

2) Is it necessary to kill L2/L3 if we have removed the Caps up next to the DAC? Since we should have theoretically killed the circuit up top anyway why do we have to kill it again near the dock?

If the answer to both of these questions is 'yes', then I think this would be the most simple way to mod the 5g.
1) Take out the two caps near the DAC
2) Solder thin wires from the newly exposed pads near the DAC to the metal pads.

From previous experience from surface soldering I would urge everyone to tape the wires down before soldering and to use the thinnest wires possible. Lifted pads are NOT easy to fix.

so from WM chip to the pad which is for which?
any idea?

[aaronylee]

Originally Posted by pcyl

so from WM chip to the pad which is for which?
any idea?

Using the pics from the OP:



And the one that I posted above:


You would connect the green wire to the bottom pad and the blue one to the top pad.

Hope that helps!

[joneeboi]

Here is an alternate method of connecting the chip to the dock. I ripped the pads off the L2, L3 and circular pads, so I had to come up with an alternate version. I routed the wires from the chip around the metal frame to the back, right up to the dock's pins. I had to twist 2 strands from my 7 stranded SPC wire because anything more would make it touch the adjacent pins. Observe.



Some mighty fine work that kept me up pretty late last night.


Glue is an essential part of the healthy, balanced diet.


Yeah, those Z pads decided to up and leave the diyMod party.


Let the record show that this method is the 3rd resort. Try the inductor pads, then the circular pads, and if all else fails, go straight to the dock. Always remember to secure those wires.

[wgr73]

Lol jon, WOW! All I can say is: "pretty amazing"! If you can solder like that, you wont have to worry about too much in the diy field. That is about as bad as it gets! Great work! Thats very clean as well! Good job!

Thats crazy hard to do. Haha, you can see the solder on the docking port where you probably rubbed against it. What size tip did you use to accomplish this?

EDIT: Thats about as 'clean' of a signal as you going to get! Not having any trace to go through...again, great work!

[joneeboi]

It's the standard tip on my Weller WLC100, the ST3. The trick is to heat up the wire enough so that the solder you use to tin it will melt onto the pin. I probably would have done the same thing with a smaller tip. And of course, I must also give credit to my Helping Hands because they helped me greatly with getting a good angle with the lighting, and of course for holding up the darn board in the first place. Great confidence builder.

[powertoold]

I will try to do what you did Jon

[joneeboi]

I must warn you that the diyMod does not close as uniformly as originally with those wires flying everywhere. When you try the diyMod 5G, avoid the straight-to-dock method as best you can. My diyMod would benefit greatly from a new front plate.

[iQEM]

Originally Posted by joneeboi

I thought about it, but it actually goes in line with the ideology of the diyMod: simplify the signal path between the DAC and the amplifier. Granted, you'd have to change the thread's title, but with this whole new title-of-the-thread-creates-the-link business, changing the title will destroy every link in the world wide web. Besides, it would bring Apple and Microsoft DAP users closer than ever because they would share in the same legacy. I think Zune owners deserve to have a proper line out, don't you? I haven't heard from the Zune 2Gs, but I know that the first ones had a volume controlled, who-knows-what's-in-the-signal-path line out. It would be pretty cool if we could help those Zune owners out. *cough wgr73 cough*

oh i c, then let's continue...shall we ?

Originally Posted by CAvanessia

Here is my super temporary Sonicap setup until they are fully burned in (200 hours I guess). I have two 4.7uf GenI with 0.1uf GenII caps in parallel. From initial impressions, it *seems* that the bass hits slightly harder and deeper than the BGs that have around 50 hours of burn-in. Also it seems more spatious.



I don't know if I should roll caps since these sound good enough. I really want to try some Obbligatos since they are fairly affordable and according to one or two reviews to be better than the Sonicaps. We'll see after a few days

nice one Christine...so you use 2 pair of caps, right ?

[powertoold]

Wow, I just tried to do the direct thing with my Nano ... don't do it lol

It is probably the most difficult single thing I've done ever. I didn't have any hot glue (can't really use it because of space), so it was very hopeless to have the wires slip again and again. I also burnt out the pad for the right channel and had to solder it on the top.

I don't even know if I succeeded because when I close the Nano, everything may have gotten stressed and broken again. LOL I am never going to open the Nano up again, Wow.

Soldering directly to the DAC was easy... the dock... oMG it is so damn hopelessly frustrating haha.

[iQEM]

powertoold, have you use a lil' gauge wire ? i had the same condition as yours before BUT now after i switch to other lil wires it doing just fine, even my lcd came back to normal... now i still stuck with the clickwheel & other button cause of the ribbon cable...