The Apple diyMod: My Take on the Famous iMod [56k killer] Featuring 3G, 4G, 5G and nano 1G! - Page 40

The iPod minis were hard-drive based (CF II), but CF I dropped in perfectly, increasing battery life by a couple hours, though to be fair, the tests in the link were done with a different battery as well. Originally they came with Seagate Microdrives, but those turned out to be rather problematic. A 16GB CF card in an iPod mini would be a pretty decent player even by today's standards. Though their ticket price may be a bit high, higher capacity cards usually end up having the best value per GB. Here's a relatively cheap one with a quick glance through Google.

The iPodlinux site lists the WM8731, but the image above clearly indicates WM8711 in the mini. Your call.

I checked the datasheets again, and they all have audio inputs. I don't know all that is required for a line-in, but if you check page 5 on the four datasheets, they all indicate pins for audio inputs.

WM8731

Pin 23 - Right Channel Line Input (AC coupled)
Pin 24 - Left Channel Line Input (AC coupled)

WM8731

Pin 23 - Right Channel Line Input (AC coupled)
Pin 24 - Left Channel Line Input (AC coupled)

WM8971

Pin 25 - Single Ended Microphone Input
Pin 27 - Right Channel Input 1
Pin 28 - Left Channel Input 1

WM8978

Pin 1 - Left Mic Pre-amp positive input
Pin 2 - Left Mic Pre-amp negative input
Pin 4 - Right Mic Pre-amp positive input
Pin 5 - Right Mic Pre-amp negative input
Pin 19 - Left Auxiliary Input
Pin 20 - Right Auxiliary Input

iPod pinout (thanks to Apple iPod dock interface pinout and signals @ pinouts.ru)

Pin 5 - Line In - R (+)
Pin 6 - Line In - L (+)

Now, I don't know if you were already aware of this and I'm just beating you over the head with the information you already have, but here it is anyway. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on the differences.

And as for line out quality differences between models, I really couldn't tell you. I've been tweaking my system so bad it can't breastfeed our children anymore (Arrested Development anyone?), so sonically I couldn't compare them for you. Let's not even get into the subjectivity of all reviews. Just rest assured you're getting almost the best performance your DAC is giving, and the weakest links in your audio chain become the amp, headphones, cables, etc.

All we know now is that my system breastfeeds. We also know it has glass-hard nipples. I really don't know where to go from there.

As for putting flash drives into regular iPods,
put flash memory into (almost) ANY iPod! :: projects :: geek technique

Modding : Apple Video Ipod (5g & 5.5g) - The Compact Flash Version > Tarkan Akdam’s BORED

Unless you find some decently priced CFs, I wouldn't bother. Nevertheless, it's still pretty cool.

Interesting observation, infinite. Very, very interesting. If we could source the adapter, all would be well. I wonder how much room really is freed up in the iPod. The 5G video would be tricky to pull off, while the 4G already can fit the high quality caps we need. In the video, you'd have to route the wires from the front to the rear and back to the front. If you want to solder your wires straight to the pins that lie on the backside, that would solve a bit of the clearance problem. It probably wouldn't be that much of a problem with the 60GB and 80GB models. Good thinking, infinite.

I figured you guys deserved a better quality photo of the iPod mini's chip.

I really like the low cost of that iPod HDD to CF adapter. $5 plus $7 shipping isn't bad at all. My music collection sits at a measly 7GB, so maybe I could consider a 16GB flash to replace the 20GB HDD. The iPod's battery has long been its weak point, and with a CF and 1200mAh battery I put in it, I could have even better battery life. Very, very interesting. I will add it to the front page.

Etymotic Ety8, anyone?



I like how the Bluetoothing iPodder did the CF conversion too. That frees up a lot of things. If someone could design an amp that can run off the iPod's 3.7V battery, you could end up with a pretty sweet, stock-looking iPod. And that's what we all love about it, isn't it?