My 32GB Flash IPod Mini - Page 13

Cool. What kind of tools? My batteries all came with 2 tiny screwdrivers. Granted they are terrible quality so I don't use them on screws hehe

Are they the plastic tools? I would think they are too thick. What works best for me is a very thin blade flathead screw driver to get between the case and the plastic (think jeweler screwdrivers. I use this Husky it is one of my favorite tools ever) The best place is in the center as the body can flex there the easiest. Take your time and be careful and you can open a mini quickly and easily without damaging the case or the plastics.

Good luck with your project.

What did you have to change in order to make a proper compile?
I'd love to compile it myself.

And you mentioned you're waiting for your soldering iron, what are you planning to do to your minis?

I bought a mini on ebay a month and a half ago, but the bottom had fallen off and the seller sent me a replacement, but it was used and had more clips broken off than the original... so I sent it back and should be getting a new apple refurb now. I've had a 16Gb card sitting here for a few weeks now... I'm beginning to get impatient though...

I've bought 2 minis off eBay too - a good one to perform the mod on, and a faulty one partially to practice dissasembly on and partially for another project. I've also ordered a 16GB Adata card for my mod. Some thing's I've found are that you need to be REALLY careful taking the bottom plastic cap off. There are tabs on both front and back edges that snap off easily. The next one I do I'm going to try starting from the sides.

Also, I used a #000 philips screwdriver for the screws. A #00 didn't seem small enough.

I ordered a "new" shell and plastic bits off of eBay. The metal shell was very slightly marked, but passable. The bottom endcap however was not only not new, but had most of the tabs broken. Worst off is the seller claimed they check their stuff before shipping, so they can't have made a mistake. So be careful if you're thinking of doing the same thing.

Where did you order your Peak card from? I ordered my Adata from eBay and it claimed to be a local (UK) seller, but now checking his feedback I'm not so sure...

Was thinking of trying the Samsung cards, but the prices seemed to have jumped for them.

anyone know of a battery thats a direct fit in the mini, thats a lot longer charge capacity and holds longer?

Good question, and one I'm interested in too. I've seen a 850 mAh on eBay and a 750 mAh one from MDS battery in the UK. I think the stock is 400-500 mAh. Probably 500, but I've never been able to find out for sure.

I wonder about the eBay cell. It's really cheap, but given that it's Li-ion, I'd be very concerned about the quality.

I ordered the peak from a website called ginger6.com

PEAK 16GB COMPACT FLASH CARD RETAIL - Custom Built PC Base Units - 0871 230 7170

They only have five on there now, had 7 when I ordered on saturday so it does look like they update the site regularly. Also responded to emails relatively quickly which is also a good sign.

Know what you mean about the seller (wouldn't be flashman would it?)on ebay. Listed product as in uk, but based in hong kong? Didn't seem right to me, plus I was afraid of getting a fake. Besides there was only a few quid in it when I was looking at the 16 gig cards on ebay at the time anyway, coupled with the risk of getting a hit from customs so I thought what the hell. Makes the project come under a £100 for me anyway which is what I was aiming for. Annoyingly it was the postage that took it over £40!

Good luck with the card from ebay, I'd be interested in how long it takes to get here and WHERE exactly it was posted from!

Cheers...

I didn't change any of the source. If you already have a compile environemnt setup, then you can just use the bootloader option when you configure your make file. Basically the ipodpatcher.exe has a bootloader embedded. The utility can also insert a bootloader from a file. You'll have to check Rockbox's site for the syntax. So the current build's bootloader works fine with CF cards, but you have to compile it yourself then send it to the iPod with ipodpatcher.exe

Did that make any sense? If not, go look for my questions on the Rockbox forums or ask me and I'll try to explain. I can't be a lot of help setting up the compile environment though. I had some trouble with that, but it's because I already had Cygwin setup for other stuff, so it wasn't a blank slate to start with

I will have all my tools by Friday (keeping fingers crossed). To the Mini, I am modifying the line out on the dock connector to bypass the internal circuits similar to what Red Wine Audio does with their iMod. I'll also be building the LOD with caps inside.

Those tabs are very very fragile. I ordered some replacements and when I got them some were broken. The good news is they really aren't all that important. I think the adhesive does more to hold them in then the tabs. I bought some adhesive transfer tape and just replaced the adhesive as well. One the end plates are in place, I don't think those tabs really make a difference. My problem is I need 2 of the center button covers. I ordered some new plastics (2 sets) but they didn't have the center buttons

I believe the stock battery is a 400mah. It might be 450mah, but if you try to research the original part you won't find any 500's.

I have tried an 800mah (labeled as such, two of these) and a 850mah (claimed, no marking stating capacity) and they both worked fine.

theres a guy selling 1000mah's on ebay - ive ordered one, how can I check its capacity?

I've never tried to measure a battery's capacity. I usually trust that the label is reasonably accurate. The other test is to do a battery benchmark on it. 800-850 mah hours is giving about 20-22 hours on a 2nd gen Mini running Rockbox. I was playing FLACs when I got 20:50 on my Mini with an 800mah battery.

That battery is basically a 1ah bettery hehe If I had to guess, I'd estimate you would bet about ~24-25 hours with it. That's using Rockbox. With the Apple OS I have no idea. I don't know a good way to run the test with teh Apple OS. In Rockbox I can use the battery bench plugin to record the time

Just saw the 1000 mAh too. I really wonder about that one, but let us know how that works out.

Aside from a runtime test with the ipod, the only other thing I can think of is putting together a setup like this one. The tiny connector on the battery would be a problem though. I don't know where to find one.


Well, I got my CF yesterday, stuck and got it into my mini with no problems. Just power it up, connect to computer and hit restore in iTunes. Didn't need to connect it to a wall charger like some have.

Only thing I wonder about now is when it "shuts off" (meaning I get the Apple logo when turning it on), will it boot without a hitch? I read somewhere that some have gotten the restore message under those conditions, but doing a "menu+select" when it happens allows it to boot ok.

Yes, definitely not right when they advertise a product being in one place and shipping it from another. But reading through the comments of various battery sellers, it's surprising to see how common it is. I'd like to get a good quality battery, from a known source. But without buying a bunch and testing them there's no way to tell what's what.

the 1000mah battery test has started running. Will update when I know how long it lasts....check back in 24 hours+ :-)

Loving the mini with 32gb flash card. Now for a DIY line out mod & a amp formy shiny new SHure 530's.

For sake of future comparison,was that with EQrunning,crossfeed etc or just plain straight flac output and is that with earphones connected and if so,which ones? Just trying to establish a line in the sand for comparisons sake.

thx again
Ian

Ordered a 16 gb card from flashman and it took a little more than one week for it to arrive from HK to Sweden. The card worked flawlessly with my mini.

Good to know. It was my relative newbie experiences on ebay so wasn't sure what to make of it. Worth making a note for when the 32's come down in price.

Well I just spent a "fun" evening doing the mini.

Things were going very smoothly (which surprised me a little as this is my first time at something like this)until I got to the point where the tutorial said "check the battery works before putting it back in the case". Well I did that, everything came on as it was supposed to, but then wouldn't turn off! So I disconnected the battery to shut it off and as I was doing that the top part fell off! After much cursing I noticed that there was a small clip designed for it to be snapped back on. Did this, fitted the mini back together and fired up itunes to restore the ipod (the card was brand new so hadn't been formatted yet). Restore worked and now have a 15.08 gig working mini ipod

Not got round to doing rockbox yet (ironically thats the part I'm most likely to **** up tbh!)but will this weekend.

Moral of the post? If I can do this mod than so can most people. Just need to take it steady.

Cheers.