[Halfie]

Hey there wiring experts, after 2 days frustration with a soldering iron, and about 4 wasted ipod dock connectors, I've finally made a decent ipod LOD for the diyMod that has 2 sockets for replacing caps. I purchased about 15 pairs between the ranges of 6.3v to 10v, ranging from 4.7uf to 330uf in 3 different brands to see what I enjoy the most.
 
I'm intending to make another one of much MUCH better quality than this (hopefully in a low profile connector, with a 2" cable instead of 8", with a capsule for the capacitors, or just hard wire the ones that I prefer), and I have a question:
 
Is there ANYWHERE else on the LOD besides pin 2 to wire up the ground? Looking at the pinouts.ru diagram, I could potentially use pin 1, but what about 11, 15, 16, 29 or 30? Having them all in that small space makes it a pain in the rear admiral to put the pins in nicely.

 

[Reima]

 
Quote:

Hey there wiring experts, after 2 days frustration with a soldering iron, and about 4 wasted ipod dock connectors, I've finally made a decent ipod LOD for the diyMod that has 2 sockets for replacing caps. I purchased about 15 pairs between the ranges of 6.3v to 10v, ranging from 4.7uf to 330uf in 3 different brands to see what I enjoy the most.
 
I'm intending to make another one of much MUCH better quality than this (hopefully in a low profile connector, with a 2" cable instead of 8", with a capsule for the capacitors, or just hard wire the ones that I prefer), and I have a question:
 
Is there ANYWHERE else on the LOD besides pin 2 to wire up the ground? Looking at the pinouts.ru diagram, I could potentially use pin 1, but what about 11, 15, 16, 29 or 30? Having them all in that small space makes it a pain in the rear admiral to put the pins in nicely.

I used pins 15 & 16 for the ground in my homemade LOD for my 5.5g Ipod.
RC

 

 

[Reima]

Yesterday I did the diy Imod. I removed the components as shown in the photo and ran the wires from the capacitors by the DAC to L2 and L3. I took my time safely removing the components.
After I re-assembled the Ipod it would not start up, nothing, no sad face blank screen etc. It just refuses to power on.
What could be the problem? The Ipod was working just fine before I attempted the mod.

 
Quote:

 

[Reima]

Anyone?
RC

 
Quote:

Yesterday I did the diy Imod. I removed the components as shown in the photo and ran the wires from the capacitors by the DAC to L2 and L3. I took my time safely removing the components.
After I re-assembled the Ipod it would not start up, nothing, no sad face blank screen etc. It just refuses to power on.
What could be the problem? The Ipod was working just fine before I attempted the mod.

 

 

 

[cfcubed]

My guess would be one or more of the various connectors you had to disconnect did not get re-connected/seated properly.  I'd take 'er back apart as far as you did & carefully remove & re-seat the cables.
 
Hopefully you didn't give it a static shock that fried something. 

 

[dumbears]

I'm not able to provide you a solution, but you may want to check the connectivity of those components lying next to the L2 or L3 components.  You might as well disconnected them while you're removing L2, L3 and the other necessary components.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[Reima]

Quote:

My guess would be one or more of the various connectors you had to disconnect did not get re-connected/seated properly.  I'd take 'er back apart as far as you did & carefully remove & re-seat the cables.
 
Hopefully you didn't give it a static shock that fried something. 

I did that several times, still nothing.
RC




 
Quote:

I'm not able to provide you a solution, but you may want to check the connectivity of those components lying next to the L2 or L3 components.  You might as well disconnected them while you're removing L2, L3 and the other necessary components.
 
Hope this helps.

I don't quite follow you.
RC

 

 

[gore.rubicon]

Quote:

Now might be a nice time to bump this thread.

The diyMod stretches across another brand, with the Cowon D2Mod (naming ideas?). Behold:

This diyMod brought to you by head-fi member Punnisher, who happily supplied me with the internal photos. The sad thing about this player is that the line out is only available through video mode, and there doesn't seem to be any DIY source for the plugs. This diyMod is possible, but I wonder how useful it really is with the software. I'm also not an expert on this player, so if anyone could chime in, that'd be very useful for me and for everyone else.

Enjoy.

 
Is it possible to take the lineout from the 2 caps beside the white wire/line (CT3, CT4)? Something just happened to my d2, audio from right channel is dead, so im gonna try and diymod it, and get a new pmp.
 

 

[Reima]

It appears that I must have damaged something on the logic board. Today I received a broken (right channel on the headphone output was not working) 80GB Ipod that i got for cheap off of Ebay. I installed the hard drive and back from my original Ipod on to the broken Ipod and all works just fine.
I have to build up some courage before I attempt the DIY Imod again.
RC

 

[sdotfire]

Now, are these external caps such as BG really a necessity???  Seriously, I accidently used a noncapped LOD the other day and used an iMod/Protector with both sensitive IEMs and high end OEMs.  They were fine, then I tried a CMoy with some really really crappy stock iBuds and guess what??? No damage, is this just a lie perpetuated to market sales for both a new LOD and a capped dock?  I haven't heard a VCap dock so I don't know.....but seriously an amp should be able to be able, in theory, to block the minimal amount of DC Voltage coming from the iMod/DIYMod, correct?
 
Also, what is being used in Ken's new iMod v2 cable for film caps?  I mean films are supposed to be HUGE so he has to be using some SMD or poor quality ones to fit it in the slimmer LOD......Also, BG is supposed to be the standard but you only need 2.1uF-4.7uF for 50kOhm-10kOhm input impedance amps.  So what could he possibley be using, I mean he must use SMD ones and mount a board to the pins or something....I am very tempted to purchase one and find out for myself. 

 

[sdotfire]

Also, I wnat to remove the inductors/caps in my DIYMod...does anyone have internals they can post or send me of this of the board once these are removed?  I have only been able to find pics saying remove this, not the finished product.  Thanks in advance for any help or advice.  But I am serious about this working with a normal LOD, it is possible that this is something done solely as a marketing ploy to make us all waste our money....or I could be wrong but I'm just throwing that out there to all you more experienced DIYers!

 

[cfcubed]

I answered a PM from sdotfire about this in this way:
 
It comes down to something very critical; DC output offset.  A DIYmod/iMod typically has a couple/few volts of offset before the output caps, as measured between ground & L/R "hot" leads.  That offset can damage amps/headphones attached unless something along the way blocks DC.  Capacitors are often used. 
A DC-capable/Direct-Coupled amp will just amplify the offset (frying typical/dynamic headphones, speakers if offset is high enough, e.g. several volts?).
 
OTOH, some amp designs can handle / block incoming DC, it depends on the design. 
 
Before connecting any (DIY) thing to anything else I always measure for DC offset.
 
 
And that I don't know about commercial LODs, I do know that many here have used BG 22s or 47s for their small size.  I use V-Cap OIMPs that I got a good deal on in my LOD.

 

[meltdown100]

I'll apologize up front - I've searched about a 3rd of this massive thread without finding an answer to my question, and a lot of the photo links are broken.  So I'm going to be lazy and ask- 
 
I've got a couple of 5th gen ipods and plan to get a 240gb 5.5 gen ipod - all of which I'd like to diymod.  My question:  has anyone found a way to squeeze capacitors into the case, there is a little bit of space in the left and right corner areas near the dock connector, I'm sure there are decent capacitors that are small enough to fit in there and make the LOD modding unnecessary, and that would also provide a substantial improvement over the stock SMD caps.
 
Has anyone successfully done this with either the 5 or 5.5 gen?

 

[Reima]

@meltdown100, as far I know it has only been done in combination with the cf mod.
RC

 

[joneeboi]

You'd have to find some really thin caps to get that done. One way is to get the CF card and adapter to create room. Another might be to go with a 30GB HDD and a 60/80GB casing. A real drop in capacity for you, so it might be better to get a custom LOD.