[aamefford]

Hi all,

My lovely wife bought me an iPhone for my birthday! I've discovered that the LOD pinout is different. I know Ken at ALO is making a LOD for the iphone. I have not found a DIY pinout diagram for the iphone, as I have seen for the iPod. Does anyone have the pinout, and if so, would you be willing to share?

I like the iPhone well enough to consider parting with my 30 gig 4g photo if I can solve the LOD issue through DIY. Apparently the phone has to be powered down, the cable inserted and then powered up in airplane mode. I'll have to convince myself that this is not too much of a PIA also

...

I guess plan B is to DIY the line out caps on my 4g for the "good" portable source and use the iPhone for the "easy" portable source.

Thanks in advance for the help everyone!

 

[MrJoshua]

I also want to find the iPhone Line Out pinouts so that I can DIY... Surely someone must have found these by now?

 

[FallenAngel]

I thought that it was the same pins 1-4, but to use them you have to have the music playing before connecting the LOD or some funky variation of the sorts, just do a Google search for it, there are lots of threads on other forums about it.

 

[joneeboi]

I am interested in the matter as well. My friend's iPhone didn't work on my Mini^3 when I wanted to show off how much better sound could be, but then it didn't work (to my shock but not to my surprise). Anyway, this is the best I could find.

Mike Kruckenberg: iPhone Dock Extender Cable (with USB data sync)

Read the comment. It doesn't make all that much sense to me, but since you have an iPhone in front of you, you can test it out yourself and interpret what dude is saying.

 

[fatman711]

The pinout is different than a regular one as stated by ALO. Whether or not that information is true is up to you to find out. I'll do some researching and try to add something later.

 

[stevenkelby]

Nice find Joneeboi!

Quote:

1K resistor between pins 11 and 21 and a link to pin 30

Anyone tried this?

I don't have an iphone but a mate wants me to make him a LOD for his.

 

[joneeboi]

That seems to be the easiest way to get a line out signal besides buying a SendStation Pocketdock. It's only something like 25USD+shipping, though not as fun or cheap as making your own cable. I wonder if this will allow you to listen to music while the phone is on, since I could make neither heads nor tails of all the rubbish being passed around on the various iPhone forums Google gave me. The supplied iPhone dock has a line out, but that's only with airplane mode on, IIUC. Let me see if I got this right:

1) Music can be obtained with regular LODs, but airplane mode must be enabled.

2) Music can be obtained with special LODs, with the 1K resistor between pins 11 and 21 (and somehow connected to pin 30).

According to pinouts.ru, pin 21 is the accessory indicator/serial enable. With 1K between here and pin 11 (serial ground), that means there is a docking station connected. Does that mean that LODs with 1K between pins 11 and 21 can play music with the phone on? Someone please weigh in here.

 

[MrJoshua]

The original docking cradle that came with my iPhone (and the extended docking cradle that came with my iPhone Bluetooth Headset) both allow line out audio with the phone on. You do get some occasional interference from the phone, but it's not bad.

So, a 1k between 11 and 21 - Shouldn't be too hard. But what about this link to pin 30? Does it mean link pin 30 to pin 21???

And no... A standard LOD cable cannot be used with the iPhone under any circumstances (as far as I've been able to test).

 

[FallenAngel]

So to make things faster and easier, who wants to measure resistance between outputs and pins on one of these iPhone OEM docks and figure out what pin 21 is connected to?

 

[ryPhone]

I measured between pin 21 and pin 1 today and came up with 310k. I don't have small enough probes in front of me right now, but I would suspect that pin 1, pin 11, and pin 30 are the same (ground).
I'm planning on making a line-out adapter to use in my car. I'd get the SendStation one, but I'm annoyed that they used the type B connector instead of the *way* more common mini.

 

[joneeboi]

I checked the continuity between pins 1/2, 11 and 29/30 on my 4G, and while 1/2 and 29/30 are connected, pin 11 (serial GND) isn't connected to the conventional GNDs of 1/2 and 29/30. I think it may be connected via whichever accessories may need it. Is that what we need to do? 310K isn't listed on the pinouts.ru site, and Google searches aren't really showing anything either. Very interesting.

 

[MrJoshua]

I've got it working!!!

No resistor required!

Tie pin 1 & 2 together (1 = Ground, 2 = Audio Ground)

Tie 1 & 2 to 11 (Ground & Audio Ground plus Serial Ground)

Pin 3 = Right Audio

Pin 4 = Left Audio

Basically, as soon as you touch pin 1 to pin 11, the audio stops playing out of the on-board speaker and is routed to pin 2/3/4 as per normal LOD.

You DO get the "This accessory is not made to work with iPhone" message - Just press yes to turn airplane mode on, or no to continue.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Edit for clarity:

Pin 1 = Ground (Connect to Pin 11)
Pin 2 = Audio Ground
Pin 3 = Right Audio
Pin 4 = Left Audio
Pin 11 = Serial Ground (Connect to Pin 1)


Normal disclaimers apply - Do this entirely at your own risk!!!!!!!

 

[stevenkelby]

Genius, thanks!

So you don't have to restart the iphone to start using the line out?

I've got some soldering to do!

 

[MrJoshua]

You don't have to restart the iPhone...

Plug modified LOD in
Wait for the message
Press Yes or No (I press No)
Play your music through LOD

(Also works if music is already playing... Music comes out of the speaker until you press Yes or No).

Normal disclaimers apply - Do this entirely at your own risk!!!!!!!

 

[stevenkelby]

Wow. Good work!

I wonder why Kens require a reboot?