[Noodles5666]

Noodles. Your mini project is way cool.

Before I knew of this forum I tried modding a mini but I broke the connectors.
A recurring theme for me.

If I recall you like that mini more than a gen 7. How would you compare it to the 5.5g video?

What battery did you use?

Looks like the second gen minis are stable with rock box so that is tempting.

 
I am liking the sound coming into my headphones from the Mini.  There is a noticeable difference from the 7.5G Classic.  I would say it is on par with the 5.5G Video.
 
I have the stock OEM battery.  
 
I took the 256GB SDXC out of the 7.5G and put it in my Mini.  I am ordering the 512GB Sandisk SDXC soon to put into my 7.5G and will be getting a 1TB mSATA to put in my 5.5G Video later down the road this year.

 

[potatotornado]

I tried putting a 256gb PNY in a 2nd gen mini with Tarkan's SDXC to CF card adapter before. I used the original Apple OS firmware. I filled the card to the max, maybe 42K songs. And when I disconnected the Mini, it rebooted and showed 0 songs. Made no difference whether I used Tarkan's card adapter with the updated firmware bypassing the the LB-whatchamacallit problem or a generic card adapter. So I suspect the problem isn't that the Mini can only recognize up to 128gb of music, but more that the Mini's Apple firmware can only recognize up to a certain number of songs. Like how the 5/5.5th Video w/32mb ram has a 30K limit, and the 5/5.5 Video w/64mb ram and 7th Classic have a 55K limit.

 

[jruschme]

  I tried putting a 256gb PNY in a 2nd gen mini with Tarkan's SDXC to CF card adapter before. I used the original Apple OS firmware. I filled the card to the max, maybe 42K songs. And when I disconnected the Mini, it rebooted and showed 0 songs. Made no difference whether I used Tarkan's card adapter with the updated firmware bypassing the the LB-whatchamacallit problem or a generic card adapter. So I suspect the problem isn't that the Mini can only recognize up to 128gb of music, but more that the Mini's Apple firmware can only recognize up to a certain number of songs. Like how the 5/5.5th Video w/32mb ram has a 30K limit, and the 5/5.5 Video w/64mb ram and 7th Classic have a 55K limit.

There's comments on the Internet that suggest that the iPod Mini has a limit of between 10 and 12K songs. This seems reasonable for a device designed with 4GB of storage.
 
Using Apple's old 1000 songs/4GB @ 128Kbps AAC, the limit would be a 48GB iPod Mini. (Pretty much the size of Apple's then-largest iPod.)
 
Are there any standard estimates for the ratio of a 128k file to, say, the 320k mp3 equivalent? It would be interesting to estimate the point at which an upgrade become unpractical/wasteful.

 

[ThinWalls]

  Well I woke up this morning...
and my Mini was still playing.  
Just turned off a minute ago.  
I got 21 hours and 2 minutes
of continuous play with the stock battery.

 
I got those ipod upgrade blues...
 
 But also, others beat me to it, but was going to ask about the maximum number of tracks issue.

 

[davidcotton]

   
I am liking the sound coming into my headphones from the Mini.  There is a noticeable difference from the 7.5G Classic.  I would say it is on par with the 5.5G Video.
 
I have the stock OEM battery.  
 
I took the 256GB SDXC out of the 7.5G and put it in my Mini.  I am ordering the 512GB Sandisk SDXC soon to put into my 7.5G and will be getting a 1TB mSATA to put in my 5.5G Video later down the road this year.

For a laugh how about trying that 512 in the mini?
 

  I tried putting a 256gb PNY in a 2nd gen mini with Tarkan's SDXC to CF card adapter before. I used the original Apple OS firmware. I filled the card to the max, maybe 42K songs. And when I disconnected the Mini, it rebooted and showed 0 songs. Made no difference whether I used Tarkan's card adapter with the updated firmware bypassing the the LB-whatchamacallit problem or a generic card adapter. So I suspect the problem isn't that the Mini can only recognize up to 128gb of music, but more that the Mini's Apple firmware can only recognize up to a certain number of songs. Like how the 5/5.5th Video w/32mb ram has a 30K limit, and the 5/5.5 Video w/64mb ram and 7th Classic have a 55K limit.

I assume that if you rockboxed it it would be fine.  Of course that said that's no use if you want to use apple firmware.

 

[Noodles5666]

Day 2 battery test. 21.5 hours straight. No mid day battery checks this time. Just straight shuffle.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Noodles

Is there a limit on songs or storage? If I went down this path I would use rockbox which should be ok if the limits are more based on song count with native firmware


Did you have issues fitting in the sd card adapter?

Thanks. I feat that I may embark on a similar project. Small is beautiful.

 

[Noodles5666]

Noodles

Is there a limit on songs or storage? If I went down this path I would use rockbox which should be ok if the limits are more based on song count with native firmware


Did you have issues fitting in the sd card adapter?

Thanks. I feat that I may embark on a similar project. Small is beautiful.

I only have 78GB of music totaling 8628 songs. I am having no issues with those numbers. I did also load the songs on to the root of my ipod to so that I was over 132GB has requested and still no issues.

 

[jruschme]

Noodles

Is there a limit on songs or storage? If I went down this path I would use rockbox which should be ok if the limits are more based on song count with native firmware


Did you have issues fitting in the sd card adapter?

Thanks. I feat that I may embark on a similar project. Small is beautiful.

The SD adapter is a drop-in replacement for the original Microdrive in the iPod Mini. Both are Type II devices and, so, are the exact same size and thickness.
 
As for limits, it would appear from Noodle's experience that card size is not an issue (no 128gb limit), but there is believed to be a 10-12K song limit with the native firmware.

 

[cmarti]

   
As far as I can tell it is a 2nd Gen shell as it has 4GB on the back.

Does it pause the music when you remove the headphone cable from the jack? If it does it's a 2nd gen Mini.

 

[Enoch Root]

Noodles

Is there a limit on songs or storage? If I went down this path I would use rockbox which should be ok if the limits are more based on song count with native firmware


Did you have issues fitting in the sd card adapter?

Thanks. I feat that I may embark on a similar project. Small is beautiful.

I have an iPod mini with a Lexar 128GB SD card in it that is very nearly full with over 15,000 songs on it right now using iTunes.  It's certainly over 12,000 songs and I've had zero issues.  I've been using it with my car stereo nearly every day on my commute for about 3 weeks now since loading the library.  I'm going to make an attempt at a 256GB one soon, I'll post results when I can.

 

[Noodles5666]

Does it pause the music when you remove the headphone cable from the jack? If it does it's a 2nd gen Mini.

Yes it does pause when I pull the headphones out. Model is M9800LL. All signs point to it being 2nd Gen.

 

[Sea Monkey]

Might as well post this in this thread too.
 
Figured I'd write a guide based on my experience and what I've learned in the threads here. This is with a 1TB EVO and a 5.5. There are definitely options that present fewer difficulties, but this is for anyone who is using the same.
 
Tools needed:
5.5gen 80GB iPod Video
Samsung EVO 1TB mSATA
mSATA to ZIF adapter
mSATA to SATA adapter
Spudger
USB+Firewire Y-cable
iPod Firewire Adapter
A bit of stiff wire or similar to dislodge the battery latch
ice packs
 
Software needed:
iTunes
Rockbox
beyondwind's mSATA patch for Rockbox
 
1. Fully charge your iPod
2. Insert mSATA drive into mSATA to ZIF adapter
3. Use spudger to open iPod
4. Use a bit of wire to dislodge the battery connector. Be careful not to break it or you'll have to buy a new logic board!
5. Use spudger to lift the securing latch connecting the ZIF cable to the hard drive.
6. Remove the hard drive.
7. Connect the ZIF cable to the mSATA to ZIF adapter
8. Secure the latch.
9. Reinsert the battery cable and push the securing latch down with the spudger.
10. Close up the iPod
11. Connect the USB/Firewire y-cable to your iPod
12. Plug the Firewire end into the Firewire charger (with the charger plugged into an outlet).
13. Plug the USB end into your PC.
14. Run the iPod restore process in iTunes. Do not do anything until the iPod resets and iTunes displays 'Welcome to your new iPod'. This can take a while.
15. Close out iTunes.
16. Place an ice pack underneath the iPod.
17. Begin copying your music in 100GB sets with 15 minute waits in between. Replace the ice pack as necessary to keep the iPod cool.
18. Run the Rockbox utility and install the Rockbox firmware. DO NOT RESET THE IPOD!
19. Copy the .rockbox folder from beyondwind's mSATA patch over the existing folder on your iPod.
20. Safely eject the iPod and wait for it to reboot into Rockbox.
21. If you get the 'Dir buffer is full' error when you go into your music directory in Rockbox, increase the 'Max Entries in File Browser' setting under 'General Settings'. This requires a reboot to take effect.
22. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND disabling inactivity shutoff in Rockbox altogether and just making sure you charge frequently. Not doing this resulted in the iPod booting to 'Connect your iPod to iTunes to Restore...' after a few shutdowns.
 
The mSATA to SATA adapter is for when you inevitably screw up or let the battery drain too far and you end up with the 'sad face' on your iPod telling you to contact Apple support. When that happens,
 
1. Plug the mSATA drive into the adapter.
2. Connect the adapter to your motherboard.
3. Boot up a Linux live disc. (I use Mint)
4. Open terminal
5. Run 'sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1024K count=1024' replacing sdX with the actual drive ID in Linux.
 
This will clear the MBR and allow the iPod to see the drive in disk mode again.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Just purchased an ipod mini revision 2 on ebay.

So I am assuming that I can fit in both a replacement battery and also a Tarkan SD card adaptor bundle. correct?

 

[Noodles5666]

Just purchased an ipod mini revision 2 on ebay.

So I am assuming that I can fit in both a replacement battery and also a Tarkan SD card adaptor bundle. correct?

 
 
Correct. Make sure to transfer the rubber stoppers on the Microdrive to the SDXC adapter.  If you do not the drive will rattle around.