iPod Integration (release 0.1)

[xavicol]

This is an idea I had in mind from day one of owning my Mini (one year already!), and it finally has reached a stage where it is turning out into something worth starting to show. Please consider this as version 0.1 of what will be the final iPod integration on the Mini. Lots of work to be done still, but now I have it working and hooked up to enjoy it. It was sort of installed in a rush, as I was leaving for a 5 day eastern vacation (driving through the south of France from Barcelona, Spain) and wanted to at least enjoy having the ipod working with basic functionality.




The experience in my trip to France served me well to find out lots of more hurdles to overcome, but it is being a great project to work on. I will be posting lots of pictures of all the process and in fact will try to make a good document explaining how I did/will be doing all the stuff involved, so anyone that wants to try doing a similar thing will have lots of clues as to what she/he is getting into.

The "basic" functionality I am talking about in this 0.1 release means that I only had three buttons. I could play/stop, and skip forwards/backwards through songs. Preferences on ipod are set to random songs of the playlist that includes ALL songs in the ipod. I can't select any specific album/artist but it worked great during the trip.

Things to complete:

-New clock housing to improve the lcd cut-out (too large on this first try). Add trimming bezel around cut to make a nicer finish

-Orange backlight. Improve my initial design using the clock backlight voltage. Thought it was DC voltage, but it appears to be pulsed, and my design is too low on intensity (pictures look better than reality!!! Wierd!).




-Add scroll wheel. Concept already thought out: fits perfectly in ash-tray!!!



-Add ignition switched power to ipod (now using permanent 12v from clock with a regular switch on the back of clock enclosure to turn off power)

-And some more ideas comming...

Hope you like it!

[Aqualung]

Quote: Originally Posted by xavicol

This is an idea I had in mind from day one of owning my Mini (one year already!), and it finally has reached a stage where it is turning out into something worth starting to show. Please consider this as version 0.1 of what will be the final iPod integration on the Mini. Lots of work to be done still, but now I have it working and hooked up to enjoy it. It was sort of installed in a rush, as I was leaving for a 5 day eastern vacation (driving through the south of France from Barcelona, Spain) and wanted to at least enjoy having the ipod working with basic functionality.


The experience in my trip to France served me well to find out lots of more hurdles to overcome, but it is being a great project to work on. I will be posting lots of pictures of all the process and in fact will try to make a good document explaining how I did/will be doing all the stuff involved, so anyone that wants to try doing a similar thing will have lots of clues as to what she/he is getting into.

The "basic" functionality I am talking about in this 0.1 release means that I only had three buttons. I could play/stop, and skip forwards/backwards through songs. Preferences on ipod are set to random songs of the playlist that includes ALL songs in the ipod. I can't select any specific album/artist but it worked great during the trip.

Things to complete:

-New clock housing to improve the lcd cut-out (too large on this first try). Add trimming bezel around cut to make a nicer finish

-Orange backlight. Improve my initial design using the clock backlight voltage. Thought it was DC voltage, but it appears to be pulsed, and my design is too low on intensity (pictures look better than reality!!! Wierd!).

-Add scroll wheel. Concept already thought out: fits perfectly in ash-tray!!!


-Add ignition switched power to ipod (now using permanent 12v from clock with a regular switch on the back of clock enclosure to turn off power)

-And some more ideas comming...

Hope you like it!

Well, that's pretty cool...and I haven't seen this before. But it appears you sacrificed your clock and iPod? Is it easy to remove for security and/or use as a portable player once you hit the beach? Does the scroll wheel fit back on?

[mikeythemini]

I would like to say WELL DONE
Great bit of work
If you could add in a mk1 ice link, it could all be controlled from your mfsw

[mmdiez]

This is really an excellent idea. I particularly like the controls in the ashtray. Perfect fit! I cannot wait to see how your design evolves, so please keep us posted.

[xavicol]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aqualung

Well, that's pretty cool...and I haven't seen this before. But it appears you sacrificed your clock and iPod? Is it easy to remove for security and/or use as a portable player once you hit the beach? Does the scroll wheel fit back on?

Yes, both sacrificied. In fact the original clock is stored safely at home. I bought another clock enclosure for the project. The ipod was completely disassembled and major surgery took place on the lcd element to get rid of original white backlight and to add orange smd leds and power/dimming capability from clock backlight power.

Sacrificing the ipod was no issue for me as I never used it as a portable device, just for the car to replace cds... For security... I'll have to trust the Mini alarm!

[xavicol]

Quote: Originally Posted by mikeythemini

I would like to say WELL DONE
Great bit of work
If you could add in a mk1 ice link, it could all be controlled from your mfsw

Yes, I did think on that too, and expecting to put ice-link 1.1 when available for classic ipod (I read it solves some issues...)

[MichaelLogan]

With a little fit and finish work and an ICE-Link connection, that will be absolutely amazing! Congratulations!

[averyocooper]

a quite impressive 0.1!
how difficult was it to change the backlight on the ipod?
-a

[risingabov]

Wowza! That looks H-O-T!

Thanks for sharing.

[paco]

Quote: Originally Posted by xavicol

This is an idea I had in mind from day one of owning my Mini (one year already!), and it finally has reached a stage where it is turning out into something worth starting to show. Please consider this as version 0.1 of what will be the final iPod integration on the Mini. Lots of work to be done still, but now I have it working and hooked up to enjoy it. It was sort of installed in a rush, as I was leaving for a 5 day eastern vacation (driving through the south of France from Barcelona, Spain) and wanted to at least enjoy having the ipod working with basic functionality.




The experience in my trip to France served me well to find out lots of more hurdles to overcome, but it is being a great project to work on. I will be posting lots of pictures of all the process and in fact will try to make a good document explaining how I did/will be doing all the stuff involved, so anyone that wants to try doing a similar thing will have lots of clues as to what she/he is getting into.

The "basic" functionality I am talking about in this 0.1 release means that I only had three buttons. I could play/stop, and skip forwards/backwards through songs. Preferences on ipod are set to random songs of the playlist that includes ALL songs in the ipod. I can't select any specific album/artist but it worked great during the trip.

Things to complete:

-New clock housing to improve the lcd cut-out (too large on this first try). Add trimming bezel around cut to make a nicer finish

-Orange backlight. Improve my initial design using the clock backlight voltage. Thought it was DC voltage, but it appears to be pulsed, and my design is too low on intensity (pictures look better than reality!!! Wierd!).




-Add scroll wheel. Concept already thought out: fits perfectly in ash-tray!!!



-Add ignition switched power to ipod (now using permanent 12v from clock with a regular switch on the back of clock enclosure to turn off power)

-And some more ideas comming...

Hope you like it!

Very NEAT stuff!
You lose on the portability factor though. How will you sync your iPod now ?

--
paco

[xavicol]

Quote: Originally Posted by averyocooper

a quite impressive 0.1!
how difficult was it to change the backlight on the ipod?
-a

I had to redo the backlight system. The original ipod has three smd LEDs on the left side of the lcd and a light difracting glass that uniformly distributes light in the back of the lcd. As I was not going to use the ipod backlight circuit (I wanted the backlight to turn on with the ligths of the car, so it had to be an independent circuit from the ipod), I exposed completely the back side of the lcd removing the conductive glass and added my own circuit board with 9 orange smd LEDs that are hooked up to the original mini clock backlight signal.

If you just want to change the backlight on a regular ipod (and are not affraid of opening up the ipod!), changing the leds is pretty straight forward. The LCD module has on the backside a small pcb holding the three white leds. With a cutter or small flat screwdriver you can pop it out easily to expose the leds



Then you just need to find same type of LEDs in orange or whatever color you want to add. I never got to checking what voltage/current they were using



BTW, this is for an original ipod with mechanic scroll wheel. From what I know it also works with the second generation ipods (10 and 20GB) with touch sensitive wheel. Don't know about 3rd gen. ipods, sorry!

One issue I encountered and I still have to figure out is that once backlight is turned on on the ipod, the lcd image is inverted so that light coming from behind, shows as black text over white background, like when no backlight is on (the explanation has to do with polarization and how lcds work...). So in my design, I will have to add a circuit that gives out a long pulse (about 3 seconds) to the menu button when car lights are turned on (this would have the same function as pressing "menu" long enough to turn on the backlight), and hence invert the lcd so the image shows black text over orange background. When lights are turned off, same pulse will be sent to "menu" button to turn off backlight again. But, still have to figure out this circuit...

Hope this helps!

[xavicol]

Quote: Originally Posted by paco

Very NEAT stuff!
You lose on the portability factor though. How will you sync your iPod now ?

--
paco

I will be adding a firewire port at the back of the clock housing or in the glove box, haven't decided yet. I sync it to my PowerBook G4 12-inch.

[paco]

Quote: Originally Posted by xavicol

I will be adding a firewire port at the back of the clock housing or in the glove box, haven't decided yet. I sync it to my PowerBook G4 12-inch.

Neat.


--
paco

[azimmerm]

Best iPod install ever!
(read in voice of "comic book guy" from "the simpsons")

this is truely a great install. would be cooler if you could figure a way to make it removeable (at least in part) to sync to a desktop computer.

[beej]

Hi xavicol,

Very impressive, not least unique! Good luck with your work and please keep us all updated

I'm in the process of replacing my 2-year-old 5GB 1Gen iPod with a new one on the way from HK... until I sling it on eBay, this leaves me with a spare iPod.

It would be very cool to use the new one with the Ice-Link connector/dock, and use the old one as a slaved display, but I'm pretty sure it can't be done. To do this properly it might be best to use an HU-sized PC, as there's very little you can do with >1 iPod in the same place at any one time.

Unless you have any ideas?