today we are going to build the ultimate
iPod we're going to add new technologies
that didn't even exist when it was
originally released we're going to mod
our mods and we're going to do a little
bit of light gaming wait how do I quit
this game none of the buttons do
anything other than move my character
around so buckle up and get ready
because none of this is going to be easy
if you remember the launch of this
device back in 2001 you remember what a
cultural phenomenon it was the ads the
iconic white earbuds the constant weird
endorsements from YouTu for some reason
the iPod was everywhere and for a good
reason too this device quite literally
change the way people enjoy music all of
a sudden you could fit your entire music
collection on something that could fit
inside of your pocket now that might
seem trivial today but back then man it
was insane and as a result everybody had
an iPod well except for me that is I was
too poor so I had this cheaper knockoff
but eventually I did get my hands on one
of these 50 generation iPods or what the
kids used to call an iPod video and as
it turns out in 2024 there are a lot of
fun things that you can do to these
fifth gen iPods so join me today as we
fix some of this product's weak points
add new features to modernize it and
just generally answer the question of is
there a role for a device like this one
in 2024 so the first thing I had to do
was break out some tools and crack this
iPod wide open and thankfully with these
fifth gen iPods that's actually pretty
easy to do there's 10 or so Clips around
the outside that hold a front face plate
in place so by gently prying and
shimming your way around it it should
pop right off and then once you're
inside there's a bunch of ribbon cables
to disconnect and in our case parts for
us to get rid of the first one goes back
to the rather small original battery
which we're definitely going to be
replacing the next one connects to this
really cool miniaturized mechanical hard
drive I'm sure back in the early 2000s
these things were an amazing feat of
engineering but these days we have much
better options this one here connects
the headphone jack and hold switch which
we're going to be keeping but also
heavily modifying and then this ribbon
cable connects the screen to the main
motherboard and here again things have
changed a lot in the last couple of
decades so we'll be replacing the screen
too but in order to remove the original
one we need to dig a little bit deeper
the front face of the iPod is connected
to a metal mid-frame that holds
everything in place in order to separate
them you have to undo these screws and
then gently pry the two apart the main
motherboard is sandwich between the two
and also connects to the front wheel so
getting it all UND done requires a bit
of patience and as you can see my poor
eBay iPod definitely suffered some abuse
in its past life with this weird white
residue so after I had everything all
stripped down I gave it a good thorough
cleaning with isopropyl alcohol not only
do I want to upgrade this thing but I
also want to make sure it's in proper
working order and stays that way for the
forseeable future so now that we have
our iPod all disassembled and cleaned up
we can start installing some mods into
it and the way I'm going to do this is
we are going to start with some of the
easier mods and then work our way up
into some of the harder ones with the
iPod stripped down this first mod is by
far the easiest but should also make a
huge difference to its appearance I'm
just going to be replacing the original
beat up front face plate and the wheel
with these cool transparent ones that I
got from Elite obsolete which is a store
that's specializes in iPod mods and
parts not only do these transparent
Parts show off the cool inner workings
of the IP OD but they'll also showcase
all the mods that we're going to do
throughout this project next I'm going
to be tackling one of the iPod video's
biggest weak points the screen not only
is it kind of dim by today's standards
but it also suffers from poor viewing
angles that make it hard to see when you
aren't looking at it straight on this
new screen promises to be both brighter
and better looking at off angles and its
installation is pretty dang easy just
lowered and place and then slot in the
connector once we get the project all
assembled I'll do a side-by-side
comparison so that you can see the
difference now as impressive as that
mini mechanical hard drive is it's got
some pretty big Flaws by today's
standards so I'm going to replace it
with this the I flash Solo or in
layman's terms an adapter that lets you
replace your hard drive with an SD card
and the benefits here are fourfold you
get way more storage in my case I'll be
installing a 256 GB card but you can do
even more than that if you want though
you should note that the iPod can only
address something like 50,000 songs so
at a certain point more storage just
doesn't make any sense it's also way
more shock resistant and durable because
it doesn't have any moving Parts
similarly it should make the iPod more
responsive through decreased seek times
and finally it consumes a lot less power
which will extend battery life now I do
plan on modifying the if flash solo but
we'll save that for a little bit later
first let's talk more about battery life
the stock battery is 600 milliamps or at
least it was when it was brand new today
it's probably significantly less than
that and the internet is absolutely
filled with big batter mods for the iPod
so I went and found the biggest one that
I could this battery claims to be 3,800
milliamps and based on its markings I'm
assuming it came out of an old LG phone
thankfully someone else has already done
the hard work of replacing the battery
connector so just like our other Easy
Mods this one is basically plug andplay
as well or at least that's what I
thought but when I went to reassemble
the iPod I couldn't quite get it all to
fit now I probably could have trimmed
the mid-frame to make it work but
because one of our other mods that we're
going to do later I don't think that'll
be necessary and besides I now had a new
problem to solve this airror screen
popped up requesting that I connect the
iPod to my computer what I did well at
first nothing happened but after
installing iTunes and doing a bit of
troubleshooting I got it to boot into
recovery mode where it formatted its new
storage and got everything up and
running so when you look at this thing
in just a few hours we've given it a
complete face lift we've installed that
new screen we've sep Tuple the battery
life 10x the storage and just made this
thing looked so much cooler now
obviously there's still the issue of the
case to deal with and a back plate not
fitting on there quite right but before
we do that I actually want to install
two more mods now these ones are going
to be hugely impactful to the usability
of the device but they also require
quite a bit more skill to install so the
first thing I want to do is add some
haptic feedbacks to our iPod this is a
technology that is so ubiquitous at this
point that you might not even know that
you're interacting with it on a near
daily basis you know how when you type
out a message on your phone you feel a
slight Rumble with each keystroke well
that is haptic and the iPod actually has
a rudimentary version of this in the
form of this little clicking sound you
get when you're scrolling through the
menus so what I want to do is add a
little bit of Rumble to that clicky
sound this is the iPod tactic mod and
what it is is actually remarkably simple
it's just a vibration motor out of an
iPhone 7 which is cool but as you can
imagine installing it is not quite as
easy as Plug and Play what we're going
to do is start by removing the ribbon
cable that runs to both the headphone
jack and the hold switch if you look
really closely just below the headphone
jack you'll see this tiny little speaker
we need to get rid of that so I grabb my
soldering iron dialed in the right
temperature and one pad at a time
carefully desoldered it and what that
means here is just melting the pads and
using tweezers to lift up on the speaker
ever so slightly these pads are pretty
weak so take your time and try not to
force anything as you might have already
been able to get guess the next thing
we're going to do is solder the leads
from the taptic mod to the pads that we
just freed up and there's no polarity to
worry about here so which wire goes to
which pad doesn't really matter so now
instead of engaging that speaker anytime
you interact with the iPod it will
instead engage the taptic engine and
send small vibrations through the iPod
or at least that's how it's supposed to
work but first I had to reassemble
everything and test it out okay now very
carefully I boot this guy up got a logo
okay Moment of Truth finger on The
taptic Mod oh no not working crap and
yeah things didn't go so great at first
so I went back reflowed my solder points
and Tred it again and it still didn't
work so I tried again honestly more
times than I care to admit in a last Act
of desperation I stripped down the
taptic engine and finally found the
source of my troubles this right here
this one wire hadn't been properly
soldered in place which is honestly kind
of disappointing given the price of this
thing we're regardless a little bit of
soldering fixed it back in place and
then I rewrapped the taptic engine in
insulating Captain tape one small
benefit is that my tighter wrapping job
should make the taptic engine at least
slightly better at transmitting its
vibrations so with all that done I
reconnected everything and prayed it
would work yes it works o that feels
really good very hard to explain but
well I guess it just feels like an
iPhone cuz it's from an iPhone that was
annoying I can't believe that didn't
work from the factory with all of that
stress of the way I was finally ready to
keep pushing forward but first let me
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really wish that this thing had arrived
in time for the making of this video
because this is a fantastic screwdriver
it's lightweight premium feeling it's
got storage in the end cap for your most
frequently used bits a really strong
magnet in the tip and they tell me that
the endcap has hybrid ceramic fairings
and I don't really know what that means
but but it feels awesome you can buy it
as a kit or as a standalone upgrade if
you already have a bunch of 4mm bits the
way that I do so if you want to get one
for yourself or as a gift for the
holiday season check out the link down
in the video description all right now
let's install the ultimate modern
convenience into our iPod one of the
things that I love about 2024 is that
almost all of my devices can be charged
and connected to a computer with a
single cable USBC and when I first got
this iPod in the mail I was immediately
reminded of the Dark Ages where each
device would have its own proprietary
connector so in order to call this a
modern iPod we're going to have to
replace that old 30 pin connector the
only problem is I would file this mod
Under The Heading of some assembly
required this is Axel's USBC mod and
it's going to push my soldering skills
to the Limit but if I can get it to work
it's going to offer even more
functionality than you're probably
expecting as you might have guessed from
the size of the parts this is going to
require the use of my digital microscope
which which at this point I consider to
be an essential tool for micro soldering
I recently upgraded to this new one and
I absolutely love it so I'll provide a
link for it along with all the other
tools and materials I've used throughout
this project down in the video
description so the way this works is you
get a bare PCB and then you have to
solder on all the individual components
oxel does sometimes sell pre-assembled
boards but they told me they don't have
an ETA on when those way back in stock
so I started with the quote unquote easy
stuff installing both the USB C port and
two small resistors which I could have
installed with an iron but I wanted to
practice using hot air basically the way
this works is you get a little bit of
solder on the pads move the chips into
position and then using a stream of very
hot air you melt the solder and secure
them in place this technique is often
used when you can't reach the pads on a
chip with a conventional soldering eye
which is exactly what I was about to do
this teeny tiny little chip is the Muk
switch and honestly getting it out of
its package was a challenge unto itself
but this chip goes over here on these
pads that will be almost unreachable
once it's in place so I pre-tin them
carefully align the chip and then
started blasting it with my hot air gun
anyway I started blasting you don't want
to heat it up too quickly all at once so
I started a low temperature and then
slowly worked up to the solder's melting
point I also used a very slow air speed
because this chip weighs basically
nothing and would be really easy to blow
away doing this took a few attempts
because it's really hard to see if the
solder is actually melted at the scale
but eventually I managed to solder down
unfortunately that was only half the
battle next I had to get rid of that old
30 pin connector I used some solder Wick
to remove most of solder around its main
anchor points and then I built a heat
shield out of capton tape and used a hot
air gun to melt the 30 or so data lines
still keeping it in place patience here
is key as ripping off any one of those
30 pads could potentially mean a ruined
iPod just like with a mut switch though
eventually I got it and then I cleaned
up all the solder which allows our new
USB cbard to sit flat on the PCB the
first points I connected were these
large ground pads these provide the
structural support for this mod and keep
it from being ripped out whenever you
plug in a USBC cable these castellated
holes over here are a bit harder to
reach but they are what allow both power
and the USB data to flow from the USBC
port to the iPod and honestly I would
have been happy with just that
functionality but this mod also allows
you to Route audio signals out of the
USBC Port as well so using a bit of wire
connected four other points on the
iPod's motherboard that are responsible
for its audio output these points are
absurdly small but the microscope makes
this work doable along with a bit of
patience and this is why that Muk switch
is so important it's responsible for
switching between data output and audio
output depending on what's plugged into
the USBC Port so with all my lines
connected the only thing left to do was
throw out that old useless cable and
reassemble the iPod to make sure I
didn't break anything okay big moment
we're going to see if it boots please
don't show an error we can boot into the
main screen okay it's not broken at the
very least let's plug it in with USB and
see what
happens it charges yes yes that is very
exciting news because that means that we
can move on to doing some more mods
these ones are going to be even harder
than what I just attempted mostly
because we're going to be operating in
uncharted waters and I'm going to have
to figure a lot of things out this next
feature is a true Modern Luxury the
ability to transmit your music
wirelessly to a pair of headphones or
even your car that's right we're adding
Bluetooth support and there is actually
a semi- established way to do this
modders have been adding a specific
Bluetooth transmitter to iPods for a
little while now the problem is I
couldn't find that board anywhere so I
ordered this generic Bluetooth
transmitter receiver off of Amazon and
hopefully we can make that work after I
had it disassembled I started stripping
off all the things that I wasn't going
to need anymore I desoldered the battery
the 3.5 mm input jack the USBC charging
Jack and also by accident this other
chip that I don't really know what it
does after a quick detour to solder that
back in place hopefully it still works I
got down to business without the battery
I needed a way to power my Bluetooth
board so I went right to the source and
soldered two leads to the main battery
connector on the iPod's motherboard
polarity is important here so I tested
first and then color coded my wires then
I soldered those leads to the terminals
where the battery used to connect on my
Bluetooth board and tested it out next
it was time to find a way to hijack the
audio signal from the iPod and here we
needed an amplified signal so we
couldn't just use the same points from
earlier that we routed to the USBC Port
so instead I went to the headphone jack
by studying a wiring diagram I found out
which points on the bottom of the
headphone jack were responsible for the
left and right channels as well as the
ground I then roted those wires back
over to the Bluetooth board and
connected them to the pads that were
left over from removing the 3.5 mm input
which is effectively the same thing is
connecting an ox cable just without all
the unnecessary bulk okay guys I spared
you the disassembly here so I have music
loaded up on here I test it it's already
working through the normal headphones so
now we are going to test the Bluetooth
if I flip the switch turn it into
transmit mode and I have a set of
bluetooth headphones here which are in
pairing mode oh and it's already playing
I don't want to play too much of this
cuz it's copyrighted music okay now uh
just need to find a way to make all of
this look good cuz right now it looks
like a weird science experiment which I
mean I guess to be fair it kind of is so
this is the iPod's original back plate
and this one has definitely seen better
days so what I would like to do is
redesign this and rebuild it from the
ground up in order to accommodate all of
our mods over here and also just to kind
of change the look of this thing a
little bit to create a new back for my
iPod I had three key challenges I had to
overcome first I had to figure out how
the original back even connected to the
front plate by studying it I saw that it
had these little Clips the same ones
that we undid at the start of the video
and then the front plate has these
recessed receptors for them so I figured
okay let me see if I can make something
that will work with that same system I
started by creating a really simple ring
that just fit around the outside of the
iPod I then added all these little
detents that I hoped would serve
basically the same function as the clips
and by just using a simple ring like
that with no back on it I was able to
watch and see how everything fit
together this was really helpful because
it let me confirm that all my detents
were slotting into position properly and
if they weren't I could see exactly what
the problem was and how I needed to
adjust them and as you can see I also
took a rough guess as to where the USBC
headphone jack and hold switch cutouts
were going to go the next thing I had to
figure out was the layout of all the
internal components and here's where it
pays to not be afraid to break things
the SD card adapter and the Bluetooth
board were both fighting for the same
real estate so I was looking at the I
flash PCB and I noticed that none of it
traces run along the top side of the
board which gave me an idea and an
excuse to buy a new tool believe it or
not I don't actually own a Dremel so I
got this cordless rotary tool from
Craftsman Link in the video description
and use a little mini cut off wheel to
hack off about 50% of the PCB again
because there are no traces here it
shouldn't impact its functionality but
it did free up some very valuable real
estate similarly I replaced all the
wires that I used initially with these
much thinner copper wires well the wires
are actually the same gate gauge but
they don't have that same bulky plastic
coating now you might think that this
creates a nightmare scenario for
potential shorts but these wires are
actually coated in a flexible enamel
that prevents that not only did this
free up even more valuable real estate
but I think it also just makes the wires
look better too so with that done I was
ready to get back to work on the rear
case I added a back onto my ring and I
also added some cutouts for both the
battery and the taptic engine I put the
taptic engine on the outside wall of the
case because I want it to feel as strong
as possible I also added some mounting
points for both the headphone jack and
the H switch which took quite a few
prototypes to get just right before I
could print my final prototype though I
had to tackle my last major obstacle you
see in order to pair anything to the
Bluetooth board you need to press one of
its pairing buttons and that's going to
be pretty hard to do when it's bued deep
inside the case so my solution was to
desolder one of the buttons and move it
somewhere else I started by attaching
more copper enamel wire to both poles of
the switch and then I designed this tiny
little holder for it that sits just
below the hold switch if I only screw
the hold switch in on the left side here
well then the whole thing is free to
move like a little lever so I pressed
the micro switch into its holder and
gave it a shot oh yeah that works really
well so now our hold switch is doing
double duty not only will it serve to
lock out the controls on the front of
the iPod when you're not using it but
now when you press it down it will also
allow you to pair new Bluetooth devices
so now that we've got that worked out
what do you say we uh finish this case
the last few changes I made were
rounding off the rear of the case
tweaking the openings ever so slightly
and then printing out the final
prototype this part of the project was
really important not only did I have to
make sure that everything fit together
but I also had to make sure that I could
actually make all Nine Connections
necessary to join both halves together
the sequencing here was actually really
important I made liberal use of
double-sided tape to temporary hold
everything in place and then made all of
my solder connections for the final
assembly I'll do something more
permanent but we aren't quite there yet
oh man it actually fits it all works to
our ports line up yeah our ports look
good and man I can't even describe to
you guys how good this taptic motor
feels and you still get basically the
same sound out of it through the
vibration but looking at this thing the
black pla on the back eh I don't know
it's kind of boring to me so do you guys
say we make the back look a little bit
more like the front oh yeah and uh just
to confirm Bluetooth is definitely
working so yeah like I said let's talk
about this back just like I did on my
modern Game Boy build I actually sent my
3D print files away to be professionally
3D printed there are a number of
services that will do this for you
online and at a pretty reasonable price
I especially love doing this for Clear
Parts because it saves you hours and
hours of postprocessing so I submitted
my order and waited for my parts to come
in the mail and with all my time savings
I embarked on another Journey that may
very well be equally timec consuming I
decided to revamp the user experience of
my iPod do you know that there's a
completely open-source alternative
operating system that you can install on
iPods it's called Rockbox and after a
surprisingly easy installation process I
was dropped into this ugly and frankly
confusing homepage like why is there a
settings page for the settings page but
honestly after spending a bit of time
with Rockbox I can tell you that it
definitely has its advantages not only
does it offer you greater control of
your iPod with new settings but it also
gives you much more granular control
over all the same settings that you used
to have if you're an audio file who
loves to build your own custom eqs this
is the operating system you want to be
running and while we're on the subject
of audio files oh boy does Rockbox ever
support a lot of different codecs it
also gets a lot prettier when you
install custom themes on it and if you
were a fan of the classic games on the
iPod well let me tell you Rockbox has
you covered it even has a port of the
original Doom installed on it by default
which was a lot of fun to play though I
did think for just a minute that I was
going to be stuck playing it forever how
the hell do I quit this game oh it's a
hold switch over here okay but I think
the biggest advantage of Rockbox is just
the fact that you are freed from iTunes
Now the iPod just appears like a drive
on your computer and you can drag and
drop all sorts of different content onto
it but before I could dive too deep into
configuring my database I Got a
notification that DHL was at my front
door door with my new transparent back
oh boy here we go let's crack this thing
open and see how she looks and I've got
to give it to PCB way here they
certainly know how to package your parts
that being said the results here weren't
quite as fantastic as I had hoped for I
mean they look great everything was
crystal clear and probably much better
than anything I could have done myself
but when I went to assemble everything I
had some slight issues with the prints I
assume what happened here is a lot of
the hard edges and fine details of my
models were lost the postprocessing it
wasn't the biggest deal in the world but
I did have to get in there with a craft
knife and shave things down in a few
spots something you might want to know
if you're ever thinking about having
your own Parts made but once I got it
all assembled man did it ever look good
I love the transparent pack and it
actually matches the front pretty damn
well and I also love just owning my own
music and being able to take around my
entire collection with me wherever I go
and that's the role of a device like
this one in 2024 it's a giant middle
finger to Spotify Apple music and all
the other streaming platforms because as
much as I love modern conveniences like
Bluetooth haptics and a brighter screen
I also hate that we've ended up in a
place where we're basically just renting
our music from giant corporate overlords
but if you're willing to put in the work
you can have those modern conveniences
and own your music at the same time and
I definitely consider that to be a win
so a couple of things I want to address
the screen here's a comparison to what
the original one looked like versus this
new one it's definitely an improvement
in terms of both viewing angles and
brightness which for the cost I think is
definitely worth it and then I was also
very concerned about the Bluetooth board
slowly draining the battery and I think
it is but it's also not that big of a
deal I was able to get 2 weeks of use on
approximately half charged battery so
even with daily use you're probably only
going to have to charge a device like
this once a month and to me that is
perfectly acceptable now if you want to
hear my thoughts on what I would have
done differently or how I could have
improved this project if I did it all
over again consider becoming a channel
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will see you guys in the next one peace