So as title says I revived my beloved iPod, upgraded its storage and also modeled and printed some accessories for my iPod. I made a TPU case, a dock using the original cable and a storage box.
Everything is available for free on my printables:
https://www.printables.com/de/@Gorroth1007/models
Link to my first post (including whole storage upgrade process):
https://lemmy.world/post/3243217
Here are some additional pictures:
Modding classic iPods is such an awesome rabbit Hole. You can exchange the mini hard drive with anything from regular SD cards to quad micro-SD cards to even MSATA and M.2 SSDs. This also creates extra room to install a giant battery if you want to.
I am currently trying to find a way to embed a Bluetooth transmitter so I can use my Bluetooth headphones with it.
There’s even an alternative firmware called Rockbox that allows you to just plug in the iPod using USB and put MP3s on it instead of using iTunes.
I also own a Creative Zen Vision but it’s sadly not as customizable and there’s no Rockbox firmware for it.
Edit: before posting I didn’t see the link to the original post which talks about most of the above.
Yep you are right, I already did very much of what you wrote. Except the huge battery as in the 30GB model there is not that much more space. I tried to install rockbox but somehow couldn’t get it to work. Even though it was installed on the original hard drive… But It works just fine with my old 2013 MacBook Pro and Apple Music.
You should be able to put a 3000mAh battery in a 5th/6th/7th Generation iPod as long as you get an iFlash board and a Thick Backplate.
Edit: If you want the best place to buy iPod parts, buy them from Elite Obsolete on his website.
Thank you! Yes I know, but I wanted it to look like it was looking back then when I got it :)
Pretty cool! I miss iPods 🥺
I missed them, too. So happy i could bring this one back to life :)
Neat! Your original post about upgrading your iPod sent me down a rabbit hole of AliExpress mod parts so this is nicely timed for post upgrade. Thanks for sharing.
I am glad to hear that :D Did you find something so far? Or is there already a plan? Wasn’t timed on purpose, I finished the box this morning and am so hyped right now, that I had to share with somebody
I have ordered an iflash card, 128gb micro SD card, clear front and blue (the shiny electric blue)back for the initial transplant. I’m thinking the slightly bigger battery (850mah?) rather than the 1800-3000mah ones at the moment.
Heard that 3000mah is wishful thinking for most of those advertised as such so need to investigate that a bit more.
There wasn’t that much space left as I went with the CF to microSD adapter, so I got a 650mah battery. Still gets me through a whole workday of constantly playing music. But with the iflash you might have some more space. What model do you have? 60gb?
80gig 5th gen, doesn’t appear to be the 5.5 gen. I think it should have the space but like you I can’t see it running down the battery for most of my usage cases so figured why complicate it at least for the first upgrade.
Ah okay, yes absolutely. I made this upgrade because my iPod battery already was dead and the hard drive didn’t sound very good. It was sitting in my closet for years now waiting for me to do something with it. As this is my first iPod reincarnation I decided to not invest much money, so I went as cheap as possible. But I couldn’t be any happier with how it came out. Playing with the idea of getting another one from eBay to prepare for my wife, my sister or my daugther. But this one here will stay mine, it always has been and it always will be as I connect a lot of memories with it.
Holy shit that iPod is bright. Kinda hurts my eyes a little.
I love it.
Oh yes it does, and I also love it :D
Thank you so much. This inspires me to also revive my classic one day when I have the time for it. I still use it every now and then but the battery life has of course gone down. Didn’t know that iPod modding was a thing, hahaha.
My pleasure :) I read about it already a few years ago, but the parts where pretty expensive back then. But now they’re really cheap on AliExpress. Definitely recommend this!
I wouldn’t recommend Aliexpress TBH. I highly recommend Elite Obsolete, he sells iPod parts new and old stock (Cases, Motherboards, iFlash Kits, etc.) he even sells fully made pods.
They really do have some nice stuff. Maybe there are some parts I could use for a second one. Do you know if they deliver to Germany?
I honestly do not know if he ships to Germany. At worst you can use a shipping forwarding service.
They do, I tried. I wanted to order a HDD Flex cable for another project, but it’s very expensive. I would have to pay nearly 30€ for shipping while the cable costs around 2€ + taxes. That’s one expensive little flex cable. Was also having an eye on those wine red back covers, but even the back cover is 20€+30€ shipping. That’s 50€ just for a back cover… They really have some cool stuff, but with these shipping costs to Germany I guess I will have to stick with AliExpress.
Even with a forwarder???
I think most people from there are also in this community. Plus I don’t want to spam people’s feeds :)
