Waterproofing the Shuffle...

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Imported

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I really like lap swimming. I use to use a "Dolphin" waterproof MP3 player to hear music when I swim. It worked ok, but was really low volume, hard to next the song and did I mention really low volume?

I looked at a lot of different options and the waterproofed shuffle seemed the best. I know it plays loud and now that apple went back to not using a touchscreen, it is actually useful for people that want to use it for workouts as a touch screen in such situations make little sense, even if it didn't waste battery life as well.

$135 for a waterproff shuffle seems steep to me. I read many of the companies site that does it and they all say they don't open up the shuffle, so it must be really easy to do.

I bought my regular Ipod Shuffle 4th generation yesterday at walmart for $46. Charged it, loaded music and made sure it worked. I also ordered an iSesamo: Ultra-thin steel pry tool for opening iPods, iPhones, iPads and more. ...I'd provide an Amazon link, but new members not allowed to.


with the intent of opening up the shuffle. I got some Acrylic conformal coating and silicon (dielectric) grease from frys. One of the companies say they do two different layers and I'd assume the first coating is a conformal PCB protectant coating and the other is dielectric grease.

I decided to just inject the dielctric grease as I doubt just injecting and not brushining or spraying on the conformal coating will do what you intend it to do and may hamper getting the dielectric grease into all the void.

I was a bit unsure that just injecting the dielectric grease into the shuffle via the headphone jack would work, which is why I am preparing for disassembly....but I have syringes, so I tired it anyway. I injected silicon dielectric grease into my shuffle till it was seeping out the back cover plate. I rubbed in the grease on the front controls as will as the switch and button on top, making sure to really press it in. I heated up the shuffle to try to get the grease to fill it in more. Injected more grease in through the headphone jack (need to really try to seal everything to really force it in) and was thinking I should have maybe sealed the back cover plate first before I started. However, it did show to me that the grease was making it all around the shuffle as it (the grease) was seeping out from the bottom of the cover as well.

So, I powered it up to see if it still works and it does. I probably should have weighed it first to get an idea how much grease I was able to get in, but too late now. The buttons on the front takes a bit more effort to press, so I am assuming the grease made it to the front section as well....which is good.

Packed in dielectric grease, everything still works perfect. I got other things to do, but will clean out the back cover, maybe use some contact glue to seal the back cover better, allow to set and then try to inject more dielectric grease. Then I will try immersing it in water.
 

Imported

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OK, got a pencil style super glue applicator and tried sealing up the back cover better. Injected more silicon grease and still had a bit of grease seeping out of the cover, although not as bad as before. Decided to throw caution to the wind and placed my iPod shuffle 4th gen in a glass of water with the ear buds that came with it. Was happy to see zero bubbles coming from it when I placed it in the glass. Shook it all around for a while, still no bubbles. It's been in the glass fully submerged for 30 minutes now and still going strong. I will leave it in there for at least 10 hours, randomly pulling it out of the glass to skip songs and press the controls.

I ordered a set of Pyle waterproof in ear headphones from amazon for $12 with free shipping and it should be here by Tuesday. Will try lap swimming with it then.


Essentially all I did was inject as much silicon dielectric grease into the iPod shuffle through its headphone jackas i could. It cost $10 for a tube of silicon grease that will probably do 50 plus iPod shuffles. I didn't really know what I was doing, but now that I do.....it's a ten minute job. Would take me more time to remove the shuffle from its packaging and then repackage it than it did for me to waterproof it.

Assuming it continues to work, it is crazy that people pretty much paid someone $100 and more....far more with some companies...to do 10 minutes of work that required $.50 cent of material.


I do have ideas on how to better do this, but was too interested to see if my haphazard lazy minimal approach would work too.
 

Imported

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Been fully submerged in water for over 14 hours. Battery gave out somewhere between just over 14 hours and @15hours.

Surprised since I had it at full volume the whole time. Guess there is truth in advertising for the shuffles 15 hour battery life. Add @30 minutes I messed with it outside of the water and that they probably didn't base the time assuming full volume and my shuffle has exceeded its expected battery time just based on the time I can account for.

Plugged it into my computer to recharge and iTunes came right up and recognized my shuffle no problem.
 

andrewdudex

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Waterproofed my ipod!

I have successfully waterproofed my ipod! Also, I made a youtube video describing the process.

They won't let me post links on here, so go to youtube and search the following string:

Zl1sbO2rEE0

Andrew
 

hashish

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Would take me more time to remove the shuffle from its packaging and then repackage it than it did for me to waterproof it.
I actually did this a few years ago. I opened it up and siliconed every inch of the internals to make sure that the IC's, connectors, and batter terminals were covered. I did not do anything to the outside. Just make sure you move the power switch a few times so it doesn't get stuck.

Mine has been going strong for two years now and I have used it in salt water, fresh water, and lots of chlorine without a hiccup.

Your method is much easier. The next step would be trying to use some sort of vacuum setup to really pull that silicone into the ipod through the headphone jack. Might even get a real good seal at considerable depths for scuba and such.
 

eloechner

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Thank you everyone who contributed to this string! I'm going to pick up a tube of dielectric grease today!
 
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