pocketdock line-out hack

[derbert]

the first thing i thought after buying sendstations pocketdock (http://www.sendstation.com) was 'why didn't they put a line-out in that thing?'. that would make so much sense. so now i'm trying myself.

as i didn't have a camera at hand when starting the modification, i can only show you where i'm right now.

after prying apart the casing i had to dismantle the dock connector. one part of it can be taken away after bending around a little bit which gives you access to the pins. it's to difficult to explain, you'll understand when you try yourself and have a look at the picture i attached.

next thing was to remove the hot glue encasing the pins, i used a hot needle.

now i had to find out which pins are the line out.
i had this picture (http://www.ipoding.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album07&id=dock_con_labeled&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php) i found on ipoding.com. problem is, the pins in the pocketdock are in two rows. think, think, aaah: left channel (white) and return (black) are the two pins on the right (when seen as i photographed it) in the first row, right channel (red) is the second right one in the second row.

i soldered a cd-rom line out cable to the pins and tested it with an old stereo jack lying around, and voila, it works! clear crisp sound through the jack and syncing through the firewire port still works (f****ing this up was my biggest fear).

now i have to get some shrink tube, reassemble the pocketdock and find a way to incorporate the jack. the pocketdock is too small to have a jack in it, so either i'll have a jack dangling out on a wire or i'll glue a jack (maybe a print type) to the pocketdock. any suggestions?

[mrogers]

nice work! I'll be interested to see the final product.

[markp99]

Nice idea!

A short line-out dongle would not be so bad.

I poked around a bit for a surface mount mini-plug receptacle (like the one you can see inside the iPod dock, when you pop off the cover). I could not find one. :(

A low profile receptacle could be nicely attached to the shell of the pocketdock and attched to wires you would pass thru a small hole in the shell. Then you could apply a bit of large dia shrink tubing around the entire pocketdock and attached receptacle to form a nice integral unit.

Hmmm... You might find something very similar or usefull if you ripped apart an old external PC-speaker to grab the receptacle!

[bdjohns1]

Originally posted by markp99
Nice idea!

A short line-out dongle would not be so bad.

I poked around a bit for a surface mount mini-plug receptacle (like the one you can see inside the iPod dock, when you pop off the cover). I could not find one. :(

A low profile receptacle could be nicely attached to the shell of the pocketdock and attched to wires you would pass thru a small hole in the shell. Then you could apply a bit of large dia shrink tubing around the entire pocketdock and attached receptacle to form a nice integral unit.

Hmmm... You might find something very similar or usefull if you ripped apart an old external PC-speaker to grab the receptacle!

www.digikey.com is your friend - try part number CP-3514SJ-ND

1/8" surface-mount stereo jack, $0.72.

[derbert]

so far so good:

i opted for the 'dongle'-solution instead of a surface mount jack (although i found a really nice one with a transparent casing) because of three reasons:
- first it was really tricky to get the cables out at all as everything is really crowded in that gizmo. there's more space on the side of the casing than on the upper and lower sides where the firewire port almost touches the plastic.
- second this setup will be less bulky in my pocket trousers where it will be quite often, and i don't care about the added length.
- third i saw a problem coming with connectors of the bulkier type as seen on rca to 3,5 mm cables when used at the same time as a firewire cable, they might get into their way.

i guess the surface mount jack would have been sexier, though.

upload speed over firewire is the same as with the firewire-to-dock cable, and the sound is great, too.

as you may notice the casing isn't glued yet but held together with scotch tape. the reason is i'm thinking about going in again and soldering another 2,5 mm mono jack to the power input. that way i could use almost every cheap 12V power unit to charge the ipod.

hmmmm .....

[derbert]

so now it' done. no soldering to the power input, i'll rather build a firewire to standard dc input cable i can use for battery packs and power units.

this picture shows the power dock before glueing the casing

[derbert]

here you can see that it's still syncing, it's kind of difficult to show it playing music through the lineout ;o)

[markp99]

derbert,

Looks great! How have you secured the "dongle" inside the pocketdock, to keep it from getting yanked out??

[derbert]

mark,

it's quite safe from being pulled out.
the shrink tube going through the casing is only shrinked partly (the part that's outside) and was put through the hole after shrinking from the inside to the outside. the inside non-shrinked part is larger in diameter then the hole, so it stops where i didn't shrink it. and i put some hot glue around the inside part before glueing the casing together (that was after the photo).

i thought about making the classic stop-knot or winding it around that little post you can see on picture nr. 3, but space was areally an issue ...

[MasterChief]

Great assembly it looks sweet! Sorry to bump an old thread but I had a few questions. What did you use to make your miniplug hookup? Is it a standard miniplug "headphone" extension cable you spliced in? I also wondered if you could link me to that clear plug you mentioned you found but didn't use so I could check it out. Thanks!

[derbert]

i used an old cd-rom to soundcard cable that was lying around. both plugs are from my local electronics store here in munich. the link to the clear surface mount stereo jack is:
www.conrad.de , enter 734101 in the search ('Suche') field.

[iLounger]

Nice mod... I sent an email onto SendStation (PocketDock) to see what they had to say... I suggested they integrate the Line Out feature.

[derbert]

i'm curious if they'll answer. i sent them exactly the same email two months ago and got no reply ....

[djfusion]

what is the purpose of the line out? Why can't you just use the headphone plug? I don't get it.

[derbert]

the line out gives you the signal without being processed by the ipod's amplifier, which means with less distortion. this way if you use the ipod as a normal sound source like a cd player or tapedeck, the sound is better and it's more convenient, as the output volume is always the same.

[churnopol]

oh here's an idea. the ipod "Dock Connector to USB2.0 + Firewire" has two seperate cables already going out of it. Why not mod the usb cable and turn it into the line out. Opening the dongle might be a litle tough.