this guy is really toooooooooooooooooo serious....
HAHAHAHAH!pop-mech- comment:
The iPod Touch is a wonderful device. It holds music; it holds movies. I can bring it with me wherever I go. But it’s not the most rugged device. Water is not its friend, and I don’t dare use it when I’m in my backyard building my new deck.
My iPod Touch needs protection. After shopping around, the only solution I could find was the OtterBox iPod Touch Armor case. This hard plastic case is shock- and waterproof and allows control of the iPod Touch’s touchscreen through a clear plastic film—but it is really only good for earphone listening. I figured I could improve upon the concept. I envisioned a boombox—waterproof and nearly indestructible—that could transport my tunes to any environment. Because there isn’t any product like that on the market, I was going to have to build one myself.
Hardware-hacking projects can get expensive, so I started by mining for parts among the old electronics that litter my attic. I found an old set of Virgin Boomtube portable speakers, an old iPod AV dock and a watertight, hard camera case.
This is too easy, I thought. With a few cuts, some simple wiring and glue, I could build it in a day. But I wanted something more. The audio would work, but the iPod Touch’s 3.5-in. screen seemed unsatisfying for video. I figured adding a larger screen would be a simple upgrade.
I was wrong. Finding a screen was the easy part: I bought a used Memorex iFlip video player for $38 at consumerdepot.com. This should have been the video solution I was looking for. The iFlip has both an 8-in. LCD screen and an iPod connector. I dismantled the iFlip and removed its video board, rechargeable batteries, LCD panel and iPod connector, intending to rebuild the iFlip and its screen into my waterproof camera case.
Unfortunately, getting video from the iPod Touch is tricky. The latest-generation iPods require an authentication chip from Apple before they will output video to another device, and the iFlip was made before the authentication chip existed, so to get the two things to work together, I had to buy Apple’s $49 composite video cable.
The solution was a page from Rube Goldberg. The audio and composite video output from the Apple cable plugged into RCA audio inputs from the Boomtube and a composite-to-S-video converter from RadioShack, which I then soldered to the circuit board of my old iPod dock. Then the female connector off the back of the iPod dock plugged into the iFlip’s male iPod connector. It was a lot more connectors and wires than I was hoping for, but it worked.
There was plenty of room in the box for all the parts, but securing the various circuit boards and cables in place took plenty of epoxy and duct tape—not terribly handsome, but I was more concerned about keeping the outside clean.
I used a jigsaw to cut holes in the case for the 8-in. screen, iPod Touch and speakers. The iPod Touch and video screen went on opposite sides of the case, the speakers on the bottom.
I cut the OtterBox in half with a Dremel and fused the front half to the outside of the camera case with epoxy. Then I used epoxy to attach plexiglass to the interior of the opposite side to protect the 8-in. screen and taped the screen in place.
I covered the speaker holes with latex from a glove to keep out water, then epoxyed the speakers into place. Finally I applied a bead of silicone around all the cuts in the case to create watertight seals.
In the end, I not only got a boombox that can survive an occasional splash—I have what I believe is the world’s only floating video player.
Another fine example of necessity breeding invention.
Since I like to wander around in the rain listening to music, I think I need to build myself one of those!
Oh, forget it... I don't have an iPod!
I guess that's what happens when you combine to many toys, to much money and a lot of free time. I'm missing at least two of the three things.
Well, a little over the top perhaps, but, I tip my hat to this pioneer, and his "necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention" spirit. Bravo!
In the world of modern electronics, it seems that there is very little in the way of ingenuity, and originality, so this was quite an inspiration...
