it will not work as apple uses a special cable for the iphone.

ender

I did not, i found this picture from a website, it is just what you should get with an Apple Video Cable for iPhone.

I'm gonna get one soon for a friend, so before i'll give it to him i'll probe it and will post its schematic here.

Have just dissembled the original cable. Having first confirmed that my 89$ cable worked I took it apart :-(
Anyway. More bad news. It looks as if apple has really put some effort into making this a must have accessory as there are two chips on the PCB inside the iphone connector-end of the cable.
Ill take some snapshots a upload them shortly.
Heres the info that I could get of the top of the chips.
CHIP1:
V164
77KE
H630 (or H63J)

CHIP2:
2158
AH076
87G

and a smaller chip tagged:
CF
X1

Can anyone find the spec for these, I havent been able to myself yet...

UPDATE: Added pics of the disassembly

Wow; well i guess the chip theory was right after all!
I'm amazed that Apple have gone to so much trouble to sew up an accessory as basic as a video cable!
I would think that spending 80 bucks on the real thing is probably going to be a lot less painful than reverse engineering that sucker.
Identifying those chips are is one thing, accessing the strings of code they no doubt possess is another.
Thanks Rutonium for fronting the cash and going to the trouble of opening it in support of our efforts.
PS: Is that the component or composite cable you have bought? That hardware may be related to splitting the RGB components? Dunno.

__________________
Free the iPhone.

Don't be surprised, Apple is just a Badass corporation with a Dollars seeker compass.

But the more they try to lock us up, the more we'll break into their products !

The built-in video out feature they claim in their iPhone website page might be false, because there is 2 chips (1 for the stream/video converter and one to identify the cable as an authorized equipment.

V164 could probably be this:

http://www.fairchildsemi.com/pf/74/74VHC164.html

Rutonium:

Can you probe the 2 ICs (big ones) with an oscilloscope to trace the video signal while the iPhone is displaying a video on a tv ?

I'd like to know if it is coming from the iPhone itself or from one of these 2 ICs.

I was thinking the same thing (probing the ICs) but i can first do this monday, as Ill do it at work where we have the laboratory equipment that I need. However Ive ben measuring the cable itself and it seem that the Video out is going straight through. This means that the ICs are not used for transalating or level shifting.
I think that at least one of the ICs are for the USB cable. Im working on a schematic of the cable. Ill post it as soon as im done. Probaply I can get one of our IC guys at work to have a look at the ICs, when theyre powered up and playing. Maybe that will indicate what they are used for.
Anyway. Video out is on PIN 24. (other ipods are 23)


@freeproductions: Its a composite, so no splitting of signals unfortunatly.

UPDATE: Following the thought that the ICs are USB related, one of the (chip1) could be the 24-pin version of the MAX3420E.
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2..../pk/THIN%20QFN

Please note that chip1 has a 24 pin connection and chip 2 has a 20 pin connection.
UPDATE:2
PIN No. Pin function Device connection Connected to other pin
1
2 Ground 2 USB Pin 4 (Ground) Pin 16
3
4
5 USB D- USB pin 2 (D-)
6
7 USB VCC +5VDC USB Pin 1 (VCC +5VDC)
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16 Ground 2 USB Pin 4 (Ground) PIN 2
17
18
19
20
21
22
23 Ground Pin 30
24 Video Composite out Video component out (Yellow)
25
26
27 Right Audio signal Audio component Right (Red)
28 Left Audio Signal Audio Component Left (White)
29
30 Ground Pin 23

Hmm, that is some interesting stuff.
I don't actually get why the cable should need any level shifting hardware for USB when no other iPhone/Pod USB cable seems to contain any such chip?
That Fairchild chip does fit the description and is a cmos level shifting device. The mystery deepens eh?!
Be very interested to hear what you find when you scope the two chips out when they're running!
Thanks again for all your hard work and sacrifice.

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Free the iPhone.

Intrigued, I went back and reopened my Universal dock.
Looking again it contains a very similar chip combination.
Comparison to Rutonium's chips):

Universal Dock CHIP1:
V126
C 76K
F295 G4

Rutonium's CHIP1:
V164
77KE
H630 (or H63J)

Universal Dock CHIP 2:
2158
AH001
03G

Rutonium's CHIP 2:
2158
AH076
87G

And, more disconcertingly, another chip labeled:
APPLE
33850394
A1CK0729
MAL

I'm kind of hoping all this information will be meaningless when we figure out a low tech way of hacking the video out function of this thing! But I guess now the information is out there.

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