I received an ipod touch 2g for Christmas. I also received a dock which only works to play music it won't charge the touch. I wanted to know, if anyone here knew, a way to hack it to charge as well as play? Maybe unsolder and re solder some pins?

Any help will be appreciated and I will be sure to update this thread with progress.

I was also thinking, since it seemed that the connector on the dock had all the pins in tact, I might also solder on some audio connectors, meaning audio in and out, and maybe some video out.

Again, I don't know much about the itouch connector (it is my first ipod). But if I could at least get it charging my ipod touch that would be great.

Thanks for the adivice ahead of time

Ok, so I did some more digging (googling) and I turned up this little adapter.




Now, It seems to me that all that thing probably does it reroute the old charging pins to the proper ones... I may be wrong.

The other hypothesis I had, as to what might be the problem, is that the new ipod takes a higher voltage and amperage, and the old docks don't meet that requirement, hence can't charge it.

That is kind of a shot in the dark. Anyone got some suggestions?

P.S. Oh yeah, this adapter costs 40 bucks....ummmm? No thank you! Maybe if I had that uber expensive BOSE speaker dock!

They problem seems to be that they, apple, no longer uses the fire wire pins, which the docks do, to charge the new ipods. Hence, the old docks aren't even supplying power to the "new" charging pins on the new ipods.

Now, it seems a resoldering of pins would work. BUT, and this is a big one, the old firewire charging was 12v. Usb charging is less than half that, at 5v.

So, while re soldering the pins is the solution, as it seems to me, it also requires a stepping down of the voltage to 5v.

Finally, in theory, I could, unsolder the wires, from the non-used/non-charging firewire pins. Then, solder, those wires, to a resistor (?), which steps the voltage down to 5v, then, solder the wires from the resistor to the proper "new" usb charging pins.

Does that make sense? It doesn't seem that hard, I am not solder gun shy.


Now, how does one step down voltage? That seems to be the question.

edit: The other thing to consider is amperage, I realize. It is also something I had thought of. What is the amperage difference between that of the firewire charing and the usb?

Looks like I might have a solution. I found a forum called allaboutcircuitry.com, one of the nice electricians over there is schooling me on what I need to do.

I need a voltage regulator, which it seems, will step that 12v current down to 5v, and keep it there. I picked up the piece he recomended, at radio shack, and ordered the heat sink they didn't have, which is probably needed to.

So, if all goes well, we could be looking at a solution, which costs five bucks (about 2 bucks a piece for the regulator and heat sink), that's assuming you already have a soldering iron, which will allow that old dock to charge your new ipod, as well as play it!

Plus you get to learn about electricity!

Very interested in this. Have been looking all over for a guide on how to do this as it didn't seem like a particularly difficult solution. Can you let me know what parts you are using for this so i can try to please? Much appreciated!

Here is a link to the allaboutcircuits forum where I, with some indispensable help, worked out a solution. Well, actually, it is solved, but I am still waiting on a heat sink, to finish it off.

I don't know if posting a link to another forum, in this forum, is kosher but the allaboutcircuit guys know their stuff on hacking the hardware.

I will post a more detailed solution here when I get the thing finished off.

Please, post here, and at the other place, on your progress to fixing yours. I am very interested in your approach and success.