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 rings. 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. tiffany pendants on sale 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. 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 tiffany jewellery 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.
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