Ipod Cooling system

[littlecompadre]

So here's the deal. I have a 4th genetation ipod, and sometimes it will freeze and completely be useless, so I have to restore it. This has happened probably 3 times in the year and a half that I have had it and when i reload my library onto it, i have to take frequent pauses to let it cool down.. I also happen to buy used computers at garage sales, and sell the parts on ebay. So one day i came across this computer with a P4 socket 478. I tore it apart, and found that the heatsink was all scratched and useless. so i took a look at the fan, then at my ipod and came us with this genius idea, to put the fan on my ipod as a battery powered cooling system! one minor problem, i have no idea what i am doing here. i tried to get a current out of the fan by touching a 12v ac adapter to it... nothing at all. does anyone know how a 3 pin connector for a fan works, and how i could make a battery pack for it?

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e314/Littlecompadre/P1040118.jpg
Ipod and Fan

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e314/Littlecompadre/P1040119.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e314/Littlecompadre/P1040120.jpg
Fit together pretty slick heh?

[sirkillalot617]

Nice I have that Ipod aswell And I see why you wanted to cool it down as its really annoying.

Oh and your Pics are a tad too big.

[simon275]

I am guessing going by conventions black is ground and yellow is 12 volts dont know what the green one is though.

[Skriger]

THe green one from what I remember is a RPM indicator. you should also add a variable switch so that you are able to change the speed of the fan...

The only issue i see with this is actual making it able to disperse heat well. With the just the fan attached, it needs more surface area for the cool air to dissipate the heat I.E. heatsink fins. My suggestion is use a watercooling system because then you will be able to attach it directly to the metal backing. but in that situation, i dont know too much on what you should use.. but i do remember seeing a small kit only for the CPU and it was ridiculously small for computer watercooling.. but now i could see it working for this. let me hunt for it later.

[Luke122]

Green is the rpm monitor, as Skriger said. Most of these fans will run at 12v, so you could theoretically get a 9v battery and it should run. I'll test this idea out..

Watercooling (while the better way to go) would add huge weight and cost to this unit. Air cooling without a heatsink wont help much.. but it might help a bit. I dont think that it would help enough though, and a fan will eat a battery pretty fast.

Is this overheating a common issue with the ipods? I dont have one (I have a little 256mb flash player.. plenty for me) so I dont know that much about them, but I would suspect that if it's a design flaw that Apple should offer some sort of warranty or repair for it..?

[Luke122]

OK, I hooked one of these fans up to a 9v battery, and it does work.. but the airflow isnt hardly noticeable at all.. so I dont think that you'd get any cooling benefit from it.

[Spawn-Inc]

see what happens why you buy a crap ipod!!!!!!!

but hopefully it will cool it down enough

[scar~face]

hmmm, i had know idea that there were issues with ipods overheating..

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

ZOMG WICKED MOD!!!! INTEL COOLER+IPOD+CLICK= WICKED MOD!!! WOW!!!!...
plz note sarcasm....... now if u molded the intel cooler onto the ipod it would be insane... props for the idea.... but it looks kinda simple :S
do something funky with it :)

[Omega]

iPod's don't lock up because of overheating, lol. You might be experiencing hard drive failure, or general retardation. Same things have happened to my 4th gen.

Solution:

Get a flash-based or Creative MP3 Player.

[xRyokenx]

Solution:

Get a flash-based or Creative MP3 Player.


Samsungs work good too, they have some nice MP3 Players.

[.Maleficus.]

Samsungs work good too, they have some nice MP3 Players.

And my Zune works wonders.

[slytherock]

nice mod, but my first goal with mine is to make it moveable... doo, doo, doo, doo... (fifth dimension music...)

[nil8]

I have a iAudio U2 1gb flash player. Newegg has them for 80 bucks, they work wonders and if they do mess up, they have a very nice warranty/rma plan.
Mine decided to crap out in the middle of a firmware upgrade and didn't work again. I sent it in and got it back within 2 weeks, which is amazing for repair work.

[Kristofisis]

If I were you I 'd go ahead and take your chances with thermal pasting a heatsink onto it.. make a stand or encasement around- slap a fan on the back and it could be... an iPod computer! Definately not portable but COOL:P

[Spawn-Inc]

iPod's don't lock up because of overheating, lol. You might be experiencing hard drive failure, or general retardation. Same things have happened to my 4th gen.

Solution:

Get a flash-based or Creative MP3 Player.

Right on!!!!!

Creative rocks. heres mine

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/4006/2107341980100511463S500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/2688/2054223430100511463S500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/2787/2086429240100511463S500x500Q85.jpg

i've only had a couple of problems with it. it will freeze sometime but all you need to do is take out the battery and pop in back in. i think it freezes becuase i was really dumb and board and decided to take it apart in class. i didn't realize there was two hidden screws so after a tiny pin fell out i went and looked up how to take it apart properly i found this awsome site (http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=9&id=1331). i broke off one of the gold pins in the red square
http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2004/1331/fragile_micropins.jpg

but i some how jammed it back in place long enough for me to put in back together again. i ended up missing half my second class doing this.

my second issue is the battery life its not long enough. but i'm not sure if its a crappy battery or what becuase its a lithium ion and they last a long time on my other stuff.

[xRyokenx]

Li-ion batteries die after a certain period of time, ie. a few years, not how much it's used.

[Spawn-Inc]

Li-ion batteries die after a certain period of time, ie. a few years, not how much it's used.

well the mp3 palyer claims it lasts 12 hours but i think its lasted maybe 8 hours in one time. and thats from the start, it's only 2 years old.

[xRyokenx]

Take a look at the settings. Certain things such as brightness, volume, etc. play key factors in battery life (duh). Take into mind that they prolly tested it with the backlight off (or on very low) and the volume low too. That might be why it's only lasting at eight hours instead of twelve. My handheld computer will last about eight hours or so with the backlight on the lower settings and when it's not processing much... if I'm surfing the web, listening to music, etc. with the backlight high and wireless network card on it only lasts about maybe four to six hours... never really tested it like that... something to look into... *stares thoughtfully at the wall for a moment*...

[Spawn-Inc]

i have no real problem with it lasting 8 hours its just that its awalys dead when i want it. i've never actually tested it though so it might be less or more who knows. i'm happy with it and i would never get a crapPod.

[xRyokenx]

I agree with ya there, about the ePods, that is...

Just charge it every night, it's LiIon, right? There's your solution, it won't harm it to charge when it's at half the maximum capacity, that's what I do with my Ip (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?product_code=FA782AA%23ABA&tab=detailed_specs&storeName=storefronts&landing=handhelds&category=handhelds&subcat1=&catLevel=1#defaultAnchor)aq (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16858103006) (my Pocket PC) anyway.

[Luke122]

Have you tried doing a battery conditioning on it?

Turn off all the power saving stuff.. the auto shut off, auto backlight off, etc. Kill the batter completely, then charge it fully, and then just let it sit until it's dead again. Then charge 100%, and you should be good to go.

I do this every couple months on my laptop.. makes a difference. :D

[xRyokenx]

I'll look into it. That may be a good idea for my PPC every few months or something like that.

[Spawn-Inc]

Have you tried doing a battery conditioning on it?

Turn off all the power saving stuff.. the auto shut off, auto backlight off, etc. Kill the batter completely, then charge it fully, and then just let it sit until it's dead again. Then charge 100%, and you should be good to go.

I do this every couple months on my laptop.. makes a difference. :D

so if i understand let the bat die , charge, let it die, charge and it should be good?! dammit, max for the backlight is 30 seconds
i put the volume to 100% , if there is no speakers hooked up to it will it be like having the volume on 0??

i'll give it a try.

[nil8]

Li-on batteries will hold under an hour of charge typically once they hit their end of life.
You know when your battery is shot, you can't hold charge to save your life.
Just like old laptop batteries.

I still prefer flash to moveable drives. I had a very young rio nitrus crap on me because I dropped it once. No way. I want something that can take my abuse, and if that means I pay more or have less space, so be it. I'd rather have a working unit than a dead one.

[Spawn-Inc]

if you look at my case you can see all the dents and dings and mine still works. i\m pretty sure i've dropped it from 3 or 4 feet while it was on and it works fine now.

[xRyokenx]

I'm the same way nil8, if it can't take my random outburst of tossing it across the room (I still have a little bit to work on, hell, at least I'm not smashing stuff anymore... long story, and I mean it), then it isn't worth it. That's also why I have an aluminum case with foam padding for my iPaq. I don't listen to too much music so the limited space doesn't matter all too much... that and an expansion slot helps quite a bit too.

[Spawn-Inc]

well with that new 8gb micro sd card (i think is was micro sd) then they should put like 4 of them in the place on the hdd and you quadruple your space in addition to having safer memory.

[samcat]

iPod's don't lock up because of overheating, lol. You might be experiencing hard drive failure, or general retardation. Same things have happened to my 4th gen.

Solution:

Get a flash-based or Creative MP3 Player.

or mod a flash HD into the Ipod (see latest Macworld)8)