Excellent guide! This is seriously some high quality work! Thank you for being so thorough when putting it together! Fortunately, the iPod Classic (iPod Video) is far easier to repair than the Nano as I worked on both recently.

Now, I totally agree with Paul about taking your time, even if you are experienced at repairs. That said, I also strongly suggest testing the device BEFORE closing it back up as it’s far too easy to accidentally miss a step! I also took the opportunity to clean and tweak anything along the way. For example, I put some 3M 9448A double-sided tape along the hard drive rails to hold them in place, repaired any foam that was falling off the hard drive, and cleaned the rubber bumpers (and subsequently replaced the tape on them too.) It was also a great opportunity to use a bit of DeoxIT on the dock connector and on the metal parts in the headphone jack.

Maintenance is 100% the key to device longevity!

As these are so modular, do plan on doing any upgrades while the iPod is still open.

Any takers here…

So, if each driver is designed with it’s very own ground (vs a shared ground), does that mean that Apple’s lightning earbuds are actually balanced?! That would be awesome! I’d think you’d be able to go as far as changing out the drivers to take better advantage of the balanced audio! Am I correct?

Note: This would NOT apply to the dongle, only to the OEM earbuds with the lightning connector. Perhaps you could swap out the 3.5mm unbalanced connector for a 2.5mm balanced one with the dongle, but I’d have to have more information to see if that’s doable. As the earbuds have 7 discrete wires, with 2 of them going to each driver, this seems inherently balanced by design; otherwise we’d see a shared ground. Even if the dongle did have separate grounds, the 3.5mm is for unbalanced earbuds or IEMs, and IMHO would be too much work to modify.

@slaster538 have you made any progress on this? I’ve seen a few similar projects online very recently, so I’d do some searches. I’d offer links, but didn’t save any as I just saw them in passing.

Here’s how I would go about it. First, see if you could find any specs or wiring diagrams for this online. I’m sure there’s something out there somewhere. Second, let’s say you can’t find anything, use the continuity tester on your multimeter to see which pins go from a 0 to 1 when the momentary connection is made. Jot them down, and use the same connections to a better quality momentary switch assembly for your bike. Of course test it with the cheap stuff first! Third, here’s another totally different option for you, why not use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino to do the work for you! I’ve recently made an RC car that my iPad controls via WiFi, you can do amazing things with one AND they have HUGE communities to better find answers!

I am curious though. So, comment back if you could!

Q. Is it possible to replace the lighting connector with a 3.5 mm headphone jack?

A. No. The lightning connector is ‘fused’ to the mini-board with the DAC, making it an Apple specific setup. Even if you could swap said connectors, you will still need to power the DAC, which is DVD-quality at best and doesn’t sound like anything special. So, there would be no reason to do this (other than maybe for fun). I would think you’re asking as to make it generic, but the DAC really is the epitome of mediocre. If you could find a device with a better DAC that you’re not afraid of destroying if things go bad, and have a way to power it, than you may have a very interesting idea for a project! Trust me, this dongle isn’t it!

Q. Is the DAC chip in the Lighting connector?

A. Yes. This applies to all Apple devices that do not have an integrated 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple said this was to make room for other components in lieu of an internal DAC. As a DAC is needed to drive headphones, all adapters to include the OEM one discussed must have three discrete components: (1) A Lightning or USB-C adapter to connect to the device, (2) A DAC and any other audio circuitry needed to drive the audio, and finally (3) an output for the audio which is usually a 3.5mm jack, but could be a 1/4”, 2.5mm, or other.