June 20, 2014

Hacking an old iPod with Arduino and Android

Old iPods don't die (well most of them ...) they just become obsolete and end up in the bottom drawer or the car glovebox. However this is a waste of perfectly good technology and can still be quite useful in the right circumstances. Trevor Lewis also had the same thought and has documented how to use old iPods as a remote-control music player using Bluetooth and an Android device. 

By hacking an iPod audio/video cable it is connected to an Arduino board with a Bluetooth module - which then communicates with the Android device running a free application (or perhaps one that you have written yourself. And thus you have an Android-controlled iPod "dock" - with the iPod connected to your stereo or hifi system a new lease of life is given to the music player as a remote jukebox. A quick run-through is demonstrated in the following video:

Kudos to Trevor for such a useful project, of which you can read about here. And for more, we're on facebookGoogle+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

Have you been reading about Arduino and would like to understand more so you can work with projects like the example above, but not sure where to start? Then order one of our Experimenter's Kit for Arduino: 

The package includes a wide variety of parts, sensors and modules including: a servo motor, lights, buttons, switches, sound, sensors, breadboard, wires and more. Furthermore a Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board is included to make this an extensive hobby experimenter, inventor and starter kit. 

However we don't leave you alone to figure it all out, included is a great project and instruction booklet, plus access to a supporting web page and software examples. In other words - this is everything you need to get started for a fun range of electronics and Arduino related projects! So to get started or for more information and to order, check out the product page.

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