How to create the ultimate Ipod touch DOCK!

Ya I know you've seen this before. Or have you?
Cuz today I wanted to make myself a little dock.
And what I noticed was there was Instructables to make a "charger dock" and then there were those Instructables on making speakers that dongle sorta.
So I though how about make those two cool things together. And after lots of thought, a free Friday tonight, supplies, and much work I came up with this.
So sit back get your iPod touch and have at it.




***I'd like to give a big thanks to dchall8. He helped me out with my CAPSLOCK problem.

Step 1 Gather all your materials

Wow. Im excited how (for real) I made this with household items for free YAY! (btw this is my first instructable, hope theres enough photos!) ok. now for the steps.

Stuff:
-small cheapo headphones( i got a pack of two for five dollars, these ones are not very good as headphones anyway becuz they arent sound cancelling, they sound like regular speakers anywho.)
-Some sort of box(big enough for wires and cables and accesability
-pen
-hot-glue gun
-ipod touch usb cable(be aware if u dont use the new ipod touch usb for the ipod touch it may not fit correctly without modification)
-Ipod touch(duh)
-ipod touch dock adapter, now look close at mine and compare it to yours(go ahead take a second); yes thats right i have a hole in mine; its for the speakers; this will be explained later
Not pictured:
-crazy glue for the headphones CAUTION: dont be impatient and stupid like me and use crazy glue i figured out it can melt the plastic, and it did a little bit on mine but still for a neat set up use the hot glue gun
-needle nose pliers; used them to pry off the housing of the head phones
-regular tape; used for the headphone wires; also you guys just use electrical tape for the wires, like i said I wanted to get this done fast so I could have it; i was being impatient; i could've took my time on it spent a feww days; but i got to have this and a report on it by wednesday; and i want a good weekend too so. when i suggest u do something different from mine you might want to strongly take that into consideration
-Paper to trace out the headphones and put under the glue gun

I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A HUGE THANKS TO ari6126 FOR MAKING THE CUT OUT TEMPLATE

Time: About 2-3 hours considering to let the glue dry
Use: unlimited i would say

Comments

[superaznboy]

Dude i made this last night and it works pretty good. I didnt have an actual dock like u did, so i had to cut everything out of the cardboard. Goodjob tho!

[iKaskus]

i have do it but the usb cable can't connect to iPod

[Fujin95]

Will any headphones work...cause mine did not.

[isaacr26]

you use headphones instead of proper speakers, how come.. were yours just really loud or something?

[t8trtot757]

i no. i used only materials in walking distnce that i could demolish. these crappy headphones gave no personal listening anyhow and can be heard from a distance. so i used that.

[griffinf21]

wher is the template?

[beff50]

if you ever do this i would recomend using computer speakers. you will get your own amp that way, if the computer speakers have a sub then you can mount the ipod right on the sub.

[m456arcus]

How did you get the headphone jack to stay in the adapter? Did you superglue it too?

[t8trtot757]

it guessing u could. but no that I was in a rush to make this so I just took some tape and made a sort of secure hammock

[kingash66]

how do you get the pdf...?

[jackillac92]

Good instructable. "BUT!" 1. You should have soldered the speaker conncection with a simple soldering iron and a little bit of solder 2. You also should have used a dremmel tool to cut the ipod docks hole for the headphones. 3. You don't need headphones just use any speaker you can get them from Old radios Radio Alarm clocks Old speakers Computer speakers Anything that makes sound electrically 4. If you use crappy headphones your gonna get crap in return. 5. use real copper wire. 6.This wont be very loud if it isnt powered. 7.Use better materials for a MUCH better result 8. good job though!

[mik417]

nice instructable dude! =) will try this if i ever get an ipod touch.. my eyes are set on the shuffle though. since its small.

[t8trtot757]

thanks. but im a dudette. hahaha

[Nitornos]

i dont like the ipod touch, you have to constantly wipe the screen of fingerprints, because ur always touching the nice screen w/ ur fingers!! if only you could used the "home" button as like a rollerball or something. xP

[t8trtot757]

haha. thats very true. but not so much for me. If i just put in my pocket for a while and walk around listening to some jams. its like a 'car wash' for your ipod in your pocket!! hah. lol. maybe theyll do that when theyy come out w/ the 3G iPhone they better!!

[venus01]

good idea! thanks. although i am thinking about picking one up from these iPod Speaker Docks........

[t8trtot757]

thats a nice one too. I was budget tight at the time and was broke from just buying the ipod so I used stuff around the house to get some free speakers

[rds]

I ended up getting some cheap non amp computer speakers for $6 and they work much better. I didn't happen to take photos as I went along, but here is a photo of the finished product. Thanks for all your help, I love it! BTW, I had to dremel out the slot where the ipod touch connector goes so that it will fit in snugly and allow for a full connection with the ipod touch.

[t8trtot757]

Of course! It was fun! Im glad you decided to do it! Your the first person i no to make one after seeing mine! BTW thats a pretty rugged looking one HAWT! Also I could've done alot more to make it "better". Like my step-dad was gonna take the earphones to work and solder the wire to the back for me so if would be permanent, but i wanted it "right now" lol. I could've used better fixtures like eletrical tape instead of clear tape. And I could've used a dremel. But All those things were in the shed, or I would had to wait,lol as you can tell with Tech im not soooo patient :). Well awesome dock have fun with it THANKS@@@

[rds]

My finished product.

[rds]

I made this tonight, it came out pretty nice. However I noticed in your demo movie the volume was really loud. What kind of headphones did you use?I bought cheapie headphones and they are really not that loud.

[t8trtot757]

Hey! Thanks for trying it out! Post some of your photos from making it. I'd love to see! Also before i tell you which headphone I used try this,make sure the jack is plugged in fully!! But if the are, I used KOSS KTX-1. They were growing dust on them, in other words there really old so im not sure if your gonna be able to find them. But I hope you do!!

[fletcher1313]

dear christ you just had a conversation about caps lock hahahaaa also... shouldnt you paint it or something nothing fancy just plain black or white also... why the hell did that cool guy correct everything in the instructy thing? wish i knew him :p

[t8trtot757]

u could paint it I didn't cuz its on a mantle most of the time for listening in the pool room so no one sees it

[dchall8]

Capslock too hard to fix? Took me about a minute...add another minute to recapitalize the I's and the iPods. Here's a head start for you. Ya I know you've seen this before. Or have you? Cuz today I wanted to make myself a little dock. And what I noticed was there was Instructables to make a "charger dock" and then there were those Instructables on making speakers that dongle sorta. So I though how about make those two cool things together. And after lots of thought, a free Friday tonight, supplies, and much work I came up with this. So sit back get your iPod touch and have at it. Update: sorry about the caps lock! Please the comments on the caps lock are a little over the top now. If I could change it with out redoing it I would. step 2 cutting the holes Print out the hole template for the dock.' carefully cut out the template step 3 modifying your dock As you saw at the beginning my dock is different from your dock. Well thats all about to change. First put your iPod near lighted area and make it shadow a little to see the hole for the headphone jack take a sharpie and mark a dot on the shadow spot(or could measure it) then drill at that dot like a gold mine till you get something like this. Now stop and put ur iPod on the white dock and line it up plug in your earphone jack thru the little mod-hole u just made keep enlarging it slightly until you can spin the jack around in a complete circle without it skipping this means its fully plugged in. step 4 applying the dock to the hole Now we attach the dock. Fit the white dock into the hole to make sure you now which way its going. When you put your iPod on it the back should lean against the biggest fattest part. Once you now the direction and placement of the dock applying hot glue to the bottom of it and hold it secure for a few seconds. Make sure your remove any excess glue that may cover any access port on the dock. step 5 the earbud demolishun Strip the speakers of the earbuds from there housing. Trace around the outside of the stripped speaker; this will be your template. I wish I could make you guys a template but every earbuds can be different. Take your speaker template and cut out two holes on the sides. step 6 stop periodically Stop every once in a while after cutting,gluing, attaching, modifying, etc your earbuds and plug themm into your iPod to make sure they are still working, you'd rather stop now and get new headphones in than have to start the whole project from complete scratch again. step 7 attaching speakers to box Apply glue to the back to secure your loose wires, those of you soldering awesomeness people, solder it. Then apply glue (in the pics im using crazy glue, agian this was the reason that part of the plastic on my speakers disenagrated. So use caution) to the outside rim of the speakers and apply them to the holes in the box. Let this sit. This is crucial because in the next steps your will be dealing with the black rubber/wire caseing attached to the speakers and makeing hard pulls and tugs to make your dock tidy, this may cause something to break so just take a break and looking back at your masterpiece in the making. Cuz were almost done. step 8 cleaning it up Here you will wrap up all those very long untidy wires first wrap the wires in electrical tape( I used regular, being lazy) squeeze to ensure firmness next fold it in half and repeat. Next repeat number two. Do this until you are satisfied with the tidyness. Make sure before you do that you have let your glue sit. Secure the wad of wires down with more tape. step 9 finale Secure every thing up. Make any additions you'd like. Cut a hole in the back for the USB to exit thru connect the USB to the bottom of the dock in the appropriate hole. Thread the end thru your hole! Now your done !!!! Enjoy! Your ultimate iPod touch dock!!!

[t8trtot757]

ok you sir are a life saver! thanks so much!!!!!!!!

[bleachworthy]

damnit, not again... I am hereby revoking your caplock privelages, due to excessive use. *pries off capslock key, and adds it to the bucket along with liquid x 's key* One more out of the way. Apple has actually taken it upon themselves to sneakily remove the capslock key from their newest keyboards, perhaps we should all buy one of their keyboards :). With that out of the way, I suggest going to radio shack, and spending $9.00 on a large project box, it willl make this great idea, into a great looking idea!

[t8trtot757]

ok you wanna now wats odd. today while i was iming a friend i had caps lock on and it would work! i guess u did revoke me caps locking licenselol

[bleachworthy]

respect mah authoritah!

[DELETED_drewdegruyter]

(removed by author or community request)

[whatsisface]

EFG? You hero.

[t8trtot757]

EFG?? whats that

[whatsisface]

Epic Fail Guy, his avatar.

[GorillazMiko]

This is good work! But, YOU SHOULDN'T USE CAPS LOCK off and on BY SWITCHING THEM AROUND BY USING CAPS LOCK HERE and not using it here, it gets QUITE annoying SOMETIMES, and I don't LIKE it.

[t8trtot757]

Hey everyone! Sorry about the CAPS LOCK Im going to change that. I was working on this at 3:00 am and was not in the mood for proper sentance structure. and was in an uncomfortable seat so I will do some more editiing. Also To the guy who said to amplify the sound. Thanks for the advice but my main goal was to use stuff I already had. And The sound is spectacular given that dock is in a large room and I can go down the hall way and hear it. Just wanted to create something for our new pool room. I now over all I couldve had better craftsman ship. But like I said I have to make a "TRASH CAN INVENTION" for tech ed in middle school. And The rules were that I have to make something useful out of things i have at home. All though if we did need to purchase something for it it should be no more than 5 dollars total. I spent $0 and this is what I got, so now come the dull moment, the report of why I chose to make this. YAY! :(

[GorillazMiko]

Oh. Well, it's a great Instructable, and I will be waiting to see the normal typing. :-) Great job, it's awesome.

[marc92]

I SEconD ThAt moTIOn.

[cry_wolf]

BUT USING CAPS MAKE YOU LOOK COOL. ITS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL /sarcasm :D

[whatsisface]

Don't forget to steer...

[i_make_stuff]

Good idea BUT: 1. To much use of the Caps lock 2. The sound from the headphones should be amplified. Otherwise it sounds tinny. If you are in a crunch, though, take some two liter bottles and cut them all the way around at the beginning of the slope. Then duct tape the sloped part to the speaker with the wide end out.