I received and responded to one of the greatest emails ever tonight. It’s not the kind that I usually respond to publicly. Usually I respond to some idiot, and rip them apart for all of your enjoyment. This one was kind of touching to me, and I felt compelled to help this young girl with her project. Read on…

—-email starts here—–
from: mrs. legolas bloom

i was watching a show on g-4 and it told me about the altoids i-pod battery pack. i have to do a science fair project and i thought that this could get me first place!!! my mom says that you probably have to sauder the hole for the rfs-6602 thingy but to be on the safe side i thought that i would ask you.

yours truly, mrs. legolas bloom

p.s. do you think that a thirteen year old could make this altoids i-pod battery pack?
—–emails ends——

My response:

—–email starts here—–
Hi Mrs. Legolas Bloom (you wish),

I am so psyched to get this email. It is the best email I have gotten in months. I think a 13 year old can definitely do it. I totally encourage you to do this project for the science fair, and win, but please be very careful, and especially careful with your iPod if you have one. I don’t want you to mess it up. They are very expensive.

The back of the firewire connector has 6 very tiny pins on it. Only two of them are important for this project, pins 1 and 2. (Red power goes to #1, and black goes to #2) They are labelled in the diagram in my original post. In order to properly connect the wires to these pins, you will have to solder. I do encourage you to practice soldering before you try this because it can be tricky. Never let those 2 pins touch each other. Use some hot glue if you have it to gum up the whole back part of the connector after the connection is made and tested. That will protect the connections. So, you’ll need a soldering iron ($14 at Radio Shack) and maybe a hot glue gun ($10 at any hobby store) to do this right.

But, the trickiest part is actually cutting the hole in the altoids tin. To make the whole thing look good, I have experimented with many different techniques. I have a very nice dremel tool, which is kind of expensive, but even that doesn’t quite do the job. I now use the dremel cutting wheel (very carefully) and a metal hand file to get the fine details in the corners. It is tricky. Always wear safety goggles.

One last thing… In order to make sure the connections are right, and you wont damage your iPod, you should really have a mulitmeter (I bought cheapest, crappiest one from Radio Shack for $15 - It seemed better than frying my $400 iPod). You should learn how to work one of these anyway if you are at all interested in electronics.

OK, so that’s it. Good luck, and feel free to email me any questions you have along the way. I hope you dont mind, but I am going to post this email and my respnse right on the website so everyone can benfit from the answer.

~chris
—-email ends—–