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Ipod revival

As I reported last week, my son went swimming with his cell phone and Ipod nano, in salt water.

I managed to get the cell phone working again for a little while by soaking it in fresh water and then methanol and then putting it in a vacuum system to remove the residual water. I vacuumed it repeatedly because the vacuum causes the nethanol to freeze as someone else here pointed out. It worked for a couple days and then died again.

A week after the dunking, I took apart the Ipod nano and can see why the cell phone died again. A simple immersion in fresh water does not remove the salt and water vapor in the air will recombine with residual salt to short it out. The Nano looked awful with most of the circuits encrusted with salt. It tool repeated immersions and then brusshing with a very fine stiff brush and then examination under 5x, 10x and 20x magnifiers to make sure I had removed the salt between traces. Finally, it looks good and is in the vacuum system right now. The Li ion battery is soldered in place and its fine leads broke. Fortunately, I found a chinese web site with a pic of the inside of the nano showing the orientation of the leads. I believe the battery may still be good but will know when we try to charge it.

The cell phone will require further dissection so I can remove all the salt.

I'd love to have my son start a small business reviving such damaged ipods and phones but he is simply not interested. He is only 16 but you'd think he'd jump at a chance to make easy money but he seems to prefer bagging groceries for now. I dont think he could make enough to support himself doing this but a few thou a year would sure help him pay for college. Unfortunately, he doesnt have his dad's fascination with how techie stuff works in detail. Strange, when I was his age (in the early 70s), I was trying to build my own computer with surplus 7401 quad nand gates, he seems to have little techie aptitude and huge social aptitude.

dbohara
Jun 12
2006
I'd recommend Cape Breton Island. You'd be just one of the boys there. http://www.cbisland.com/splash_option.html Don
Jun 13
HAVE To? No. But it's often quite a bit more desirable to use compression as it takes considerably less space. For what's arguably a wasted amount of "better" fidelity. There's just not enough difference to hear on the headphones or in a vehicle/boat. Sure, the audiophiles will make all sorts of arguments about 'quality' but they're largely talking outta their ass.

I'll trade the choice of faster loading, putting more on the device and having decent fidelity over any so-called purist arguments any day.

Bill
Jun 13
In other words, you're deaf. JoeSpareBedroom
Jun 13
Yabut, their asses have big woofers.

RCE

www.eisboch.com

RCE
Jun 13
RTFM, but you're already learning that...

> Isn't it easier to just bring the CD to where ever you want to play it? I > just don't get the concept

One disc, 12 tracks. Twelve discs, 144 tracks and a CD wallet the thickness of a phone book. My iPod has 7,200 tracks on it.

Sure, I had to load up the tracks from CDs but that's a one-time deal. I found using an older program called "Audio Catalyst" was very handy at doing them one after another. I'm sure there are more recent ones. I generally dislike the way iTunes handles it.

You may want to consider adding an external or other drive to your desktop computer and use that to hold all the audio tracks. I've always found the 192k bitrate to be about the best balance between space savings and fidelity. There aren't many tracks where that rate isn't sufficient. And since I own the CDs I can always re-rip the rare track or two that needs something higher.

Bill
Jun 13
Do the songs HAVE to be compressed, or can you transfer them to the ipod at CD quality? JoeSpareBedroom
Jun 13
I transfer to my iPOD at 320 kbps. That's at least CD quality. Harry
Jun 13
You ain'r heard nothin' yet. My bagpipe instructor tells my I'm finally ready to upgrade from the practice chanter, or will be by the time a set of pipes arrives from the guy in Scotland who is reputed to make the best insturment available for a realistic price. Just wait until this flower child gets cranking in that secluded little cove. :-) (Just kidding! Figuring out where to practice without disturbing people is going to be challenge) chuckgould.chu...
Jun 13
In NYC it is common to see the people practicing the BagPipes all around Central Park. Reginald
Jun 13
They're the homeless. Harry
Jun 13
Here's a question: Why do police funerals always seem to involve bagpipes, even if the deceased was Puerto Rican? JoeSpareBedroom
Jun 13
When I was 16, I was working on getting laid every weekend. Took a lot of effort to be successful, because I was neither handsome nor rich. Harry
Jun 12
Thats where a guitar comes in handy.

db

D-unit
Jun 12
Always blame it on the mothers! Don
Jun 12
Bert had trouble getting dates with the 'palm sisters'. Don
Jun 12
You know, I bet they turned him thumbs down repeatedly. Harry
Jun 12
Speaking of Ipods (or iPod) ...

Following my winter time rants about having no use for them (whatever they are), Mrs.E decided to get one for me. I have to admit, it seems to be well made ... bright shiny back with the Apple logo and a nice looking black front panel and screen. Heavy little thing too.

Problem is .... I don't have a clue what you do with it. Somehow I turned it on and couldn't shut it off until I sat down and read the manual. I was looking for where you put the batteries, but the manual says it charges an internal battery from the USB port on the computer .... except it warns you to only use type 2.0 USB ports or something bad might happen. What the heck is a 2.0 USB port?

I assume once I figure out how to hook it up to a computer I will need to spend hours downloading music from CDs or something to use this thing. Isn't it easier to just bring the CD to where ever you want to play it? I just don't get the concept

RCE

RCE
Jun 12
If you want, you can call me on the phone and I will be delighted to talk you through the preliminaries. It will recharge with a wall plug accessory, but you need to load music on it through your computer. I don't believe you need USB 2.0 for that.

It only takes a minute or so to dump a CD into a library file on your computer and then upload it to the iPOD.

Of course, you have to like music to want to mess with an iPOD.

Harry
Jun 12
Yeah right..like the dude on the steps with an acoustic guitar in the movie Animal House, at least until John Belushi came along.

Last time we spent a week on our old boat at the PIB Island we were docked in front of a sail boat. The guy who owned it looked like a 50 year old flower child from the '60's and sat on the bow of his boat every night strumming the damn thing. I was certainly glad he only stayed for 2 days. ;-)

Jun 12
Mine charges through a USB port connection with the other end of the cable going to the bottom port of the Ipod. That cable not only charges but transfers data and is included with the Ipod when you buy it.

I also have a car charger for use on the boat. Plugs into the bottom port of the Ipod and into a cigarette lighter.

Jun 12
Damn, Don, does every thread prompt you to make personal attacks? JohnH
Jun 12
Thanks. I might take you up on that. I think I am going to put it aside for now and wait until the next batch of rainy, cold weather hits. That'll give me something to do.

RCE

RCE
Jun 12
Now that's just silly John. I might throw something in every 50 or hundred posts. I don't have the energy, time or inclination to do so every thread. When is your term up as sheriff and will anyone else be running next time? I assume we'll get to vote the next sheriff in. Don
Jun 12
OK, fine, you don't go name-calling in every thread. But what the hell prompted the attack on Bert in a thread about Ipods? He didn't even make a post in the thread, did he? JohnH
Jun 12
What are you...his new mommy? BTW I didn't call him a name....I just poked some harmless fun at him. Don
Jun 13
Most computers from the last few years are usb2. USB1 is dog slow in comparison. You can buy a USB2 card for your computer if it is too old. And a CD turns into about 30 or 40 MB of MP3. Maybe less of the Apple format. So a 30 GB Ipod holds the equivilent of 7-800 CDs. You don't have to change disks every 30 or 40 minutes and you don't have to carry a crate of CDs around.

del cecchi

Del
Jun 12
   

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