Running iPod without battery

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Level 1

6 points

Running iPod without battery

I have an old iPod with a dead battery. I've already replaced batteries on other ipods, and I could easily and inexpensively do that to this one, but I was thinking of dedicating this one to my car; it would never need a battery. In fact, a battery would be a total waste, because it will get hot in the car, and fail prematurely. So running the iPod without a battery sounds like a great idea.

Unfortunately, the iPod won't boot without a battery. Has anyone found a way around that? Thanks!

Dell, Thinkpad, other

Posted on Jul 29, 2007 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Jul 29, 2007 11:48 AM in response to Steerpike58

Hmmmm, interesting issue. I am surprised it doesn't boot without the battery since I would think without a battery in place when plugged in, it would look to the iPod like the battery is fully charged. But perhaps it needs some sort of connection there. You might try simply placing a resistor across the terminals where the battery plugs in, maybe get a dead battery, cut off the connector then attach a resistor across the leads of the plug and plug it in. Say a 4.7k.
Or as I think about it a little more, you might be better off with a capacitor so the circuitry has something to charge into and a little bit of storage will allow some fluxuating voltage levels where as a simple resistor might cause the iPod to power cycle.
Anyway, a Super Capacitor of 1F should be enough to give you a sort of mini battery, not enough to run the iPod, but maybe enough to allow the iPod to boot up. Something like this...
http://tinyurl.com/yo6k3g
Still another thought that comes to mind is a small solar panel that attached where the battery does (with an inline diode to keep the charging circuitry from charging back into the panel) so at least in daylight there would be power into the ipod to make it look like a battery?
Of course I don't have any clue as to which circuitry the iPod uses or I could give real advice rather than completely random guesses, and I also don't know you your level of electronics, so sorry if these are all way out of the question for you.
Patrick

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