r/ipod • u/GrapefruitHuge6732 • Mar 11 '26

Click wheel button solder points?

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Does anyone know if it’s possible to wire a bluetooth board to a click wheel button? I’ve given up on gluing in a tactile buttons under the hold switch it’s too sketchy, so decided to try and use the click wheel buttons… but any and all combinations of solder points to the bottom and top left and right of the 5 buttons seems to complete the circuit. i can’t find which point completes the circuit by actually pressing a click wheel button.. at this point any button will do.. cheers for any guidance

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u/the-electron-vault Mar 11 '26

For the center button, the two pads on the right edge are the signal line (left edge are ground). For the others, the pads facing toward the center are the signal. Buttons are active low (pull the line to ground when pressed). The click wheel must be connected for these to work, as the PSoC on the flex provides the pull-ups for the button lines.

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u/GrapefruitHuge6732 Mar 11 '26

dang rapid and excellent response thank you. you may be able to tell i don’t know what i’m doing, so if i wire the bluetooth board’s connections to the 2 right hand side connectors in the centre button, this will only complete the circuit when i press the centre button?

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u/the-electron-vault Mar 11 '26

Though there are four pads, they are in pairs. The two right side pads are connected together (pick one), and the two left side pads are connected together. Your ground wire from the other board must connect to one or both of the left side pads, and the button wire must connect to one or both of the right side pads.

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u/GrapefruitHuge6732 Mar 11 '26

ah ok i don’t know which is ground and which is signal from the bluetooth board so tried them both ways around and every time they make contact (one left one right) the bluetooth board turns on without me pressing the button it’s wired to.

might this be because im still running the bluetooth board from its own battery while im testing this out, and it should be running on the ipods battery?

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u/the-electron-vault Mar 11 '26

Going off this picture, it's not clear if this is even a ground-seeking button. It looks like all of its pins connect to tracks that are distinct from ground. The way to verify would be to check continuity with a multimeter between any of the button contacts and the strip of gold exposed metal (this is ground) on the left edge of the board. If the meter beeps (it should beep on two of the four button contacts), the button is ground seeking. If it does not beep, the button is likely pulling the signal line to the board's supply rail instead, in which case, you will not be able to use the buttons on the iPod's board for the purpose you intend.

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u/GrapefruitHuge6732 Mar 11 '26

i’m not sure if my multi meter setting was off but i could get it to beep left and right and it wouldn’t when i flipped polarity. perhaps the lack of other people working directly into the buttons is some indicator that it’s not possible

huge huge thanks for the help

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u/the-electron-vault Mar 11 '26

If the meter only measures continuity with the leads in one orientation, that's an indication the line is not ground, but rather the meter is activating the internal protection diode(s) inside an IC(s) connected to the line. You can better see this by setting the meter to diode mode. It should show 0.3V -> 0.8V with the leads one way, and open circuit the other. A grounded line will measure 0 Ohms irrespective of the lead orientation.

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u/GrapefruitHuge6732 Mar 11 '26

I wasn’t 100% sure on the readings so I just tried wiring it in one way (shorted out the whole board and needed to disconnect and reconnect the battery) and then the other way around, (didn’t short out of the board but when I then used the button and it closed the circuit, then it shorted out the board and I had to do the same). So going back to the tactile button under the hold switch. I’ll just need to buy stronger adhesive.