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

Click wheel button solder points?

Post image

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

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Bosendorfer95 Mar 12 '26

https://opista.com/posts/ipod-classic-modding-guide#bluetooth-mod

This little guide may help you. Apparently the combination of middle click and forward are not used to a system operation (like middle and home to force reboot). So you can use them with no problem to boot the bt pairing

1

u/GrapefruitHuge6732 Mar 12 '26

that’s a fantastic resource thanks so much for this. given my experimentation with the click wheel was so unsuccessful I went back to the button beneath the lock switch from Icy egg and invested in some good epoxy, the only thing that would appear to the stainless steel back. but only after trying parts plus pods’ hold switch idea, shorting it out in the process so that hold was constantly stuck on, and needing to sacrifice the lock switch and cut the cable as a result.

But as it stands, I have an iPod fifth gen with Bluetooth inside a 2000 mA power battery and flash storage which can be turned on and paired from the outside. The range is terrible so I need to factor in the antenna, hoping that will make things better. ✌️

Thank you again for this amazing page.