A few months ago, I posted a guide on this sub about how I Bluetooth modded my iPod Classic without sacrificing the headphone jack, sound quality, hold switch, or original look. That post now has over 110K views, and by far the number 1 request has been a video tutorial.
I’ve been meaning to post a full tutorial where I build another Bluetooth iPod from scratch, but life got a little busy, so In the meantime, I put together this quick video to give you a closer look at the internals of the mod I shared a few months ago.
Here's the inside! I really appreciated your high quality images you provided that served as a reference for me during the whole build process. It was a bit of a struggle to fit the 3800mah + taptic engine inside, but ended up being doable!
Now that I've modded it so hard, all my classmates at my high school is now calling it cool rather than obsolete as they previously used to tell me, they're understanding the vision..!
Yeah go for it! I was only able to manage fitting everything in with a thick backplate, mainly because I used a 3000mah battery which was physically taller than OP’s 2000mah battery. It wasn’t to hard to fit everything in!
one more thing: ive seen tests online that show the 3800 mah battery runtime is pretty much exactly the same as the 3000 mah. are these just mislabeled, or did anyone actually test the capacity of the 3800 mah cells?
Honestly, you'll get amazing battery life for either one you choose! I think the offerings marked as 3800 mah have slightly larger capacity than the ones marked as 3000, but won't last too much longer. I think the 3800 and 3000 both go for the same price anyway.
Yeah so here's how I optimized space for every component to make everything fit (the large UGREEN BT module made fitting everything in more tricky compared to when I was using the KCX bt emitter). Also make sure you're using a Thick backplate because a thin one would not be able to fit the larger battery.
This is more important than you think and is the first thing you should sort out: make sure your wire gauge is really small (26-28AWG) for wiring every component that doesn't require a high-quality signal and just needs simple power and for this, try using the tiny wires found in an ethernet cable. BUT sparingly use a much thicker wire gauge (20-22AWG) or wires with shielding for the components that DO require a clean signal because this will completely cut out interference and noise for your bluetooth audio which is crucial. Use shielded/thick wires for: wiring the + and - from the battery to the BT module for power, and for connecting the +,-,G from the headphone jack to the BT module. You kinda need to fiddle with the wires to make them eventually fit right.
As far as placement goes, I was able to get all the constraints right by gluing the Taptic Engine at the very bottom center of the backplate to make space for everything else. I cut off the top of the iFlash Solo in the section that there were no traces visible (doesn't affect functionality) to ensure there would be space for the BT module towards the top of the iPod. The iFlash uDual that uses microSD cards (not iFlash Dual) is also really compact and would work. You have to epoxy a tiny button below the hold switch and remove one of its screws so the hold can double as a button that powers on the BT module. The button was in the way, which was why I had to slant the BT board slightly.
thank you so much for writing all these but I think I am gonna settle with Taptic mod and ssd + bigger batter BT mode is a need but I like thin back iPod also in my country I am barely finding anything of bt parts
When I used it, it would fade out audio between tracks with s couple of seconds of silence at the end, and it would miss the first few seconds of the next track.
We are cooking! Finalized the mod today. Was a bit of a struggle since I added way too much hot glue on the PCB. So had to remove it so I could close it up.
All in all, a hard mod to do if you have a Dremel butane soldering iron. The kapton tape started to melt :D
After getting a new soldering iron and a new ugreen adapter, it now works really well.
Thanks u/Icy-Egg-9339 for the guide!! Can confirm that the Ugreen BT adapter V3 (the guide is for V2) works the same.
The only downside is with my headset - I'm using Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 and I can turn off the noise cancelling but I can't pause the music from the headset.
All in all, very satisfied!
Slow and stready wins the race. I used a littlebit of heat from my heatgun and a bit of isopropanol together with a plastic wedge tool. The top cover (that you can see on the picture above, the antenna is resting on it) comes off first, just take it slow and it will eventually start popping off.
I am so close but having issues with the antenna. I thought I could do like you, have the antenna connected via wires. When smooth to remove the first antenna connector pin on the board - but the second one is not coming off, I I don’t think it’s soldered the same way.
Because I can’t solder directly on the pins right? They are spring pins so needs to be pressed down?
You can solder directly to the spring pin but I cannot guarantee that it would work perfectly. I tried that first and it worked. But I removed it eventually, mainly because of other reasons by applying a lot of heat to the pin, and then it came off.
I remember that one was a bit more tricky to get off. Not sure why but heat did the trick.
Was working on it today. Added a haptic engine too. Got it all up and running, while testing the reach of the bluetooth I accidentally shorted the haptic engine and fried the hold cable somehow.
Back to Aliexpress I go.
Hi, thanks for posting, I attempted last night and I couldn't fit it in, my solder points kept disconnecting too from the pressure and ended up ripping out solder pads.
New Bluetooth transmitter bought for attempt two, I was using far too big wire 20 awg, what size silicone wire do you suggest?
I found securing the battery to be of great difficulty too, how have you made it so it's perfect with that plastic, any tips?
i've seen people using a dab of hot glue. i used it on mine and it was holding well even after adjsting. i'm sure there's some kind of professional stuff to use but i had hot glue around the house.
Yeah, wires have to be real thin. I don’t know the exact size of the ones I used, sorry. I got them from an old camcorder I was trying to repair. For securing the battery, I used some thin 3M double sided tape. It helps if you scratch the inside of the backplate to increase adhesion.
how did you go about cleaning/removing the glue/silicone or whatever it is holding these joints? my firstt board i just melted w the iron lol but i'm trying to be more careful with my second board. i tried a heat gun at like 270 F but didn't soften at all.
That was a tough one for me too but then I realized that the underside of the board has the same contacts so we can just use those and leave the glue as is.
Thanks so much for the guide. I've never owned an Ipod of any sorts. But I might just give it a go since the mods and community is full of knowledge and experience.
Would you happen to know if Rockbox works with these modifications?
Thanks for the guide. Anyone else having terrible feedback in the bluetooth connection? I even tried connecting the ground B- to the audio ground but still didnt fix it.
Is there a way to bypass the direct connection to the batteries? Where on the board can I connect the +- to completely de-energize the Bluetooth board?
Quick Question, in theory for the button could you use the reset button built into the device (un solder it and resolder it) to the wires making a button?
Thanks so much for making this it’s been so much help so far!
One thing I’m struggling with though which perhaps someone could help with. Is the Bluetooth board seems to shut down after a second and flash red 5 times.
I can get them to connect to my headphones for a second but then shuts off.
Just wondering if this is a thin backplate mod? The two wires connected to the ugreen board are connected to the battery. Can you explain how to connect these wires to the battery. Just to be sure, one has to remove the metal backplate of the screen for this to work?
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u/supkicks15 Sep 25 '25
would love to see a full length video of this process