tutorial: Sick of your iTrip not working very well? My iTrip modification

[skh]

Introduction:
I can not be held responsible for any damage you do to your iTrip/ipod while working through this tutorial. Use at your own risk.

Okay this took me quite a long time to do but in the end it was definitely worth it. I can literally walk to the end of the block (like 50+ feet) and the reception will still be perfect.

Materials:
-Griffin iTrip
-Emery board
-Speaker Wire
-Super Glue
-Pen
-Straw
-scalpel/exacto knife

Directions:

Step 1: Opening up the iTrip

Begin by taking the scalpel and prying into the iTrip. I found it easiest to start from the grey piece at the bottom and work my way around, eventually the whole thing will open up, but it may take some time so be patient. (Fig. 1)


Figure 1

Step 2: Working with the antenna

You want to remove the board from the plastic as I have done above (fig 1). Next straighten out the copper antenna. You will then need to remove the plastic off your speaker wire, and begin wrapping it around the antenna (fig. 2a), but MAKE SURE you leave some room at the bottom that has no wire around it. As I found out later, if any of the antenna/speaker wire is touching any part of the board it will create static of completely stop it from working. Try taking a piece of masking or duct tape and wrapping it around the bottom of the bare antenna about ½ an inch thick (fig 2b). I decided to wrap the wire around the antenna for 2 full rotations, because I figured it would increase the reception. Another thing to take note of is that you should try to bend the antenna as LEAST as possible. I bent mine back and forth 1 too many times, and the antenna broke off and I had to solder it back on, which was a huge pain in the ass.


Figure 2a


Figure 2b

Step 3: Modifying the plastic

Here you are going to want to cut off the little edges that are inside the piece of plastic, so that you can move the antenna to the correct spot. There are 4 of them in total, 2 on each half of the iTrip (fig. 3). Next, you are going to have to use your emery board to smooth out any uneven edges that you may have made when you were trying to pry the iTrip open, don’t worry if you think you severely dented it, because it is really easy to just sand the nicks right out of the plastic.


Figure 3

Step 4: Working with the antenna pt. 2

Next, I took a straw and wedged it over the speaker wire/antenna to keep the 2 tight together (fig. 4).


Figure 4

I then took a white pen, with a grey tip (so it matches the rest of the iTrip) and placed it over the straw covered antenna to figure out what size I would need it to be. Once I found the correct size, I super glued the grey tip to the end of the pen so it wouldn’t fall off, then sanded it with the emery board to make it look nice (fig 5).


Figure 5

Step 5: Modifying the plastic Pt. 2

You are now going to need to cut notches out of the plastic encasing so that the new antenna can properly stick out. To do this I used the scalpel to cut notches, then a triangular metal sanding thing (don’t know the name of it) to smooth it out. Once I had the correct size hole, I placed the board along with the antenna back into the plastic and super-glued it closed. Make sure you use a lot of glue so it stays shut, and you can always just go back and use the emery board to smoothen things out. When I was done, it looked like this: (fig 6-7)





Finally, I happened to have some white touch-up paint that I use for my car and I spread it over when there antenna was sticking out, let it dry then sanded it down so it was smooth, so you can barely tell there was any modification done to it at all

That’s it!!

This worked WONDERS for me and I have yet to get and static whatsoever, even if I set it to a station that is populated.

Feel free to leave suggestions, comments, whatever.

or e-mail them to samhall11@hotmail.com

If you're gonna post this around the net thats cool with me but leave me some credit, it took me quite a while to do this, take pictures, and write a tutorial on it.

thanks,

sKh

[rosswf]

hey an nice tutorial, very good, and the pics are good too. i did this a while back with my itrip but i didnt do the straw thing.
anyway, well done.

also welcome to the site, i noticed this was your first post.

[SuperStupified]

good tutorial, you shuold now try and make one for the itrip amp that a few of us have made
also, what is an emery board?

[skh]

thanks for the welcome. Stupified, an emery board is whats at the bottom of Figure 3, its like a nail file with 4 different grades of sand paper.

[frost_ad]

An emery board is a fingernail file basically

[Lone_Wolf]

nice tutorial and way of extending the range. if i get some time I might make a tutorial on the amp, it would have to be a weekend thing.

[skh]

Yeah I'd like to see a tutorial for the amp, if we could figure out a way of combining the 2 methods we could probalby get some serious distance.. maybe open a radio station or something

[SuperStupified]

well when my itrip wasn't broken and my ipod wasn'y stolen, i had the mod whith the exposed antenna and the mod with the amp. it worked quite well. great quality and you could take over actual stations.

[rosswf]

for the amp do you not need a car 12volt input?:s i dont wanna carray about a battery pack, do you?
its ok for in the car i guess

[SuperStupified]

Originally Posted by rosswf

i dont wanna carray about a battery pack, do you?

Well it doesn't take many batteries to power it you could make a case that would be smaller than a can of spray paint. probly smaller that vhs movie case