iPod capacitive pad

[Jay Vaughan]

> Has anybody got any prior hacking experience of one of these or know a
> bit more than I do about them? I have a broken old iPod....
>

I've taken my 5G iPod apart so many times now, its starting to get  
easy to do with fingernails.


> It's the capacitive touch spin wheel and 5 buttons built into the  
> pad. I
> believe it has a synaptics controller, but am unsure of the  
> interfacing.
> Could it be USB or a simpler mech?

Its GPIO, I believe.  If its busted, do the ol' "blowdriver for 15  
minutes on warm" trick, to get the moisture out.  The biggest problem  
with the capacitance tech is moisture.

>
> It could make a rather reliable replacement for a mechanical rotary
> encoder + buttons on something, if the data can be interpreted.


you could probably also just get the spare part from taiwan and  
replace it yourself.  Ask Mr. Google "ipod spare parts rotary spin  
wheel" and he might be nice to you ..

;
--
Jay Vaughan