Erwan Macé – Passionate Geek

Whether you’ve just switched from an iPhone to an Android phone or own multiple devices, you may feel frustrated to own iPod and iPhone audio accessories (alarm clocks, audio docks, car stereo, etc…) which you can’t use with your brand new Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone 7 device. Although it doesn’t seem to work with every accessory (ex my Parrot Zikmu by Stark), here is a quick and illustrated step-by-step guide to make your own 30-pin iPod connector to audio jack and micro USB charger adapter. If a little bit of soldering doesn’t freak you out, you may continue reading…

You’ll need a female 30-pin iPod dock connector, a male 3.5 mm stereo jack and a male micro USB connector. You may recycle unused existing cables and chargers by cutting off the required parts (I cut the female plug from an iPod extension cable, the micro USB connector of an old defective charger and the stereo jack from one of the many pairs of cheap headsets that usually ship with phones). You may need to use a thin flat screwdriver to “break-open” the casing of the 30-pin connector. You’ll also need a soldering iron.

• If you’re recycling the 30-pin connector, use your soldering iron to unsolder all wires.
• Refer to this pinout diagram to locate pins 16, 23, 1, 3 and 4 of the 30-pin iPod connector.
• Connect the USB ground to pin 16 and the USB VDC+ (5 volts) to pin 23.
• Connect the audio ground to pin 1 or 2 (they’re connected internally) and the audio left/right to pins 4 and 3.
• If you had to “break open” your 30-pin connector, make sure to test your cable before closing it back with super-glu!.

This should definitely allow you to use all your iPod/iPhone accessories to charge all your micro-USB devices. If you’re lucky enough (it works on some accessories only, you’ll need to try), it might even allow you to enjoy your Android music on your iPhone dock! It works beautifully for me in the car where I can now charge and listen to Spotify on my Galaxy Nexus using the car’s iPhone connector.