Well, as these things go, I saw something cool-looking and shiny and bought it...
http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2000743
Hell, I even knew full-well that I wouldn't be able to use it (easily) without an IPod... It says so on the product description, Plus the fact that it was listed as the Worst WOOT candidate (really bad thing to buy for non-wooters)... the possibility of getting a face-mounted video screen was too much to not get for $99... I almost bought 2 in fact.


Now, I seek aid from the almighty Haxxors, cyber gurus, and all-around geeks of TeamHackaday.
[br]

Okay, with the intro out of the way, here's my proposal.

I have this:


And want to connect to these:


with this:


Now, I've tried directly connecting the Composite video signal directly to the solder pads on the breakout board, with the board plugged into the MyVu. But alas... that would be too simple. Plus, the myvu wouldn't even stay on. (I don't have an Ipod to check to see how it's supposed to look when it's working right, but I'm trying to get a friend with an ipod to let me try it)

So, my questions are:
1) Which pins need to be connected/energized to activate a regular Ipod dock and make it accept AV inputs? basically, how do I trick it into thinking an I-Pod is there?
2) The Device (glasses) are designed to be able to run off of the ipod's power, through the onboard battery itself; however, the version I got has a supplementary battery; HOWEVER, I'm thinking that this battery is actually just acting as a pass-through and not really powering the glasses, it powers the Ipod, which in turn power the glasses. If so, onto which pins does the Ipod output voltage and how much? I'm assuming it would be the same as for the other ipod accessories I've seen popping up.
3) Is there any proprietary mumbo-jumbo that I need to look out for that apple put in place just to keep non-apple devs from making stuff for teh ipod?

Thanks again

A start. There's Composite Video Out and S-Video component.
http://pinouts.ru/Devices/ipod_pinout.shtml
http://www.ipodlinux.org/Dock_Connector (pins reversed pin 1 = ground, pin 2 line out ground)??
which links to
http://www.ipodlinux.org/Apple_Accessory_Protocol

Looks like you may need "Transferring a picture to the iPod's screen is done using picture blocks." section near the bottom.(?) There's a Composite Video out too.

I like this ipodlinux guy

Don't have an iPod (have iPhone) movies are down converted for both devices to fit the screen when they come from YouTube. Everything is .m4v or .mp4... Far more compression will be needed for DVD sized images. What does the plug for the specs look like? (Composite, component, pins?)

Yeah, I've run into those pinouts more times than I care to count. I've already tried just inputting the composite video from a DVD player into the myvu specs... no dice.

The plug on the myvu IS the ipod dock connector. The way I see it, it ACTS just like an Ipod dock, except that it doesn't turn on unless it's plugged into the ipod... since it takes power off of the ipod.
[I think I explained all this already...]

Anyway, I'm going to breadboard the breakout board and see if inputting voltage into the myvu turns it on... that, or I'll end up with a head-mounted brick.

Hey, I'm trying to hack this thing too. Did you actually buy the PCB extender you showed in your post? Those things are pretty expensive...could damn near buy a rough 5th gen ipod for that much online. Anyhow, I haven't really had any luck so far, though I did manage to get a brief glimpse of static when the device was turning on, in contrast to the white screen you see momentarily.

I'd bet this device attempts to communicate via the Serial TX & RX. I'm not too familiar with iPods, don't own one, but I would bet this will be solved through serial communication. Here is my collection of useful info so far

http://pinouts.ru/Devices/ipod_pinout.shtml
http://ipodlinux.org/Apple_Accessory_Protocol
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/show ... =204203528

Lets get these damn things hacked!

Yeah, I did buy the pinout board, but haven't had time to mess with it. It was expensive, especially since I bought the pre-assembled one... I think it was around $80 shipped. >.<

Oh well, it's all for education... or so I tell myself. I think i'm going to solder some pins onto it, so I can hook it into my breadboard, directly. After I figure the pinout, then I'll just get a stand-alone connector.

Serial? I don't know... I think it's simpler than that... much simpler. I'm planning on doing the following...

3-5V into PIN 18
-The MyVu has a DC-DC regulator, so it should auto-regulate the voltage itself, just so long as it doesn't burn it.

Ground into PIN 1
Composite Video into PIN 8
Audio into PIN 3 & PIN 4
A/V Ground into PIN 2

My other issue is PIN 21. I'm pretty sure that the I-Pod uses it for sensing, BUT we're not dealing with the Ipod, but with an accessory. I don't know, maybe shunting it to the 3V? or maybe it's not even necessary...

Pin 13 on the iPod puts out 3.3 vdc to power accessories. Some accessories also use this voltage to power up/detect the presence of an iPod.

Hmm, I don't think it could hurt to try the voltage to Pin 18, though I assumed that power was being provided when connected to the included battery pack, as the screens light up white when first connected. I'd try connecting Pins 1-4 as you described, but use the battery pack instead of powering Pin 18. I'm anxious to see your results, so keep me posted!

Cerberus: Are you sure pin 13?

(PIN)"13 - Rx - ipod receiving line, Serial RxD"

EDIT:
I guess the reverse would be Pin 18 eh?

Are we using the same pinouts here?

My reference is: http://pinouts.ru/Devices/ipod_pinout.shtml

which is a pinout of the DOCK OUT from the Ipod...



I'd assumed this too, but then I got to thinking about it, and it started to make less and less sense. Reasoning was that the MyVu could run WITHOUT the battery pack by being powered by the IPod, and the battery pack can be used WITHOUT the MyVu (I'm assuming)... As such, I think that the battery pack is just a pass-through for everything, and the IPod pulls power from it, THEN feeds it into the MyVu glasses.

Pretty much, since they weren't designed to work without an IPod, why bother designing it to allow it to happen? If anything, we could pull voltage from Pin 23, which is the USB +5V which is where I'm assuming the battery charges the Ipod with/through. Potentially something doing with PIN 27 (USB +)

I could really use some ideas for tapping into the pins of my myvu, might have to check for some sort of cheap docking product. Anyhow, thought of any cool uses for the hack? My idea was to combine the headset with a tiny IR enabled camera + an IR LED flashlight.

Heh heh... I'll do you one better and add a paint-ball gun

Basically, I was going to do an open-source land-warrior system. I'd even attach a wii-mote/Arduino set-up on a remote platform (RC gun turret) or a shoulder-mounted gun (A la Predator)...

Tapping into the MyVu pins is kinda hard without either A) buying an adapter and soldering the break-outs, or 2) cutting the connector and hard-wiring it.

Personally, I'd spring for the adapter/breakout board, get it unassembled if you think it's too expensive. I think it'd be good to be able to still use it/sell it and have it usable with an IPod when you're done...

Pin 13 as per this page: http://ipodlinux.org/Dock_Connector

This information should come in handy, my GF bought me a "Sonic Impact Portable Video iPod Player w/ 7" LCD " should be fun.

Any follow up on this? Has it been hacked? I've still not hacked my headset, nor have I really tried much...

Personally, I've put it on back burner... school is starting up and I need to buckle down for that...

urg... Why must I have to give up what I want to do for what I have to do?!?

I guess you haven't looked anymore at this then. I just got the Made For iPod version of the glasses myself. The old ones (for 5g ipod). So I'm eager to get them to accept normal video in too.

I'm guessing that you would need an extra batterypack if you want to run them on a clean video-signal from another PMP/AV-unit. Could you use aftermarket cellphone-batteries for this?
If it's as easy as applying power to some of the pins in the connector.. Wouldn't a switch of some sort be the easiest way?

I'm thinking of buying one of the receptacles on the repairsite to play some with. I just need to get my workshop setup first.

-C-