//Home/Hacks&Mods/LegoDock/
As I mentioned before when my iPod is in it's Contour Showcase it's too big for the Apple dock.
So I decided to make my own iPod dock, to accommodate my encased
iPod. But what materials should I use? Wood? Metal? Hmm, I needed
something easy to work with, and something I could alter easily as
I
was building it. Ah, time to pull out the old Lego!
Most of my Lego dates from the 70's and 80's, so all the white
bricks
have gone a subtle shade of yellow, and show up the teeth marks
too
well. So I decided to use the black bricks.
I didn't plan the design before hand, I just made it up as I went
along, hence the boxy look. The only things it needed to have were
a
back support to hold the iPod up at a slight backward angle, and a
way
of holding the dock connector pointing upward.
The dock connector on the cable normally needs to be pinched at
the
sides before pulling it out of the iPod or Apple dock, so I put a
cable
tie around the connector to hold the sides in.
The cable tie also gave me a way of holding the connector in
place. By
wedging the tie under a bit of Lego, I was able to stop the
connector
lifting up when to iPod was lifted out of the dock.
The finished dock works perfectly. The iPod drops straight down
onto
the connector without any problems, which is more luck than
judgement.
I stuck four rubber feet on the bottom of the dock to stop it
sliding
around.
So there you go. It looks a bit pants, but it works. With more
planning
and some more modern Lego bits you could make a really great
looking
dock, but for the time being, it'll do :)
//Home/Hacks&Mods/LegoDock/