Author’s Note: The Blogger service is misbehaving, refusing to save
or publish blog entries. This entire entry is written in Microsoft Word over
the course of a day, and will be uploaded as a single entry once it’s completed
Well, after two
years of faithful everyday service, my trusty 6th generation 64GB iPod Touch
has a bulging battery.
This is a little
concerning as you might imagine, and a little irritating as well, especially
when you consider that this specific device is a replacement for an identical
iPod that also had a bulging battery.
To be completely
fair though, I don't think we can lay the blame at Apple's door on this
specific issue. It's more down to the number of charging cycles that my iPods
go through. The device is pretty much tethered for 10 hours a day, playing my
let’s play/dramatic reading playlists over Bluetooth so that I have some
background noise while I’m up here relaxing, doing university work, sleeping,
whatever.
The problem is
that Lithium Ion batteries - for reasons I don’t wholly understand – don’t
behave well when the device is plugged in and running on mains power. It was
always my understanding that when a battery is full, the charging circuitry
will disconnect the battery from the charging current, and the device will run
entirely off external power. For whatever reason though, some current always
seems to go into the battery even if it’s only a trickle, and it seems that
over time, that miniscule current will make the battery unhappy.
It’s not a problem
exclusive to Apple, the local catalog store now uses Samsung tablets in place
of paper catalogs, and because these tablets are plugged in and powered on
24/7, they have to replace each of these tablets on a regular basis as the
battery inside swells alarmingly, to the point that the screens on the devices
become noticeably convex.
What now then?
Warranty replacement? Paid repair? Well, the iPod is out of warranty and I’m
not giving Apple another penny. Why?
There are a number
of reasons why I don’t like Apple. Whether it’s the slightly creepy cult-like
relationship between the customers and company, the walled garden model that
keeps the entire eco system of devices, OSes and “apps” (or software as the rest of us outside fairy land call it) firmly locked down, the deliberate and systematic process
of making the devices as hard to repair as possible (pentalobe screws,
anyone?), or the outright hostility with which the company treats independent
repair businesses, denying them access to software, tools, schematics and
specifications of their devices to try and ensure that only Apple technicians are allowed to interact with or service the
hardware (and we all know how that turns out), Apple are well known as a
company that is all smiles and handshakes – as long as you’re giving them money
and using their – not your – devices in a manner that they
approve of.
Whether it’s
charging for repairs for faults that are either misdiagnosed or nonexistent
(your screen is cracked? It’s water damage, see!) wrapping the users in pages
and pages of terms and conditions that dictate how they may or may not use the
devices they paid for, what software they may run on it and who they may get it
fixed by, or the wasteful and environmentally irresponsible “this component has
failed and it’s under warranty? Let’s scrap the whole device and get you a new
one” policy that results in unknown scores of otherwise fixable devices ending
their lives in some Apple electronics abattoir or other, I just have a deeply
rooted objection to supporting Apple as a company.
But I continue to
insist on using the iPod Touch. I’m on my third now, with my first (3rd
generation) being reviewed almost 10 years ago to the day. When one fails, I
get another. Why?
Because
unfortunately, despite my grievances above, the iPod Touch (at least as far
along as the sixth generation) is a mostly-superb device. It’s built for one
primary purpose and it serves that purpose extremely well. The fiddly and
sometimes clunky process of actually getting content onto and off of it notwithstanding,
there simply isn’t anything as good out there at the moment, and I’ve tried
Google Play Music. There are many android alternatives to the iPhones, many
products from Asus, Razer and Lenovo that are alternatives (in many cases,
superior alternatives) to the macbooks, but there simply isn’t anything out
there that is as good at being an iPod as an iPod. Every company but Apple
seems to have deserted the mp3 player market, as everyone these days likes to
put all their eggs in one basket and keep all their music on their smartphones.
Maybe this is
something I should eventually move into as well. I’m still debating which phone
I’ll be replacing my trusty S6 Edge+ with, but it will be getting replaced in
the next year or so. Perhaps at that time I’ll ditch the iPods altogether and
move to a single device model, but for now, I’m happy where I am.
So where does this
leave me? I’m not paying Apple to fix my device, it’s out of warranty, and I’m
not buying a replacement from Apple, they’ve had quite enough of my money. If
keeping my music on my phone doesn’t work out in the future I may well end up
buying another iPod from them at some point, but I really don’t want to give
them money if I can avoid it.
Fortunately for
me, I’ve no problem with getting my hands dirty (or as dirty as they can be
while working on electronic devices), and I’ve stripped down and rebuilt
laptops, iPods, phones and PCs in the past, so I’m reasonably confident that
with some help (I haven’t yet learned to solder, my dad is a very experienced
hand at it), I can fix this device.
Note the use of
the word Solder in there? That’s
right, in another tip of the hat to right-to-repair enthusiasts, Apple have
ditched the cable and connector model and soldered the battery directly to the logic
board. Awesome, huh? In all fairness, this is just as likely to be because a
soldered flexible flat cable takes up less vertical space than a connector, but
it’s still a pain in the butt.
Because I like
shiny things though, and because I want this repair to go as smoothly as
possible, I have bought some new tools. I’ve bought the shiny sparkly and
otherwise awesome Pro Tech Toolkit
from Ifixit, as well as their iOpener gizmo that should hopefully help me deal
with the adhesive strips inside the device that hold the display in and keep
the battery secured to the case.
The procedure is a
fairly simple one, at least in theory. Open the device up by flipping the
screen out of the way, remove the LCD shield, desolder the three contacts
connecting the battery to the logic board, [gently, and with the use of heat to
soften the aforementioned adhesive strips] pry the old battery out of the case
(Yep, direct hands-on contact with a damaged and failing lithium-ion battery –
that’ll be fun!), and then install and solder the new battery, reinstall the
shield, and lower and secure the screen.
Simple! I hope.
If it works, my
trusty iPod gets a new lease on life. If it goes wrong, well at least I still
have some sparkly tools to keep. I’ll pick up another iPod from CEX or
something. Now, I’m just waiting on the tools and keeping the coffee flowing.
16:21: Well,
eventually the amazon guy deigned to turn up with my iOpener toolkit from
iFixit. This contains a variety of tools, most of which are duplicates of ones
I’ve already got, but what it also has is the iOpener itself.
With the help of
the iOpener, I’ve been able to (gently) prise the screen out of its enclosure
and pivot it out of the way, whereupon I removed the metal shield beneath, to
reveal a distinctly swollen and unhappy battery.
17:51: Right,
we’re in business. Wish me luck, hopefully I’ll have a working ipod by the end
of this.
19:11: Well, it
was touch and go there, but – for the moment – the iPod is charging happily,
with its new battery. It still needs to be reassembled, so let’s get on with
that.
19:25: Right, now
that the device is completely reassembled, I’m getting a new screen that seems
to depict a completely drained battery. Whether these obscure Apple hieroglyphics
mean “battery discharged” or “battery has failed and will never work again” is
anyone’s guess, so I’m going to leave it and see if the battery charges at all
over the next couple of hours.
22:51: Geez, it’s
nearly 11pm and it’s 34C in here. It gets way too hot in my room.
Okay, so in a fit
of pique, I opened the iPod back up, determined to see if there was any other
explanation for its behavior than a duff battery. I got my multimeter out and
couldn’t detect anything from the battery’s terminals. No reading whatsoever,
0, zip, nothing.
I went to get a
second opinion from my dad and he got the same reading. Being much more versed
in such matters than me, he noted that to get a reading of 0 in such
circumstances is pretty unusual by itself, so he kept checking the terminals.
As he did so, they
started to work loose and the connector started coming away from the logic
board.
It turns out that
letting me solder the connector (this being my first ever time of soldering)
was a nice indulgence, but not conducive to actually getting good results. I
didn’t do a great job, didn’t use nearly enough solder, and while the joints
were strong enough to hold just long enough for the lock screen to show for a
few seconds, they didn’t hold any longer than that.
More than that,
despite following watching several youtube tutorials showing exactly how to
remove the battery for whatever reason, the soldering iron simply wouldn’t melt
the solder holding the pads to the logic board as the ones in the video did. Lead-free
solder is supposed to melt at around 217C, but even with the iron set to 300,
then 350C, it just wasn’t melting. It took a lot of messing around with the
soldering iron, and a lot of prying (during which I managed to melt the
(replacable tip) of my brand new nylon tipped reverse tweezers) before the
connector eventually came free. Initially we were concerned that I’d pulled one
of the pads off the logic board, but this turned out to be adhesive goop
scorched onto one of the pads, and the goop came off with a liberal scrubbing
with isopropyl.
As I seethed with
frustration, feeling angry at the battery retailer for sending me a totally
dead battery, I asked my dad to test the battery one more time, pointing out he
had said that a result of 0.000V is unusual even from a dead battery. He tested
again, and it came out to a distinctly not-zero number. 3.83 volts, in fact.
The battery was full.
Irritated that I
no longer had a valid excuse for blaming someone else for my misfortune, I
suggested that my dad do the soldering this time.
He started by
re-tinning the pads on the mainboard, and as I held the connector against the
pads with a toothpick, he re-soldered each one in turn. I guess an experienced
person can make anything look easy.
A few seconds
later I swiveled the screen of the still mostly-disassembled ipod back down
against the case and held down the power button. I’ve never been so pleased to
see an apple logo.
After a few
seconds (that felt like forever), the iPod went to the lock screen, and
entering my password, I was shown a wonderful lovely and completely working
home screen.
Job done. At last.
Tools I’ve used:
Of course, this
job was made vastly easier with a wonderful selection of tools from the cool
folks over at Ifixit. I bought the Pro Tech Toolkit, and the iOpener Toolkit.
Of particular note
during this repair were the Jim (kind of like an unsharpened knife), the shims
(the blue plastic triangles), a wonderful 4mm microscrewdriver set, and an
equally wonderful set of curved needle-nose tweezers.
To loosen the adhesive
holding the screen in (and later, the adhesive holding the battery in), I used
the iOpener itself, which again, did a fantastic job.
I also used a Silverline magnetic parts bowl, which allowed me to put screws and parts aside and still be sure they'd stay where they were put at the end of the work.
I distinctly agree
with Ifixit’s belief in the right to repair, and I wholeheartedly support their
efforts to ensure that everyone has the tools and the knowledge with which to
repair their devices. It’s thanks to tools, guides and tutorials from Ifixit
that this repair was possible, and I eagerly recommend them to anyone curious
about or intent on conducting their own electronics repairs.
Ifixit didn’t
provide the soldering iron which was a generic “Precision Gold” 48W
workstation, sold (I believe) by Maplin.
So what to do now?
Well, it’s too late for celebration beer, so I think I’ll have celebration
Chicken Soupandabread instead. This is like Soupandaroll, but with bread slices
instead of rolls…
I’ve tidied most
of my tools away, I’ve got a bit of tidying to do, but that’s me about done for
tonight. I woke up at a sensible time this morning, so I’m tired. But at least
I did what I set out to do today.
See ya!
Epilogue, 30th August: Upon resuming use of the now-repaired iPod, I found that the battery capacity was much diminished, compared to the original battery. While my iPod formerly had a play time (connected by bluetooth to an external speaker) long enough for me to go to sleep listening to podcasts, and to wake up with the podcasts still playing, the new battery ran down from a full charge to zero in about four and a half hours of play. "Oh well" I figured, "four and a half hours of play time is better than the zero I had".
Over a couple of days of use however, for whatever reason, the battery-reading software and the battery have become acclimatised to each other, and the battery will now allow the device to play audio over bluetooth for a full twelve hours, with charge remaining.
So all's well that ends well.
Over a couple of days of use however, for whatever reason, the battery-reading software and the battery have become acclimatised to each other, and the battery will now allow the device to play audio over bluetooth for a full twelve hours, with charge remaining.
So all's well that ends well.
