Yep to make sure that took place … After waiting on years on Apple to make.
a USB-C iPhone, I determined I had sufficient. I'' ll just make one myself. This video is to record how I lastly.
made this iPhone, the first one of its kind. If you'' re curious regarding innovation,.
you must absolutely remain, since I'' ll be strolling you via the.
whole mind of the task with its up as well as downs and also.
actually entering into the details. So allow'' s begin! Similar to any type of task, you require to set.
clear and also reasonable goals for yourself. Mine were the following: the minimum demands are that it charges and also.
that data functions whenever I connect in the cable.So reversibility needs to work. Then you require to make a note of. a rough plan to adhere to.
Mine looked a bit similar to this: As soon as that ' s done, you experience the steps systematically as well as. do whatever is required to attain them. Let ' s start with the very first objective,. which was developing an evidence
of principle. This is what I carried out in my component 1 video. If you haven ' t saw it, wear ' t fear,. I will rapidly summarize it below. There exists Lightning to USB-C cables, right? To connect your iPhone to your MacBook. Well what happens if I can take that. cable television, transform the USB-C male end into a women one with a personalized board, and after that. miniaturize all this to put it inside the apple iphone. Let ' s evaluate the hypothesis.'First I took place identified advertisements and also bought. the least expensive iPhone I might obtain my hands on that was still half decent at that time.It was an iPhone X. I intended to see if it '
s feasible to. make a Type-C female-to-female board, however I discovered no details about this online. Simply that I shouldn ' t do this, terrific … Then I took place Google Images and also lastly saw. something that appeared like what I desired.
So I purchased it. It got here, I tried it out, and also it didn ' t job. Damn, it ' s going to be more challenging than I assumed … I took some time to think, I tried again,.
however I plugged it the various other way around.You never understand, as well as it worked! Okay, that ' s a start, yet I need to dig much deeper. inside the cord and discover how it truly functions. Before I continue, you require to be. knowledgeable about what a continuity test is. Allow ' s claim I have a conductive factor An as well as point B. I would like to know if they are straight. related to a cord or a trace on a PCB. I take my multimeter, placed it in continuity. mode, and after that touch both factors
with my probes. A small present is sent, and. the resistance is determined.
If it is really reduced, then the multimeter. releases a tone to show connection.
On the various other hand, if there. is something in between, like a
resistor for instance, the. multimeter won ' t give off a
tone. So currently we prepare to dig in the wire. I just reduced it in fifty percent to. expose the cords that are inside.
From experience, I recognize. the shade of the cables, and also I can already have a pretty. great concept of what they do.Then I bring my USB-C women breakout board as well as.
run a connection test between the first wire as well as every pin of the USB-C adapter. This allows me to understand where it links to. After that I switch to the next cable,. as well as do the exact same point once again. This enabled me to have the understanding to. eliminate two ports from my circuit, and make it less complex. Bear in mind how I claimed it only worked one means? Well I needed to go via the USB Type-C. requirements as well as I found this table, which informed me I might easily repair it. by adding a 5.1 kΩ resistor on pin B5.This method limits the charging speed. when plugged in among the 2 methods.
But I chose it anyway, since I wished to.
obtain a prototype out asap.
Now that we have the USB side found out,. let ' s have a closer take a look at the Lightning side. I will make this representation a. little much more complex'. Now, it reveals the internal flex. cable of the Lightning female port
. You can actually maintain it connected in, yet bend it.
in reverse, so that it is outside of the phone. It makes points a lot easier when troubleshooting.
What I desire is to remove this connector. I always begin with the very easy. part to provide myself self-confidence. Since this port is removed, let ' s concentrate on the last piece to completely. understand what is happening here.First, I require to break open that plastic. around the Lightning man connector, to see what is within. Count on me, it is not a simple. job, as well as this is by design. The adapter that is inside the wire offered by. Apple is called C91, and also it is constructed like a tank. Not very convenient if I need. to open it up multiple times. So I browsed, as well as I bought all. the third-party MFI cables I could discover, to see if one was easier to open than Apple ' s.The board they have actually within is called C94, and it. is offered by Apple to third-party suppliers. You might notice that there is. still the Lightning adapter made out of steel and plastic beneath.
I wished to discover a means to eliminate. this component to see what it was concealing.
So I attempted many ways to do that, with. chemicals, by grinding it, but in the long run, the very best way was by heating up
the metallic get rid of a welding torch, and afterwards taking out. when the plastic below beginnings to melt. On the right you can see the outcome I got. To provide a quick review of the situation,. we have our flex-PCB where we got rid of the Lightning connector, we have a bare C94 PCB. which we can solder wires directly to the pads on the flex cord, and also we have our USB-C.
female board where we can also solder cords to. This is how far I got in.
my proof of concept video clip. Now we want to reverse-engineer the C94 port due to the fact that I wear ' t see how I can fit. it inside the iPhone otherwise.The board doesn ' t look like it has several.
parts, so it shouldn ' t be too made complex. Well in fact the board has an initial layer of glue. in addition to the parts, which is not also tough to get rid of,
but then a lot of the components are.
covered by a composite product called underfill. It is used to make sure that there will be less. stress on the chips, but another repercussion is that it is much more difficult for me, or. anyone else, to eliminate them safely.While doing some study on the C94 port,. I stumbled across some posts pointing out that it had actually been hacked by someone in China, and also. that fake ports were hitting the marketplace. I made a decision to do some study, and. went on TaoBao, the chinese ebay.com. It was a gold mine, I got.
all the boards I could discover. Things is, they just ship to China. So what I did was to use a representative to deliver my. order to the agent ' s stockroom in mainland China, after that the representative shipped once again that order from. their storage facility to my area in Switzerland.The boards got here,
as well as one. of them caught my interest. It looked rather damn near the initial. To ensure that ' s the one I chose.
I believed: “Screw it,'I will. reverse-engineer the reverse-engineers!”. It will make my life much much easier, because there. is no underfill, and also I
' ll additionally have the ability to share the schematics without infringing. any kind of Apple intellectual building. Perfect', so just how do I recreate the. schematics of this fake-C94 board
? You can see a schematic as a map, where. there is homes with numerous doors, and also then roads that make. connection in between those doors.Well the first thing I require to do is to. get rid of all the elements, so all your homes. After that on our board the components are. gone, but the pads are still here. They are kind of like doorsteps. Bear in mind the connection test? Well right here it comes once more. By attempting every mix.
possible of the front doors, I can recreate a map of all the. roadways that connect them together.
Then I thoroughly gauge the values. of the components I can gauge, and I document
everything.And below we go, I now have whatever. I require to recreate the schematic. There is an issue though, a schematic is inadequate to recreate completely. the circuit and also make it. To make prepare for my very own PCB, I still. require the impact of every part. You can see it as 2D dimensions of each home. For many elements, it was easy, as.
there are standardized parts.
However for both major chips, where all the magic. occurs, I had to create my own impacts. To do this, I take a.
high-resolution picture of the chip, as well as exactly gauge its outside measurements. After that, I bring the image into a computer-aided style software program as well as I established the range. of my image from my measurements.
This enables me to determine smaller sized information, such as the dimension as well as position. of the pads, i.e the front doors. I do this for both chips, and currently.
I finally have whatever I require. So initial I made it from. the schematic I had actually prepared. I ' m mosting likely to order a large rigid PCB initially,.
since it is much less costly than a versatile one.This will permit me to inspect if the. schematic is correct and works planned. The PCB showed up, I prepared it by soldering to it.
the elements I had swiped on a fake-C94 board, and also it worked, sweet! Now we simplified our circuit even. more, as well as we fully recognize it.
We can make it any kind of shape we want. Allow ' s make it fit inside the iPhone. It didn ' t take me long to area
. something very interesting: there is a small void in between. the battery and the Taptic Engine.It goes through the entire size of the apple iphone. As well as right here is the technique that made it all possible. I thought, mostly all published circuits inside
. this iPhone are on the same straight aircraft, suppose I made my circuit slim sufficient, and positioned. it vertically in the apple iphone, in that tiny space? There is just one means to. discover, I require to attempt it! Keep in mind that I ' m still using.
wires to link my board? This needs to
go. I developed an impact with the. very same technique I utilized for the chips. After that I required to specify what form my board.
will have, and this needs to be extremely specific. I utilized calipers to measure. dimensions inside the iPhone, and I
additionally used a check of the. Lightning flex cable television to help me out.Then I published the last synopsis on an item of. paper to ascertain that everything looked penalty.
I imported that synopsis into KiCAD. It is currently just a game to locate a way to fit. all the parts into that slim piece. I purchased the board, as well as it got here. What an elegance. I noticed I made some tiny.
mistakes, however they are not critical. After that I moved all the.
parts to the brand-new PCB, and soldered it to the. Lightning versatile adapter.
Damn, it ' s beginning to look like. a main item, it ' s insane. The hole at the bottom of the iPhone is. not huge enough to fit the USB-C plug. I need to expand it. A CNC was set to boost the measurements.
of the hole to perfectly match what we require. There was two major barriers to overcome.The initially one was that the apple iphone has a back glass that would likely shatter. when I tighten it with the CNC vise.
The option was to make'custom 3D printed. braces that held the frame in place
. The 2nd problem was that you. need to offer a beginning to the CNC for every single axis, to make sure that it begins.
milling at the proper place. This is not minor with an apple iphone. that has rounded edges everywhere.
I utilize the approach where you gradually approach the. drill, and as quickly as you hear a metal sound it implies that the drill touched the phone,. as well as you establish your axis coordinate to no
. It was great sufficient. There is one trouble left. I need some mechanical assistance for.
the connector inside the apple iphone. I figured the display will lower on the. connector, so it will be adequate assistance here, however i need sustain in the. exact same direction as when I plug in a cable.To do this, I make use of a 3D published. part that I made exactly so that it is held by the.
two nearby screw openings. I set up every little thing back. My custom-made port goes under the Taptic Engine,. bends 90 degrees, and has vertical electronic devices. After that it flexes 90 levels once again to bring.
the USB-C port to the proper place. I shut the apple iphone, the task is done.
This has been my biggest job up until now.
By going by the assistance I received from. you all, I am specific that it is not the last. I am super inspired to. deal with other comparable projects, and also if you intend to be updated on. them please consider subscribing. You can additionally leave a comment if you. have tips for my following project.
So what ' s following? Well I ' m delighted to announce that the. entire project is currently open source.The web link to the GitHub repo is down in the. description for those playing along at home.
If you would certainly such as to port it to. an additional iPhone design, have fun, and afterwards please make a pull demand. to ensure that everyone can take advantage of it.
If you would like to know what i ' m mosting likely to make with. this specific iPhone,
check out my other video clips. That ' s it for today,'peace!.
