Yep so that happened … After waiting on years on Apple to make.
a USB-C iPhone, I decided I had sufficient. I'' ll simply make one myself. This video is to record just how I lastly.
made this apple iphone, the initial one of its kind. If you'' re interested concerning modern technology,.
you need to definitely remain, due to the fact that I'' ll be strolling you through the.
whole thought procedure of the project with its up and also downs and also.
actually entering into the details. So allow'' s obtain started! Just like any job, you need to establish.
clear and also realistic objectives for on your own. Mine were the following: the minimum needs are that it bills as well as.
that data functions whenever I connect in the wire. So reversibility needs to function. After that you need to make a note of.
a rough strategy to follow.Mine looked a
little such as this: Once that'' s done, you experience the actions systematically and also.
do whatever is required to attain them. Let'' s begin with the first objective,. which was building a proof of concept. This is what I did in my component 1 video. If you place'' t watched it, don ' t concern,. I will quickly summarize it here. There exists Lightning to USB-C cords, right? To connect your apple iphone to your MacBook. Well what happens if I can take that.
cord, transform the USB-C male end into a female one with a customized board, and also after that.
miniaturize all this to place it inside the apple iphone. Allow'' s examine the hypothesis. First I took place categorized ads and acquired.
the cheapest apple iphone I can get my hands on that was still half suitable at that time.It was an
apple iphone X. I desired to see if it'' s possible to. make a Type-C female-to-female board, yet I located no details concerning this online. Simply that I shouldn'' t do this, fantastic … Then I took place Google Images as well as ultimately saw.
something that resembled what I had in mind. So I ordered it. It showed up, I tried it out, as well as it didn'' t work.Damn, it'' s mosting likely to be harder than I thought … I took some time to believe, I attempted once again,.
however I plugged it vice versa. You never recognize, and also it worked! Okay, that'' s a beginning, yet I require to dig deeper.
inside the wire and also discover how it really works. Prior to I continue, you require to be.
aware of what a continuity examination is. Allow'' s say I have a conductive factor An as well as factor B. I wish to know if they are directly.
related to a cord or a trace on a PCB. I take my multimeter, placed it in connection.
mode, and also then touch both points with my probes. A tiny present is sent, and also.
the resistance is measured. If it is very reduced, then the multimeter.
gives off a tone to suggest continuity.On the other hand, if
there. is something in between,
like a resistor for instance, the. multimeter won ' t discharge a
tone. So now we prepare to dig in the cable. I merely sufficed in fifty percent to. expose the cords that are inside.
From experience, I identify. the color of the cords, and also I can currently have a quite. great suggestion of what they do. After that I bring my USB-C female
breakout board and. run a continuity examination in between the very first cable as well as every pin of the USB-C connector. This permits me to know where it attaches to. Then I switch to the following cable,. and also do the very same point once again. This enabled me to have the knowledge to. eliminate 2 adapters from my circuit, and make it easier. Bear in mind how I stated it only worked one means? Well I had to go through the USB Type-C. specification as well as I found this table, which told me I can quickly repair it. by including a 5.1 kΩ resistor on pin B5.This method limits the billing speed. when connected in among the 2 ways.
Yet I picked it anyway, since I wished to.
obtain a model out immediately.
Now that we have the USB side determined,. allow ' s have a closer check out the Lightning side. I will certainly make this representation a. little extra complex'. Now, it reveals the inner flex. cable television of the Lightning women port
. You can really maintain it connected in, but flex it.
backwards, so that it is outside of the phone. It makes things a lot easier when fixing.
What I want is to remove this port. I always start with the easy. part to provide myself confidence. Since this adapter is eliminated, allow ' s concentrate on the last piece to fully. recognize what is taking place here. First, I need to break open that plastic.
around the Lightning man port, to see what is within.
Trust me, it is not a simple. task, and also this is by design.The port that is inside the cord offered by.
Apple is called C91, and it is built like a storage tank. Not very convenient if I need. to open it up multiple times.
So I browsed, as well as I ordered all. the third-party MFI cords
I could discover, to see if one was simpler to open up than Apple ' s. The board they have within is called C94, and also it. is sold by Apple to third-party manufacturers.You may discover that there is. still the Lightning connector made out of metal and also plastic underneath. I wished to locate a means to eliminate. this part to see what it was concealing. So I attempted numerous ways to do that,
with. chemicals, by grinding it, but ultimately, the very best way was by heating the metal part with a blowpipe, and after that drawing out. when the plastic beneath starts to thaw. On the right you can see the outcome I got.
To give a fast overview of the situation,. we have our flex-PCB where we removed the Lightning port, 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 likewise solder cords to.This is just how much I entered. my proof of principle video.
Currently we wish to reverse-engineer the C94 adapter due to the fact that
I put on ' t see how I can fit. it inside the iPhone otherwise. The board doesn ' t resemble it has many. components, so it shouldn ' t be as well made complex. Well in fact the board has a first layer of glue.
in addition to the elements', which is not too difficult to get rid of, however then the majority of the parts are.
covered by a composite material called underfill. It is used to make sure that there will certainly be much less. stress on the chips,
yet an additional consequence is that it is much more difficult for me, or. anyone else, to eliminate them safely.While doing some research on the C94 port,. I stumbled throughout some articles discussing that it had been hacked by a person in China, as well as.
that phony adapters were hitting the marketplace.
I made a decision to do some research study, as well as. went on TaoBao, the chinese ebay.com. It was a cash cow
, I ordered. all the boards I could locate. The important things is, they only deliver to China.
So what I did was to make use of a representative to ship my. order to the representative ' s storehouse in landmass China, then the agent delivered again that order from. their warehouse to my location in Switzerland.
The boards showed up, as well as one. of them caught my interest. It looked quite damn close to the original.So that ' s the one I selected. I thought: “Screw it, I will. reverse-engineer the reverse-engineers!”. It will certainly make my life much easier, due to the fact that there. is no underfill, and I '
ll likewise'have the ability to share the schematics without infringing.
any Apple intellectual property. Perfect, so how do I recreate the. schematics of this fake-C94 board? You can see a schematic as a map, where. there is houses with multiple doors, and afterwards roadways that make. connection in between those doors.
Well the initial thing I require to do is to. get rid of all the components, so all the houses. After that on our board the parts are.
gone, but the pads are still here.They are kind of like doorsteps. Bear in mind the connection test? Well below it comes once more. By attempting every mix. feasible of the front doors, I can recreate a map of all the.
roads that connect them together. After that I carefully gauge the values. of the parts I can gauge, and I document whatever.
As well as right here we go, I currently have every little thing.
I need to recreate the schematic. There is a trouble
though, a schematic is not nearly enough to recreate entirely. the circuit as well as produce it.
To make plans for my own PCB, I still. require the footprint of every element. You can watch it as 2D dimensions of each home.
For most elements, it was easy, as. there are standardized parts
. However, for both primary chips, where all the magic. takes place, I needed to create my very own impacts. To do this, I take a.
high-resolution picture of the chip, and also precisely measure its outside measurements.
Then, I bring the picture right into a computer-aided design software and I
established the scale. of my photo from my measurements.This permits me to gauge smaller information, such as the size and also setting. of the pads, i.e the doorsteps. I do this for both chips, and now. I finally have whatever I require.
So initial I developed it from. the schematic I had prepared. I ' m going to purchase a large rigid PCB initially,. since it is more affordable than an adaptable one. This will certainly enable me to check if the. schematic is correct and works intended. The PCB arrived, I'prepared it by soldering to it.
the parts I had actually stolen on a fake-C94 board, and also it functioned, wonderful! Currently we simplified our circuit also. extra, and also we fully comprehend it. We can make it any kind of shape we want.
Let ' s make it fit inside the iPhone. It didn ' t take me long to spot. something extremely fascinating: there is a tiny space in between. the battery and the Taptic Engine.It goes through the'entire width of the apple iphone. And also below'is the trick that made it all possible. I believed, nearly all printed circuits inside. this apple iphone are on the exact same straight airplane, suppose I made my circuit thin sufficient, and also put. it vertically in the apple iphone, in that little space? There is just one means to. learn, I need to try it! Bear in mind that I ' m still utilizing. wires to connect my board? This requires to go.I developed a footprint with the. exact same technique I made use of for the chips. After that I needed to define what shape my board. will certainly have, as well as this requires to be extremely accurate. I made use of calipers to measure. dimensions inside the apple iphone,
as well as I also made use of a check of the.
Lightning flex wire to aid me out. After that I printed the last overview on an item of. paper to double-check that whatever looked penalty. I imported that rundown into KiCAD. It is currently just a game to locate a way to fit. all the parts into that thin slice.
I got the board, and also it showed up. What an elegance. I observed I made some small.
mistakes, however they are not critical.Then I moved all the. elements to the brand-new PCB, and also soldered it to the. Lightning versatile port. Damn, it ' s starting to appear like. a main product, it ' s crazy. The opening at the base of the apple iphone is. not huge sufficient to fit the USB-C plug.
I require to enlarge it.
A CNC was set to boost the measurements.
of the opening to perfectly match what we require. There was two main challenges to overcome.The first one was that the apple iphone has a back glass that would probably ruin. when I tighten it with the CNC vise. The option was to make custom 3D published.
brackets that held the frame in place. The second trouble was that you.
require to provide an origin to the CNC for every single axis, so that it starts. milling at the correct spot. This is not minor with an iPhone. that has actually rounded sides almost everywhere.
I utilize the approach where you slowly come close to the. drill, and as quickly as you hear a metallic noise it suggests that the drill touched the phone,.
and also you set your axis coordinate to zero.It sufficed. There is one problem left. I need some mechanical assistance for. the connector inside the iPhone.
I figured the screen will press down on the. adapter, so it will be adequate support here, but i need sustain in the.
exact same instructions as when I plug in a cable television. To do this, I make use of a 3D printed.
component that I designed exactly so that it is held by the. 2 adjacent screw openings.
I put together every little thing back. My custom-made connector goes under the Taptic Engine,.
bends 90 degrees, and has upright electronic devices. After that it bends 90 degrees once more to bring. the USB-C port to the proper area. I close the apple iphone, the job is done. This has been my greatest task thus far. By going by the assistance I got from. you all, I am certain that it is not the last. I am super inspired to.
tackle other similar jobs, as well as if you intend to be updated on. them please think about subscribing. You can also leave a remark if you. have recommendations for my following task.
So what ' s next? Well I ' m satisfied to introduce that the. entire project is currently open source.The link to the GitHub repo is down in the. description for those playing along in the house. If you want to port it to. an additional iPhone design, have a good time, and after that please make a pull demand. to make sure that'everybody can take advantage of it. If you desire to recognize what i '
m mosting likely to do with. this particular apple iphone, look into my other video clips. That ' s it for today, peace!.
