Hackinformer Your device needs to transform, we are here to inform
Have you ever wanted to give your outdated iPod a breath of fresh air? A step into the 2020’s? Moonlit.Market has a set of products that you can buy individually or in a kit to upgrade your iPod. Let’s talk about how well their products work, right now!
Description:
Classic Connect is an installation kit that completely modernizes your iPod with Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity. It is completely plug and play.
Features:
Classic Connect is an installation kit that completely modernizes your iPod.
Bluetooth connectivity allows you to cut the inconvenience of wires, and use your wireless speakers and headphones with your iPod, seamlessly.
USB-C integration makes using your iPod with just one universal cable a breeze, and charges your battery in just 50 minutes.
All that, while being completely plug-and-play.
Unboxing & Installation:
Pros:
- Packaging. Right out of the gate I was actually really impressed with the boxing when it arrived. I don’t know if you watched my video up above yet, but you can hear how surprised that I am over it. I was thinking that since it’s being made and processed for shipping by a small company, it was going to be lackluster and busted into pieces upon impact. Especially since they’re shipping it internationally. It’s in a box that isn’t just single ply cardboard little pizza box looking thing. They took the time to manufacture something specific to support the item inside by having rigid walls. And then there was an insert inside to keep it from moving about. All of that was in a shipping bag to hopefully protect the box itself even further. I was also surprised that they have custom print on the cardboard box. So if you’re like me and like to keep boxes to products, it’s not just a brown plain box. I’m looking directly at you Valve and your Steam Deck boxes!
- Extras. Now in the box, besides the form fitting insert there were some extras. I was really intrigued by the fact that they didn’t include little screw drivers or pry tools like crappy third party Chinese sellers on AliExpress. Those tools are always so flimsy and in my experience don’t even last the full project due to the tools being made of soft metal. It’s just in there to make you feel like you should buy their product over some more reputable one. But I digress, I was thrilled to see that there were not tools in the packing. Instead you receive glue, B7000 to be exact, to use to seal the front and back plates. Which makes sense as to why it’s in there instead of making you buy your own. Although, on second thought, I’m not sure if everyone gets that or just me. But don’t worry, B7000 is inexpensive to buy. And finally, there were of course a couple of Moonlit.Market promotional stickers. I love getting stickers from companies, it isn’t much, but it makes it feel like they care.
- Compatibility. Now let’s talk about the product itself. What the kit comes with is the backplate with the Classic Connect already built in. The imcort SD card adapter is also in the box along with the 2000 mAh battery. These products work either on their own or as a kit together. They work across multiple models of iPod. Specifically, iPod Video, iPod Video Enhanced, and both models of iPod Classic. That means that you can use this on any model from fifth generation to seventh generation. Of course this was never going to work with a Shuffle or Nano. But it certainly doesn’t work with the old monochrome screen iPods. But that doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck if you have a different/unsupported iPod model. Just visit Elite Obsolete Electronics by clicking here. I updated my front plate and click wheel and such using new parts from them!
- Fit & Finish. The back plate looks and feels great in the hands. But it also looks really great in the hands too. And by that I simply mean that it’s a very fashionable looking iPod once it’s assembled. I also found out that in public, it’s quite the conversation starter and all I did was take it out of my pocket and put it on a desk. Which is pretty funny to think about if you happen to be listening to music on the train through the iPod and all someone sees is the smooth, matte black back with a moon on it, they’re going to try to ask questions about it. But then you’re in your own world listening to tunes so you don’t even notice them. Maybe that’s why Moonlit.Market included their info at the bottom of the back? All in all, once you assemble it, you’ll find that it feels solid and the plastic back is quite firm. I just wish they offered other back colors so you can have a back plate that matches a colored front plate.
- Building. Assembly was easy once the iPod was fully disassembled. The disassembly was the hard part as I had never done it before. And you can only watch so many different videos on the topic before you go in on your own. But yeah, once you’re past that part, the rest can be done in ten minutes or less. To do the assembly though, I would not recommend watching the video that Moonlit.Market themselves made. They gleam over some aspects and it’s hard to see certain things due to lackluster camera work and hands sometimes blocking things or just moving too fast. I found myself watching other videos on YouTube to get the answers to some of my questions. However, some of my questions went unanswered and I had to guess and check. That’s why in my part three video it looks like I goofed, but I had already fixed it. I simply didn’t want to rerecord it to prove I had it working. Especially since my fourth and final video was me putting Rockbox on it and the only way you can is if it’s working properly!
But long story short, step one, plug in the new battery. Step two plug Classic Connect into the iPod PCB. Step 3 plug in cord to the battery slot on the iPod PCB from the Classic Connect. Step four, plug your SD Card adapter into the iPod PCB and insert one or two microSD cards. Step five, put glue on the inner ridge of the back plate so that when the front plate wedges in, the glue keeps hold. Then put it under a heavy book for 24 hours so that the glue can dry. A day later, your iTunes will detect it!
- Charge & Sync. If you’re a god among men, you can also set this up to not only charge over USB-C, but sync as well. I couldn’t follow their diagrams though and I saw exactly zero videos on YouTube of anyone tackling the endeavor. Even more so, they don’t have a video for doing so on the Moonlit.Market website. Honestly, if you can figure it out, I would love to watch your video on it! I’m still counting this one as a “Pro” because if it can work, that’s great and definitely needs to be marketed more. Furthermore, the charge function still works, so if your 30-pin charge port no longer works, or if you’re tired of trying to source those USB cords, you can easily charge this over USB-C. However, set the expectation in your mind right now that you are going to get about the same charge speeds. Lastly, it will appear as though the USB charging isn’t working, because there is no lightning bolt icon. So you’re going to have to do a test. Once I got Rockbox up and running, I put a day’s worth of music on it. Then I output music from the iPod over bluetooth and let it play all day long but left it with a USB-C cord plugged in. When I came back 17 hours later, it still had a full charge. So I now know it works properly.
- Battery. Battery life is incredibly long, assuming that you’re using Rockbox like I ended up doing. I’m unsure how long in the standard iPod OS mode. If I were a betting man, I’d assume that the battery would last just as long as it does under Rockbox. The battery was easily at 10 hours and still had plenty of charge assuming that you listen to it via wired headphones. I would wager if you listened to it all day long with headphones and charged it at night, you could do so. This is with the screen only on when changing songs. I wasn’t able to lock the device (more about that later) so that means this device was just running under full load all day. Also, charging and listening at the same time doesn’t cause the iPod to get any hotter than it did with OEM parts. With bluetooth running I got about five to six hours confidently. Again, I couldn’t lock the buttons, so there was some amount of battery drainage due to that.
- Audio. Besides having a standardized headphone jack, they advertise that the module inside uses Bluetooth version 5.2. They also advertise that all Bluetooth audio devices should be able to connect without an issue, but obviously they can’t guarantee compatibility. They also claim that AirPods do work but the newer AirPods Pro 2 have some success, but not all of them do. So don’t buy this counting on that. We’ll discuss this more down in the cons section. There are several codecs supported by the Classic Connect such as SBC, aptx, aptx HD, aptx AD, and aptx LL. All bit rates through 24bit 96kHz sampling are supported. I’m sure that it sounds as you would expect an iPod to, there isn’t going to be a massive sound boost, as that’s not an advertised feature. If you want even more codecs supported, make sure you use Rockbox to play anything you want to listen to. Lastly, for those wondering, I was having good bluetooth connectivity as I carried my iPod around my whole house and listening to it through my soundbar.
Cons:
- Size. The back plate, while it looks and feels fantastic, does have a couple of downsides. The first of which is that you have to use glue to seal it shut. Look, I’m aware that this is a hobbyist product, but maybe just insert a clip in each corner that the front plate can snap into? I wouldn’t be surprised if the 3D printing community releases their own backplate that is for the Classic Connect kit and uses friction or something to keep the front plate in place. The other caveat is that if you’re like me and enjoying putting a shell or case around your handheld devices, you’re out of luck here. I had silicone sleeves for this iPod that fit perfectly, but since the back plate is a bit deeper, it doesn’t really fit anymore. My recommendation to you would be to just get on eBay and find a leather or neoprene case for one of the older, slightly larger iPods. It should work well with this one once assembled.
- Marketing. Not being able to use San Disk was a real bummer. If you watched my video above, I bought two 256gb San Disk microSD cards and had them ready before I ever read the instructions inside. It’s bonkers that they warn you against one specific brand. Mainly because then, if you’re like me, you’ll go off and buy a different brand. But the next brand that I got didn’t work either. Then I got wise and bought a low capacity, cheap PNY that worked. Learn from my hard work and just buy PNY brand. With regards to Moonlit.Market, they should state that San Disks have been tested and do not work, other microSD cards may or may not work. And they should issue that warning on the purchase page of the SD Card Adapter.
- Uh Oh. The entire Classic Connect module does not work properly for me. As I mentioned already in an earlier section, the lock function doesn’t work. The lock switch not working causes the device to drain a bit faster. It’s hard to measure how much battery usage there is when the switch can’t work. I’ve of course tried reconnecting the ribbon cables using the instructions they sent me in a reply email. Apparently one of my viewers on the above video mentioned that he has very low volume coming through and that a certain pair of headphones didn’t work for him. I sent him the same instructions that Ryan at Moonlit.Market sent to me, so hopefully that viewer gets a resolution and doesn’t have to worry about it not working. Humorously, the lock function does seem to work on that person’s device, since they didn’t mention it being an issue. Look, at this juncture, I’m not sure what could be wrong, but I have to chalk it up to the Classic Connect PCB simply not working conclusively in every case. It likely does in most cases, but clearly not all.
Final Thoughts:
I didn’t tell the company about my issues because I wanted the first time that they heard about this to be the same time the world heard about this. I’m sure that if you spent money on this, they would remedy it. However, mine is a review unit and I have to review it as it was sent to me. I hope they make their own lives easier by testing each item as they send it out. Quality control is vital to having a company that endures. Once they can prove to us that they’ve got each and every piece of the kit working, I would be able to get behind the ~$205 price point. As it stands now, I would recommend you stick with only buying their battery and the SD card adapter. Use your own shell and keep the current lock switch/headphone jack setup that you have.
