Almost every teen has some form of a mass produced iPod or Mp3 player these days. However, freshman Alex Jones decided to go against the norm and create his own.
With a passion for engingeering, Jones found his inspiration to make the iPod in Robotics Club. Impressively, he is the lead programmer of the club as a freshman.
“It just sounded like a fun thing to do,” Jones said.
The idea sparked when Jones store bought iPod broke. Rather than buying a new iPod, he decided to make his own.
“I just thought that I could make it better, so I decided to try it and see if I could make it work,” Jones said. “Plus this saved me about $200.”
To make his iPod, Jones went online and bought the necessary parts and the instructions on how to build it.
“I ordered the board on the internet and it came with an outline of how to put it all together,” Jones said.
Jones programed the circuit board and then used a soldering iron to connect all the parts. An Altoid box serves as the body of the iPod and he has even attached an external battery with a five year battery life. Recently, Jones has discovered that he can attach a solar battery as well.
It may seem complicated from there to download music, but Jones has put a memory card inside which he simply plugs into his computer to download new songs. The crafted iPod can hold up to eight gigabytes of memory and buffers songs faster than the mass produced Apple iPod.
Although Jones is not quite sure what his future will hold, anyone can see he is going to make a big impact in the engineering world.
