Project 8GB 1st Gen Nano..

[killer]

i have an extra 1st gen 2GB iPod Nano lying around with scrollwheel problem that is, i opened it up removed the 2pcs 1GB Hynix memory chip in it... i turned it on, and it was asking me to restore it using itunes.. i know somebody have done this before and most of the comments said that it is a hoax!.. but it seems possible!.. all i needed now is 2pcs 4GB memory chip from a dono thumb drive, i have done this procedure on my friends chinese based mp3 and mp4 player with success, i'll post pictures when i get done with this!

[saratoga]

This has actually been done, and it does work.  Good luck with the soldering though.

[killer]

saratoga,

i've been searching the net for quite sometime if somebody have done this procedure on ipod with success, unfortunately i found some site claiming it worked but most of the comment say's it's a hoax and the builder seems not to exist and no one could attest that the procedure was a success.. like the one that install a 120gb harddisk drive! , well i'd love to adapt a CF Card on a nano but i don't know if this will work as well.. do you know a site where i could check his work? thanks!

[scorche]

I was researching this a bit last night as well, and have not seen any proof that it is possible.  There are many errors in the hoax 8GB nano post (and all pages are gone...plus his ebay account).  I was planning on getting some similar chips and trying anyway, though (after plenty more research, of course).

[killer]

yes, i have seen those sites (ipod 8gb nano) before but he was using a "piggy back" method, i mean putting a 2gb memory on top of each other to make 4gb!.. but what i would do is simply replace the 2pcs 1gb memory chip with 2 pcs 4gb from an 8gb thumb drive..

but wait!.. look what i found!



it's an 8gb single memory chip!, wow!.. with two of this installed on an ipod nano!.. it would make a whooping 16gb of memory!

another picture of the 8gb memory chip... hope this is not more expensive than my nano!  



for some reason that i can't help it.. i found this 16gb single memory chip!,  



now this would make 32GB NANO!

[scorche]

yes, i have seen those sites (ipod 8gb nano) before but he was using a "piggy back" method, i mean putting a 2gb memory on top of each other to make 4gb!

Which is stupid, because the chips are already double stacked.

.. but what i would do is simply replace the 2pcs 1gb memory chip with 2 pcs 4gb from an 8gb thumb drive..

Yes, that is what I am planning on trying.

[killer]

saratoga... thanks for compiling my post! .. sorry bout that.

scorche, right now i'm waiting for the donor thumb drive.. which right now i'm still hunting for the biggest memory on my local shop, all i can now is an 8gb thumb drive.

[killer]

success project!.. unfortunately i was only able to use 2pcs of 2GB Hynix chips from a donor Ridata Thumbdrive on 2GB 1st gen iPod Nano's logic board from 2GB now i have 4GB of memory on my Guinnea Pig iPod Nano!.. if someone would be generous enough to send me a donor 32GB thumbdrive i'll be glad to redo the procedure!.. i'll post some pic soon!.

here's the pic of the donor thumbdrive..

[Spoonman]

any news about this project? i would really like to upgrade ny 4 gig nano to 32 gig or something like this, but i am not sure if the hardware will be compatible with this. is the mmu on the memmory chip? if so it should be no problem doing this...

[dreamlayers]

On the Nano, the PortalPlayer chip talks to the flash via ATA/IDE.

[Spoonman]

ok, so that means the nano does not care about what size the memory actually is and can be extended to what ever size of memchip available?

[mattylight]

any new word on this project...I love my first gen nano for the gym, and having a lot more memory would be absolutely awesome....

[dreamlayers]

While the CPU accesses the flash as an ATA/IDE device, the flash chips themselves are just normal flash chips.  An SST55LD019K ATA Flash Disk Controller presents the flash as an ATA device.  (On this pic it's the leftmost chip on the bottom, nearest to the flash).

I didn't find a SST55LD019K datasheet, but there are SST55LD019A/SST55LD019B/SST55LD019C and SST55LD019M datasheets.

This seems quite promising:

- Supports up to 8 flash media devices directly
- Supports up to 64 flash media devices with external decoding logic

If all the necessary pins are accessible, upgrading a Nano is possible.