Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, How-tos, Mods
DIY iFlash for the iPhone

And it actually works really well. Apparently he used a tact switch, so there's no super coding necessary-- you just hit the button to turn the light on, and then take the picture. But he did hook it up so it's powered by the dock connection, which means all you have to do is keep it in your pocket until you need it, then plug it in and shoot away. Over on his forums, he's posted an entire how-to of the whole thing, from the dissection of the dock connector to the wiring of the LEDs. Pretty slick-- looks like maybe an afternoon's work, and it presents about as good a flash as the iPhone's camera is.
Thanks, Joe!

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bobby said 12:05PM on 9-28-2007
LCDs?
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Ryan said 12:17PM on 9-28-2007
LEDs.
Leave them alone, they are still crying about their 3rd party-less iPhones.
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Leonard Fischer said 12:18PM on 9-28-2007
The writer obviously means LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of LCDs (liquid crystal displays). I like this blog a lot because of its wide coverage and deep iPhone coverage, but a lot of time, its accuracy leaves a lot to be desired.
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imacmatt09 said 12:18PM on 9-28-2007
Wow those are some small LCD's. The almost look like LED's ;)
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Kishen said 12:30PM on 9-28-2007
That guy needs to patent the thing, fast!
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Kernel Dan said 1:09PM on 9-28-2007
D'oh... I thought maybe this article was talking about flash storage :\
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Mike Schramm said 1:11PM on 9-28-2007
Yes, meant LEDs of course, sorry. Not sure what happened there.
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basscadet said 1:39PM on 9-28-2007
it doesn't seem like it's emitting one big flash but it's used as a torchlight. Although this sounds less sophisticated it does protect the main unit from receiving potential leaks of current from a fully charged flash unit - and frying it. I wonder what's taking so long for 3rd party accessory makers to make one...
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Thomas E. Miller said 11:14AM on 9-29-2007
There is a really cool concept for video conferencing on the iphone, see:
http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/pages/view/entriesdetail.html?entryID=365
it is a cool concept that i have not seen on tuaw's frontpage, oversight?
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