ipod plus

ok, i've got this idea for a summer project, i want to build an amp and 2.1 speakers into a mac plus that i've got, and put an ipod dock on top, to make it into a portable ipod-boombox. i made an ultra-quick mock-up. i've got a few ideas for the details:

-to power the ipod, i'd have a firewire cable running from the dock through the inside to a female-female adapter on the back panel, in place of one of the old ports. so it'd be like a firewire port on a modern macintosh. from there you would hook up a male-male firewire cable to the ipod charger. that way, i don't have to build my charger into the unit or screw around with using another voltage converter to power it, which would likely void my warranty and fuck shit up. also, you could plug it into your mac and use the ipod.

-the knobs on the front would definitely have to be awesome. i'll scour second-hand stores for a cool old radio or stereo to get some good knobs off. i'd have volume, balance, bass, treble, speaker selection (a, a+b, b, off). some griffin powermates would be fucking cool, but waaay to expensive. plus they have a usb interface and i don't know how to use that to control an amp. building a dedicated miniature pc to do that would be very hard and costly.

-in place of the screen i'd have the sub and the speakers would be on either side.

-to replace the other ports at the back, i'd have rca input, external speakers, line out, headphone, basically what you'd find on an amp.

-the power cable would run from the original ac plug on the mac.

-there's a port on the front for the keyboard that's actually an rj-11, i was thinking i'd hook up an output to this so you can either plug a phone handset in and listen to the music, or plug it into a phone and play music to someone on the other end of the line. just for novelty, because it's there, and because it'd be easy.

-there's a brightness knob on the front i don't know what to do with. headphone volume?

-not sure what to do with the floppy hole on the front.

-how about 2 docks and a cross-fade? that would be awesome.

-i might build a radio into it as well. but i don't want too much stuff on the front cluttering up the original look of the plus.

email me and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. of course i'd blog my progress along the way and upload heaps of photos so anyone else could do this and expand on it.