Inside the Griffin Powerdock for Sansa
Griffin Technology produces a dock for the Sansa e200, c100 and c 200 series of mp3 players called the Powerdock for Sansa. This dock provides a charger and a true line out for the Sansa e200 series. This is to my knowledge the only product which enables a true line out function for the Sansa MP3 players. A true line out is one which is not affected by the device volume. This is very handy for hooking your Sansa into a car stereo system or a home theatre system, it enables a normal volume and a cleaner signal (according to some).
I had originally purchased the Powerdock for Sansa at Best Buy to modify for in car use. I ended up returning the dock after taking pictures to attempt to determine the pins which are connected to the line out and power function. I hope to use these pictures at some point in the future to make my own Sansa Charger with a line out, something which no current manufacturer makes for the Sansa. If I can put something together I will definitely share, however I am putting up these pictures in hopes that others will try the same thing and in the end produce a “best of” product.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions or thoughts on this undertaking.
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
Thanks for posting this since I had the same idea. The modification doesn’t look like it would be hard but would cost around $6-9 bucks just for the proprietary Sansa cable (to hack), plus $5-10 bucks for the other components needed. Instead, I suggest buying the unit since you can get it for $22.69 delivered if you use the $10 credit Google checkout offers when buying it at AntOnline.com. After that, I one would need to do is get rid of the PowerDock case and figure out the best way to fit it into the ashtray drawer. That way, one can slide out the ashtray drawer when they need to dock their Sansa (e200 series most likely). Then slide it back in when they’re done with it. Btw, do you have photos of how big the board is, is it as big as the case? If so, I might have to do some trimming. :O)
Unfortunately it is the same size as the case so It would require some trimming to be more useful ina car, or a new enclosure that fits well in your vehicle. Good Luck
Are there any electronics that far to the right or left on the board that would prevent trimming? From the photos, it looks like the “guts” of it are only about 2 inches in width. But I’m sure the power light is all the way to the far side. Instead of altering the board by trimming it I could replace the cable between the board and the connector with a longer one. Just sucks since it looks like the solder between each wire is tight. But on a good note, I don’t need to solder all the wires since only a few connections are actually used. :O)
Btw, would it be possible for you to send me the original images. I can’t read the electronic symbols to reference them. That way I can do the math on how much the raw components would cost if I wanted to make my own. Since I’m only really interested in the “line output” the cost shouldn’t be as much. The DIY would be cheaper if there was a place that just sold the Sansa proprietary connector vs having to buy an extra cable.
Hello Josh,
I found your website with this thread: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3387&page=3 .
Im currently also trying to figure out the pinout of the sansa to build a car-adaptor.
Your pictures of the audio/usb jack helped me a bit to figure out, that it shouldnt be hard to rev’eng it. But: did you make fotos/notes of the connector-to-ribboncable connections? bec. the sansa has 30 pins, and your ribbon cable has only 14 - so there isnt a 1-to-1 mapping possible.
At least, what i saw in your pics is, that one line get pulled to ground, when a 3.5mm plug is inserted (last picture, the line on the right side) - maybe this will command the sansa to switch on the output.
Did you find a solution or have you given up?
If you could provide any further informations about the connector/ribboncable, i would be very glad,
TIA
Daniel
Daniel,
I ended up using the dock to make a car mount,
http://www.imjosh.com/?p=677
I wish I had taken more detailed pictures or jotted down notes but any I did have been discarded. I may tinker with the current setup come summertime but it gets the job done, even if it is a tad large.
Good luck.
Josh