The first step is to put everything in it's place - with no solder or glue yet. The battery arrangement I used is at the left. You can see the firewire port in the lower left corner of the tin. That's where you want your hole. Trace out the firewire shape and cut it out with a Dremel and a metal file. Next, solder the 3 battery connectors together as in the schematic above. You can see a pictorial version to your right. Cover the soldered ends with electrical tape to prevent shorts, and be sure not to connect the batteries yet. At this point, you should have two free wire ends. One red, one black. You see on the port how there's the metal port, and then a black plastic piece with pins sticking out of it? Bend back the 2 metal tabs holding the plastic piece in and pull it out. Now you can put the metal part into the hole you made and solder all around the edges onto the inside of the tin. That baby's not goin anywhere. Going back to the plastic piece, solder the red battery wire to pin 1 and the black one to pin 2 (refer to the schematic). Be extra careful to use only a little bit of solder, because you do not want a solder bridge between pin 1 and 2. Now, insert the plastic piece into the metal bit and fold the little tabs back down. Slather hot glue all over the connections between the firewire pins and the battery wires to be sure they don't break. Finally, connect the batteries, and put them in their places (it may be a tight fit, but they'll go). Close up the tin, and if you have one, use a multimeter (voltage tester) to make sure you have about 12 volts. If not, pray you did everything right, or borrow one from a friend.

If it fails the test, go back and un-tape your wire ends, and inspect them. Make sure they are nice and tight, with plenty of solder. Also check the batteries to make sure they even work. If you still can't get it to work, feel free to email me. If everything works fine, connect a firewire to dock connector cable, and hook up your iPod.