My Xbox modification project : A worklog and reference for future modders.

I don't think it is possible. The whole hardware USB interface on the Xbox is limited to having only one USB HUB per port. Two HUBs will simply make everything connected to the second HUB not being picked up. The Xbox controller is itself a USB HUB. On that USB HUB you get to connect the controller interface itself but also 2 spare ports for memory cards and other accessories. In that matter, I would have 2 USB HUB on the same port if I didn't use the relay here.

Thanks for the input but I'll stick to the relay switch, plus it's already all wired up. I know it's not an ideal solution as the ground loop for the coil is really long, It has to go through all the controller's shield of the wire to get back by the actual GND wire to the Xbox moherboard. No electric engineer in their right mind would design such a system on a stock unit but hey it works good. I've already installed another one of these in another Xbox and it's been working for years.

 

That's some pretty comprehensive XBOX modding!

Just got an XBOX myself with a very noisy fan I want to replace; can you essentially use any 80x80x25mm fan, just cut off the corners?
And do you still connect it to the standard fan header to let the XBOX handle speed?

 

70mm is a better fit if you don't care about LEDs. Here's a fan on Amazon that a couple of the reviewers have used inside an Xbox.

http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-70mm-Re...TF8&qid=1362866866&sr=8-1&keywords=nexus+70mm

 

I'll explain everything tomorrow morning. My Xbox is done and everything was successful. I'll post a detailed review of what was done since my last post.

 

Most of my time on the Xbox was with a dremel. I've took my time to cut every parts I needed. The key here is to cut just a little, check where you're at and cut a little more until you get the desired shape. Don't go cutting like a mad man the first shot or else you'll probably end up with a hole too big! I'll explain all my mods in sections. Keep in mind that These weren't done in the same sequence I explained. You should always make all the case cutting in one shot so you don't need to always remove and put back the electronics in it.

FAN MOD

OK so the 80mm fan. I installed a standard 25mm thick fan in this thing. You can see in a previous post that I trimmed the edges to make them round. Actually I could have left one untrimmed. The top edge nearest to the metal casing and the A/V port could stay untouched if you like. For the rest, I followed a great guide on Llamma's Xbox website.

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Xbox 80mm Fan Mod.htm

Every fan mod is unique, depending on the position of the fan. Me I centered it on the position of the original fan, making it overlap equally on both sides. I took my dremel to widen the fan grill on the metal casing. It's odd because I didn't needed to widen the outer plastic shell for it. It seemed almost a perfect fit.

So like the tutorial said, I broke the 2 plastic hooks securing the original fan using my fingers. They are really easy to brake. I positionned the fan at the right place and started filling the bottom with hot glue. You can pour it by the 2 holes underneath the outer plastic case. Just make sure to do only one side at a time and while you pour, place the Xbox at an angle that will make the molten glue flow underneath the fan and not the opposite direction. You don't want to have glue that could get in the way of the motherboard or the power supply (I forgot to tell that you should do this when only the plastic case and the metal casing are assembled. No motherboard or power supply in there!). I did the 2 bottom sides but not the top ones as I planned to use the 2 plastic trays to squeeze the fan in place.

So now that the fan is in place, I can take the DVD and HDD trays and trim them a little so thy will snugly fit around the fan. I don't have a picture of the cut on the DVD tray but it involved cutting an opening along the plastic peg.

The HDD tray was the tricky one, I followed the guide on LLamma but I adapted it to my situation. I was able to keep the flap on the power supply's side and while I was at it, I made an opening so there would be an airflow for the HDD. I also made an opening for the external power supply's connector I mounted right on top of the main power supply's connector.


I'm sorry but I kinda forgot to take picture for this. I was so motivated to finnish my mod as quick as possible that I didn't took time to take all the pictures necessary. But as I said, every fan mod is unique.

Gotta go, will continue this later!
EDIT: Forgot to add that when if you plan on using the fan connector on the motherboard, you should make the wire coming from the fan as short as possible or else you'll run into trouble to glu it properly because of the plastic flap of the DVD tray that goes back up to the metal casing. If you don't well you could always use your dremel to trim this flap a little...

 

It depends if you would like to keep your Xbox cooler. That 70mm fan is rated at 21.1CFM airflow while most generic fans will produce an airflow of 30 to 38 CFM depending of it's RPM and quality.

If you want, you could also salvage a working genuine Xbox fan. I do have a few. Of course they are not new.

 

Alright so this is the last part of my worklog. The Xbox is now completed and it's been working strong for a few weeks now. I've just been so busy I kinda put updating this thread on hold...

Anyway. To pick up where I left the last post: Cutting the DVD and HDD trays. Simple enough if you are patient. I had to cut a vertical section of one of the 4 standing points of the DVD tray to accomodate the new fan. Other than this I managed to put on leds on the tray itself to produce a blue glow effect in the side vents. This is a great spot since it's around the middle height of the console and easily removable in case I would need to repair the Xbox.




I did then same thing on the HDD tray. Take note not to install the leds underneath the tray as they will come in conflict with the parts on the power supply. I mounted mine this way:




These two sets of leds are connected with a 2 pin connector to easily remove the trays(and the leds) in case I would need to service my Xbox.

While I was cutting and modding, I figured I could enhance the airflow for the HDD since the 80mm would provide better performance. I made a small opening on the back of the HDD tray.



Of course if you mod your Xbox you will notice that on both sides of the metal casing there are 2 spots that are not with vent holes. In order to let the blue light pass through I did cut 2 openings on the metal case. One on each side like so:





To power up all these leds (side vents, inside and under controller ports and top shell jewel). I wanted to use an external DC power supply. I had already mounted the barrel connector and the only thing I needed was a way to switch ON the LEDs when the Xbox is ON and turn them OFF when the Xbox is turned OFF. For this I used a N-Channel MOSFET transistor.

Transistors can be used in these applications and can replace relays in order to take less space but you'll also save current by not having to power a coil. MOSFET work like a switch that is activated by the presence (or absence depending on the type of transistor) of voltage. So to do this, all I had to do is find a 5V voltage source that is switched ON only when the Xbox is turned ON. Take out the multimeter and start checking. Usually you'll find solder points around power connectors, like the ATX plug of the power supply or where the power cable of the DVD drive goes in.

Here is the schematic of the representation of the circuit:


Take note that there are no values on the resistors in series with the LEDs. It's simply because this circuit is made to illustrate the connectivity of the external power supply, the LEDs and the MOSFET in cunjunction with the Xbox switched power source. The amount of LEDs will be variable as to how may rows of LEDs will be present and how many LEDs will there be in each row. These resistors will then have a value corresponding to the number of LEDs they supply current limitation to. The only resistors that will have fixed values are the ones connected to the Gate of the transistor. (1K and 1M ohms).

Also take note that the ground of the external power supply must be tied to the ground of the Xbox as near to the MOSFET as possible.

For the record, I used an IRF540N MOSFET transistor. A little overkill to power a few leds but that's the only kind I had at hand to do this. Remember to check the datasheet of the N-Channel MOSFET you want to use to know how much current can flow through it.

I mounted the thing on a little piece of stripboard with the necessary reistors and pinheaders to an easy interfacing:




Once all soldered, I mounted it laid down on the microcontroller like so:


Once in place I was ready to connect the DC barrel connector to it. I also made a small adapter composed of a piece of stripboard and pinheaders to easily interface the multiple sets of leds installed on the Xbox. Again this is made in order ot ease the dissassembly of the console in case it would need service.

So with that in place, I proceeded to move on to another phase: finishing the A/V portion of the project. I previously forgot to solder the wires needed for analog audio so I did it properly this time. Same technique as before, check for a direct continuity between the stock A/V port solder points and solder points topside using a multimeter. That done, I soldered the 3 wires in the center of this picture (white,red, black wires twisted together):


Once the 3.5mm connector soldered on these wires, I went ahead and soldered the TOSLINK digial audio connector. A standard TOTX178A does the trick here. It not rated for a high bandwidth but I doubt I'll ever use a 4 channel, 96KHz PCM stream with my Xbox. No games or movies will ever use that!. TOTX178 is rated for 3mbps while TOTX177 or TOTX179 can go up to 15mbps.

Here's the TOSLINK connector with the 0.1uF capacitor solder to the connector's legs:



I had previously cut the metal casing and the outer plastic case to accomodate all the new stuff that's going to be coming from the back of the console. Here are the cuts made in the metal casing. The one on the left (from this view) is for VGA connector and video mode switch while the one on the right is for TOSLINK and 3.5mm audio ports. The flap left on is for a purpose described later in this port:



That done, I had to make sure that these new connectors would fit in their places. Here's the back panel with all the holes cut. From left to right , there is the 3.5mm audio jack, the TOSLINK connector and the VGA mode switch along with the VGA connector. The VGA connector is not soldered as I have to solder it once the motherboard is secured and the wires are coming out of the VGA port's hole:


The metal piece taped to the casing assembly is a gauge to help me in cutting the VGA port hole without cutting too much. It's really useful because the panel mounted port I installed needs a hole not much smaller than the excess plating of the port(again sorry, english is not my first language). To make such a tool is really easy: Take a metal plate from an old PC graphic card and cut the excess metal like so:




Once this is all done, it's time to put back the motherboard in the case. Of course with all the work done on it I had to be really careful. Now in place, I can solder the wires to the VGA connector and mount all the connectors in place. This is a critical point since the only secure way to strougly mount both the switch and the TOSLINK is with hot glue. Therefore, it's going to be a real pain to remove the motherboard from then on.

The switch I ordered is not threaded to mount on a panel like other switches but it was one of the smallest and cheapest DPDT ON-OFF-ON switch I could find. In order to mount it firmly I pierced a way bigger hole that what was necessary and filled the empty space around the switch's shaft with hot glue.

I had a great idea to mount the TOSLINK connector. I chose the install it on top of the original A/V port because I wanted to secure it not only with a screw but also with hot glue. So instead of simply cutting and removing a piece of metal on the metal casing, I made two simple vertical cuts of little less than a centimeter in length (in order to extend the opening of the A/V port on top of it) and folded the metal sheet in a 90 degrees angle. By doing this I would be able to place the TOSLINK connector sandwiched between the A/V port and this metal flap to seal it in hot glue. I would have enough space to mount the TOSLINK connector but also the 3.5mm jack on top of the A/V port. On top of the metal flap, I would mount the piece of stripboard full of headers to connect all the leads used to power the LEDs to the MOSFET.

Here is the result:


From left to right : VGA connector under the Video mode switch, the TOSLINK connector and finally the 3.5mm jack. On top of the 2 audio ports is the stripboard connecting the LEDs to the MOSFET.

You can see that the whole thing is filled with hot glue. It's on purpose as I don't want the IDE cable to knock out any soldered wires. This way the connections of those small wires to the switch and connectors are enclosed and protected. I can put the DVD drive knowing that the thick and less flexible cables of the DVD drive will not cause trouble.

Here's the result from the back-side:


I used a small black screw for the TOSLINK connector. Make note that the hole is not threaded so be careful and use a metal or wood screen with a pointy end. Don't apply to much force and once it's in, try to avoid unscrewing it as much as you can in the future.

The mod is now over. All is left to do is put everything together. here's the whole picture of the motherboard with all the wires:



Here's another zoomed on the USB HUB and DVD dongle section where most of the wires are located:


The bottom and left headers on the USB HUB are connected to 2 USB ports mounted sideways on the front panel. These are in fact USB extension cable with blue LEDs in the the plug secured with hot glue. They give a cool effect. Here's a picture of the front panel installed on the main case:


I forgot to mention that I also have a pro switch for my X3 and I replaced the green network LED for a blue one (it's a blue themed Xbox after all!).


So I installed my Samsung drive in it and here's the stuff I'll be using for the HDD:

I finally decided to buy a 2TB Western Digital Red HDD (WD20EFRX). I won't skim on the disk space for this baby!
I also made myself a custom 80-wires IDE cable.
I'll be using a red SATA-IDE converter I bought some time ago on DealExtreme. This is a REV1 unit and I know that in other communities it was flagged as incompatible but the WD20EFRX,80-wires cable and this adapter works great. About 25 seconds boot time from the time I press power up to the main screen of XBMC. I haven't had a single HDD timeout error with it.

Here are closed-up pictures of the adapter in question:




Here's one of the final pictures before it gets closed:



The top cover on which I cleared the Xbox jewel and mounted LEDs in circle around it. A little electrical tape just to make sure no part of the leads of the LEDs will touch the HDD or DVD drive. (I won't cover this as this has been explained in multiple tutorials all across the web):





Now that the project is completed and every functionnalities have been tested, I can finally do this:


The next post will be a summary of the project and a few pictures of the Xbox.

 

:love_heart: U MOD, bloody nice job, the 3.5 mm jack is really nice along with the VGA and digital out. Light never dit anything 4 me personaly (thx g*d we all not the same) but still nice to see such a creative mind at work with lights and all.

Top smiles from me: :encouragement::encouragement::encouragement::encouragement::encouragement::encouragement::encouragement:

Keep up the good the good work, would like see any of U'r future MODs

 

Looks like you got the Xbox jewel in there upside-down

 

Thank you very much. I add LEDs to my mods because they're cheap, easy to do and my non-techies relatives appreciate those much more than the technical stuff like added RAM or integrated MS DVD dongle.

I do have a few projects in mind. I bought a batch of RAM chips and I do have a few Xbox I could mod and sell. We'll see how that goes.

I also plan to design a X2VGA clone to integrate inside the Xbox and give 1.6 Xboxes a way of getting integrated VGA. This is not "native" VGA as it uses the YPbPr lines to get RGBHV. So no special bios required but I doubt that 480i-only apps or games will look good with this.

I would also like to design a new LPC modchip for Xbox. Most modchips available only support 256k bioses. The problem is that if you want a 128mb RAM modded Xbox along with a 2TB HDD and working IGR functionnality, you're going to need the latest X2 bios (v5035) which is 512k. LCD port could be a cool feature. Tell me where I could buy a modchip on which I could hook up a small LCD and I'll buy it for sure! Anyway I feel pretty confident with my VHDL skills to embark in such project.

I also have some plans for a few Dreamcast consoles I have laying around.

Well the pictures on my post show the Top lid from upside down. I can assure you that once it is fitted it's facing the right way!

I will post pictures another time along with a summary of the project.

 

ind-bios 5003, 256kb, supports 128mb of ram, IGR and LBA48.

 

He does lol unless that's the effect he's going for. It's a little confusing when the groves are removed

 

Yes but the IGR bug where the trigger presses are omitted for IGR commands is just plain annoying. I don't want to disable IGR just for that. Anyway, a 512KB flash modchip gives more flexibility by having the possiblity to flash X2 5035 as well as most debug bioses (are there any 1MB debug bioses).

Basically I would like to design a dual 512KB bank modchip with LCD(HD44780) port out. Pretty much a bullet proof standard here. Of course there are no OS on the chip but really, once your all set, is there a use for an onboard OS?

I don't understand how you see it backward! That's the interior of the top lid. The curved side of the jewel is facing the other side of the top lid. Once fitted on the console itself you can read "XBOX" on the jewel when standing in front of it, facing the controller ports and DVD tray.

How is it backward?

 

Love the mods, great work! I've sent you a PM with a couple of questions.

 

Hello, here are the answers to your question. I figure it could benefit others who would have similar questions in the future.

Well you can find kapton tape imitation (which works really good) on eBay or other shopping sites. Make sure to buy one which can withstand temperature of at least 280 degrees Celsius as your soldering iron will pass really close to it. Any ordinary electric tape will recess from the tip of the wires as it is heated; not the kapton tape.

The tape is used to line up all the wires with the solder pads on the xecuter chip. Without it, you'll find it really hard to solder all wires. I had to use this technique because the solder pads are so close to each others on the modchip that I would sometime slightly touch the neighbor solderpad of the one I really wanted to heat. Then previously soldered wires would fall off or simply move enough to create a bridge between 2 solderpads. This way, you can place all wires before starting to solder and if you accidentaly touch a neighbor solderpad it won't be that big of a deal as the wire will not fall off (provided it's not the first wire of the 16 you solder on). Check the quick sketch I made:



If you want you can leave the tape on and maybe add a second strip underneath the wires At least if one of the wire detach itself from a solderpad you won't have that much trouble putting it back on.

The IR eye is a standard part you can order on any sites that sells electronic parts like Digikey, Farnell, etc. It's partnumber is TSOP32156. I have some in stock.

The IR sensor from Microsoft's dongle was reported to be incompatible with Xerc2.

Sure, do you want a bare board or one with all the components soldered on(also the microcontroller is already programmed)? I'll check shipment later. We'll continue this discussion via PM.

If you want more info I suggest you go get all the info possible and pay your respect to the original creator on http://diy.sickmods.net/Our_Products/XERC_2/About/ .

This guy (pablot) made an amazing product and I surely don't want to take any credit for the R&D he made. I'm simply trying to give a second life to this mod as he is not selling them anymore. I want to make sure that when people pay me for these they do not pay for a piece of code but only for the physical device. I bought extra parts to build a few units only to accomodate me and maybe people who are not into PCB creation.

If you don't already know, a relay consist of an inductor(coil) that acts like an electro-magnet and move an actuator to change the connectivity state of it's pins. Coils build up and conserve current and that current is released when power is suddenly removed from it. You don't want parasitic signals running through your DC lines. That diode will create a closed loop that will keep the parasitic current from running through the DC supply (+12V) because it'll drain itself out by running in this loop.

If you want to learn a little, here's the wikipedia page that describe what is a Flyback diode and why it is important to use it on an inductor (coil).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode

I am really happy to see that all the time I took to write and drawn this info will be useful to people. I could have simply done the mods I did and never bother to start this thread but I feel that this community really wants to experiment and enhance their devices. If I can help I will for sure!

And don't worry I will continue to post stuff here. I have 2 PCB projects going on. A Component to VGA converter and a Gamecube digital audio adapter. I should receive the PCBs real soon and I'll post on how those 2 are working.

Just check in the modding forums for those threads if you are interested!

Good luck with you mods.

 

Just wondering if you have any of your custom pcbs left and if so how much would you sell them for?

 

Well,you did a good job bennydiamond.

I think of scrapping my project because it's by now worthless,since I just don't have the resources to equip it with a very big HDD right now.A small list of what I try to accomplish with mine,and as someone said it's going to be a HUGE dissapointment.

-1.2-1.5 motherboard in place of dead 1.0 motherboard.
-10GB stock HDD in case the new one is 8GB - this is what makes it worthless,my ONLY 160GB Samsung SP1603N died sadly.And no,SATA adapters aren't anywhere here in Bacau.
-USB port in place of port 4 controller
-iND-BIOS 5003.67 256KB TSOP - the only thing that would keep it alive since BIOS modchips don't require locking the harddrive.
-UnleashX (I don't like XBMC)

Anyways,nice Xbox you have right there. Wondering what you'll do next.

 

If you want bud I can purchase a sata to ide adapter on your behalf and post it to you if you really need pm me if you're interested

 

No thanks. I try keeping it stock,mostly because the ST310211A sounds like a old 90's HDD,like those found on Pentium 133 systems.

 

I'm working on a Xbox modchip with OS and LCD port: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?52381-(WIP)-New-modchip-coming-in