(WIP) New modchip coming in

Okay, if the price is in CAD, $48.50 (the price of a modchip and standard shipping) equals 0.09 Bitcoins (according to Google), and the cost of 0.09 Bitcoins coverts to £26.73 (On bitbargin), and there's probably some interest on top of buying and trading Bitcoins, so it will probably cost more.

Whereas, if the price is in USD, $48.50 equals 0.12 Bitcoins, and the cost of 0.12 Bitcoins coverts to £35.64.

And if we directly convert CAD to GBP (at the current conversion rate of 1 CAD=0.50 GBP), we get £24.29, And with USD (at the current conversion rate of 1 USD=0.69 GBP), we get £33.59.

It just seems a little drawn out to covert USD/CAD to Bitcoin, and then convert that to GBP, when we can covert GBP to USD and visa versa directly with something like Google Wallet.

(Sorry if my calculations are wrong, I'm still can't believe I passed my maths class. also, my sentences are probably poorly structured, this normally happens when I'm working stuff out, so I apologize for that too).

 

You can just buy Bitcoins in your local currency and send to the op. The conversion back is his problem. You are making it sound much more long winded than it is.

Buy however many Bitcoins he wants in your local currency, send said Bitcoins.

It's pointless mentioning Google Wallet or anything else - he's done his research and this is how he accepts payment. You either buy with Bitcoins or you don't buy it.

 

Sorry, I've never dealt with Bitcoins before, so I only had a slight idea on how it worked.

I'm just wondering, how many Bitcoins will the modchip cost? as I can't really work out the cost without that, and import tax is still a massive worry for me (the £8 handling fee is a joke).

I do respect Benny's decision for using Bitcoins as payment, it's just that it may put some people off of buying a modchip (I would have bought one anyway, no matter the payment method).

The Internet really is serious business, huh?

 

He didn't want to use Bitcoins either, but it's the only option after he did his research. If he's smart enough to make a Modchip, he's smart enough to realise the impact his chosen payment method will have on sales.

Anyways, he has an actual sales thread that says price etc and where to get Bitcoins. You could also pm him to ask how many he wants.

 

Sorry, my last comment was poorly worded.
I feel sorry for Benny, as Paypal has really limited his options doing this. It is annoying that Paypal banned him just because he was selling modchips with it, imagine an actual bank did that, freezing someones account just because they didn't approve of a persons transaction history, even though they haven't done anything wrong, I could see a storm brewing over that. And I don't even understand why Paypal even needs to know the details of a transaction anyway, if they're concerned about being an accomplice to criminal activity, they should just say that they take no responsibility for the users actions.

Benny hasn't been online since the weekend, so I'm guessing he's busy during the week, so I'll wait till then to see his reply.

 

Hi there,

Yes I am quite busy at work these days. I'm working on a product that was supposed to launch early January but the date keeps getting pushed back because of new bugs found (Damn QA team is really good!) and additionnal feature requests from upper management. We're all pulling extra hours to try and complete the software so you can undertand that when I get home, I just want to take my glass of wine and relax with my girlfriend.

Plus I'm working on another project of mine these days. A 4-in, 2-out automatic TOSLINK switcher. It's a project I did in Uni that I've been using at home for quite some time. I want to clean up the code and fix a few tings on the hardware before releasing it to the public (it'll be all open source and open hardware). More info on it later.

As for the whole payment thing. Base comparison price is $48.50USD. It currently translate to 0.12BTC. You should check Coinbase if the service is available in your country. If not, there are surely alternatives you can find. LocalBitcoins.com could help you there.

For Canadian, you could also send a payment by E-Interac. I've used it recently and it's really easy and cheap.

I could also accept MoneyGram, Western Union but these are all options that will cost you extra processing fees.

Google Wallet and Amazon Payments are both not available for Canada(for now).

 

How did i miss this??? PM sent Fella, this is very interesting work

 

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply.

It really sounds like you have your hands full at the moment, I hope everything is going well in regards to everyday life and your projects.

A TOSLINK switcher sounds like a really useful device, as most surround sound systems only support digital audio now days, and only one port at that.

Whenever you are ready to accept payments, just post a message here and I'll work out all of the Bitcoin stuff.

Quick question, do you mark parcels as "Gift" when you ship them to other countries?

 

Hi,

I'm always ready to accept payment. I settled on Bitcoins, Western Union and MoneyGram. USA reisdent can also send international Money orders. Canadian can also use E-Interac transfers.

As for the TOSLINK switcher, yes it is really useful! My friends and I faced the same problem, having multiple device that output TOSLINK and a single input on my receiver. That's why I decided to create such thing. Plus I could submit a project of my own as my Bachelor's degree graduation project! I had no reason to not make this.

Anyway, the code is going well. I'm still waiting on the PCBs to arrive so I'll likely have time to test the new hardware revision before releasing it.

 

Hello

Okay. I may need a few days to transfer money to my card, once I've done that I'll buy the Bitcoins and send you a PM to sort out how to send them to you. does the modchip still cost 0.12 Bitcoins?

I'd love to take a look at the TOSLINK switcher when you release it, I have a lot of devices I need to connect to my other surround sound system, and it would prove exceptionally useful.

Sorry to ask this question again, do you mark your parcels as "Gift" when you ship to the UK? this has really been bothering me.

 

Hi there,

Yes price currently stands a 0.12BTC.

For your question about gift shipping, no I don't mark a shipment of something I sold to someone as a gift... I had enough trouble with Paypal as it is, I don't want to get any trouble with foreign government agencies too! Plus, if I can relate to my own experience, low value packages sent through regular postal services (ie not Fedex, UPS and such) don't get be screened that often by custom import agencies. There are some risks that are not worth it and I figure this is one of them.

 

Hello

Thank you for answering all my questions, I have the money, I just need to find out how to buy the bitcoins and send them to you.

To Bad_Ad84: I hope you don't mind, but if you still read this tread, considering you also live in the UK, could you please give me some pointers on what to do when it comes to buying and sending bitcoins?

Thank you in advance.

 

I don't suppose there'll be/there is a solderless option? for those of us with the hand steadiness of paint shakers

 

To be honest, I don't think there will be. The problem being there isn't a pin header on the Xbox's motherboard by default, and at least one wire will have to be soldered to the motherboard (to the D0 point). Luckily, all the solder points have a fair bit of space between them, and the D0 point, though quite tricky to solder to, has nothing around it that it could accidentally be bridged to. I have really shaky hands as well, and I've managed to solder things like this before.

here are some images of the points that need to be soldered to (Pictures belong to their rightful owners):

The LPC (Debug) connector:


D0 point (may vary depending on motherboard):


I hope this helps you in some way.

 

I've seen "zero solder" ones like the one I've attached floating around the internet. Unfortunately they don't seem to be sold anymore (not really surprising given the age of the console).

I wouldn't be outright against trying to solder one if that's the only option of course. But I figured I'd ask just in case

 

I don't have any solderless adapter and I don't plan on making it. First because I don't have the equipment and also because as ArcticFoXxXx said, soldering a Xbox modchip is really one of the easiest job there is(modchip related).

The XBlast Lite do however support mapping the solderless adapter you mention. At the time, most of the 1.0-1.5 solderless adapters(yes there were numerous revisions) mapped the d0 signal to the 4th LPC pin of the adapter.

The XBlast Lite Pre does have the d0 signal input mapped to the 4th pin of its LPC port, since it's physically impossible to solder a header at that position on LPC ports of Xbox 1.0-1.5.

If you can find a solderless adapter that is designed with d0 linked to 4th LPC pin, you could have a totally solderless solution with a XBlast Lite.

BTW, there were solderless adapter that had the d0 signal always tied to ground. These worked fine with all modchips but you could not disable the modchip to boot from onboard TSOP without removing the solderless adapter itself. Evidently, they would also work with XBlast Lite!

 

So is this the chip I should wait to get for my 1.6 Xbox?

 

Are these still being made and sold benny? I am very interested in getting one myself and I already have a board ready to play around with it once it arrives. I am just checking in advance so that I know how much to save up as I am on a limited income unfortunately but I am able to save. It just takes me some time depending on various factors.

Anyway looking forward to a response and I will check for you on XBMC4XBOX as well. Thanks for the amazing work you did both with X-Blast OS and the chip as well.

 

Benny hasn't been on in a while so if you can't get a hold of him if I remember correctly (correct me if I'm wrong) Bad_Ad84 sells them in his sales thread here,

http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/for-sale-modding-parts-chips-etc.39971/

Down at "Xbox - Xblast upgraded Aladdin XT", though I'd PM Bad_Ad84 first and double check.

 

Hi there,
Yes there are still units available for sale. PM me if you're interested.

Bad_Ad84 sells modded Aladdin XTs with a mod I created that turns them into XBlast OS compatible 4th gen modchip.
I sell XBlast Lite (Pre edition for now). A more advanced modchip than Aladdin XBlast. XBlast Lite have HD44780 LCD support, TSOP split support (For 1.0-1.1 Xbox) and TSOP recovery feature (1.0-1.5 Xbox).

Build quality of the XBlast Lite is also very much superior to Aladdin XTs.

Finally, XBlast OS is designed to work primarly with real XBlast hardware. It does support Aladdin XBlast variant for now but I always stated that it should never be assumed it will always be the case. I do not support Aladdin XBlast. I do test OS updates for it but very summarily. Good news is that the OS is open source. Anybody could pick it up to bring back compatibility.

Speaking of OS update. I've got one coming. It's gonna be good. I just need to test it out a bit further as there are a lot of core changes.