If you dont want to spend time popping the notches off the back like the video

There's already plenty of similar pics floating around and where to get this voltage and that, some good, some not so good, and some that haven't been done before, so I did these up and tossed them together all in one place for anyone that needs/wants them. ;)

There are only a few Ground spots marked throughout (Black in the first pic, Blue after that), mainly for a quick spot to stick a meter or whatever, but if ya want a known ground source use the metal cage or spots under the power plug, as long as the motherboard is installed and screwed down the metal cage is ground. You can also use the shielding of any of the Main Connectors that are on the board, USB, Memory Card ports, any of them, they're all grounded and are very easy to solder to. Just be careful and don't have the heat on them too long because they're plastic inside.

This is under the Power Connector, you have access to the 12v right from the PSU (when it's on) as well as the 5v Standby voltage. The Standby voltage is always present, as long as the PSU is plugged into the 360 and a good outlet, it remains on even when the 360 is turned off. The 12v, and every 12v spot as well as other voltages, in the 360 are Switched, they turn on/off with the 360. If the 360 isn't on, there's no 12v anywhere, if there's no 12v there's no 5v, 3.3v 1.8v and whatever other voltages are in there I haven't traced out yet.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here you can get to the 5v Standby (Red) from the top of the board, there are also a couple of 12v (Yellow) spots that are fairly easy to use as well. Remember Blue spots are Ground from here on.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here is the older good 5v spot and is still a good place to get 5v from, but some may not like soldering onto that SMT Capacitor there. You can also use the small spot there at DB6G1. There is also a 12v spot there at the tab of the MOSFET Q6F1. Soldering onto a tab of one of these MOSFETs can be difficult if you don't have a Soldering Iron that can sustain the heat long enough to get the tab and large plane it's soldered to hot enough to flow new solder on and melt the old as well.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
These are 5v spots that are under the board. They're right about the exact same spot as the 5v on the top ya just looked at, there is also a 12v spot here.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here are some other 5v locations (The ones in Red) that are at the front left of the 360. The Violet spots are 3.3v for the DVD drive (Large Regulator in the middle U1F1). 3.3v for the Memory Cards (Small Regulator at the bottom U1F2) and the 3.3v Regulator at the top (U1E1) supplies voltage to a 1.8v Regulator that's under the board (U2T1) that powers the Southbridge. There's also a 12v spot there at the tab of Q3F1.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The row of MOSFETs on the right hand side of the 360 (The pic is turned) all have 12v on the tabs.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
These are all Standby voltages, Red = 5v, Violet = 3.3v and the pink Grapefruit looking color is 1.8v, these voltages are always present as long as the 360 has power, doesn't matter if it's turned on or off. The 5v is the same as the 5v Standby that's the Power Connector. The 3.3v powers the RF board and I'm sure a few other places and the 1.8v goes mainly to the Southbridge, I haven't finished tracking down all the places they go to yet.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Welcome to my tut onto put leds into your(Not a slim xbox 360) xbox 360 rf board and also how to put in error lights. I will be using purple/white leds for this.
Iam not responsible if you break/mess up your rf board or anything else while doing this.


Tools needed
RF board
Electric solder
Torx t8 tamper proof screw driver
Sand paper
0603 smds(You choose the color of the led)
15 watt soldering iron
(Optional)
A spare xbox 360 to use to test out to see if you put the leds on right

Here the "+" and "-" of the rf board. The nice thing with these is every rf board is the same for where the "+" and "-" are located.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Here are the "+" and "-" ends of some leds you might get
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]



The first thing I do is solder off the middle button. What I do to get all of these leds off is get some solder to stick to the solder iron and the go back and forth from 1 point of the led to another. If done right it should come off.Never use force to take off the leds or you will mess it up!
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Here it so far
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

To get the other leds off simply just do what I told you before and you the led will come off by its self
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Then when you have it taken off carefully put some pressure on the pads and scrape off the extra solder on it. Make sure you do not bridge them together
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Here it is now
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now just do what I told you before to take off the other leds and your done for that part.

Now to put the error lights on it solder the other led onto the other pad.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Then get some solder onto your soldering iron and connect the 2 leds. This a bit tricky. You have to get enough solder to connect the led and also not use to much so it dosent poke the little white part. If you are having trouble getting the 2nd led to work, make sure you have enough solder to cover the whole side of the led. Once you got that down just do the same thing to the other lights and your done!
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

ok with that out of the way here we go.

step one get your dvd rom drive out of your xbox360.

step 2 remove the holding platter from the top of the drive casing this my be differnt depending on your drive manufacter date.

next remove the four screws holding the case together located on the bottom.

now they are hard to see but there are 4 little black nubs that you must break or shave off to make the frame flush on top.

now mark on your acrylic/plexi/plastic sheet the width and length of the drive.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

now whip out that dremel with a cutting wheel and cut out the center of the dvd drive locking platter holder thinga majiger, i did it this way the 2nd time around for a little better view at the disc

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

now mark your spot on where your going to epoxy the metal holder in place so that the locking platter doesnt fall out and jam your drive up.
just use a marker that will wash off.

just glue the 3 tabs down the acrylic/plexi/plastic but make sure the locking platter is in under the holder first or els you have to rip it up and re glue it.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

after that is all done drying you can plop it on and test it out.
ok so it works but i had to hold it down? whats the deal.
well i cut the drive case apart and made these little holding tabs.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

and they attach were the screws go in, simple as that.

[img]http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p233/alpha_prime_reloaded/dvd12.jpg[img]

here is the disc ejected and you can see the internal workings.

good luck and be safe

Wash All pieces that will be painted in warm water
Makesure you have 800, 1500 & 2000 grade sandpaper (to privide the mirror finish)
Makesure any bit of sanding you do is wetsanding, Fill a bucket up with warm water and put a little bit of dish washing detergent in (acts as a lubricant and helps the sandpaper along).
Use a sanding block if you have one. After each sand on each piece of the case wash it thoroughly then let it to dry naturally. Don't towel dry it.

Ok now sand the case with 800grade sandpaper (wetsanding) once the whole case is done, check it out. Should be SUPER smoothe.

Apply a first ghost coat of sandable primer, let dry for 10minutes then do a normal coat of sandable primer, attack it with 800wet sanding once again. (Doesnt matter if original bits of the case end up showing through).

Once the primer is in A1 condition, Give it a guide coat of the first layer of paint you will be using, allow 30mins to dry. Then give it a Normal coat. Let that dry. Once that has dried give it a second coat, then once that second coat of normal layer paint has dried Whip out yout 1500grade sandpaper, (by this stage the case should be super smoothe, your just working on your painting quality) wetsand ththe whole case, in a ONE WAY DIRECTION. DONT!!! Go in circles or left & right then forwards & back because you will create cross texture in the paint and really start making a mess of things.

ONCE that is done with the 1500grade sandpaper. Wash it, Let to dry naturally.

OK! Now give it another Coat of paint....

Let that harden for a few hours...

Now CLEARCOATING!!

Apply a first guide layer of clear. Not too light & Not too dark. Then let it harden about 30/40mins for this.
Ok now apply a decent layer of clear, not too thick or anything and it must be even, spray in sweeping motions and dont start/stop spraying while on the object itself otherwise you will cause pilling of the paint.

Now once that has Dried about 1/2hours Brake out the 2000grade wetsand paper. Do the same sanding method but do it VERY EVENLY and not as HARD on the pieces you are sanding. Once done. Wash & let it dry naturally.

Apply its last layer of clear evenly. LET it harden overnight before you touch it.

!!GETTING THAT MIRROR FINISH THAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED!!


After letting it cure for 3/4days without handling it, Get some decent Cutter & Liquid Wax Polish. Apply a VERY VERY small ammount of cutter on a hand pad and get to work on the item dont do it too hard or too long otherwise you'll eat down into the color and stuff up. Once you have done this use a cheasecloth to buff it up. Ok about 15minutes after you have buffed the cutter off the item, Time to brake out the LIQUID WAX POLISH!!!

Apply a generous ammount to the item you are waxing and have a fresh handhelf buffing pad, get to work, Once it is all done, get another piece of cheesecloth and put some elbow grease into it and really buff it up, Once the Liquid Wax is applied leave it to sit for 15mins before handling..

Congrats, depending on the quality paint you used.

!!MIRROR FINISH!!


Hope you all have fun... and produce some awesome Paintjobs.

Requirements

First and foremost, you need a case your willing to sacrifice
A straight edge (I used an architecture ruler, but any will do)
Pencil
Circular piece of something to trace (for the edges)
A rotary tool (I used my Dremel 300 series) and a few specific attatchments
Sandpaper (or sanding utensils like a straight sander)
Eye protection (unless you want hot white stuff in your eye, be my guest)
Patience

PROCESS

Designing (you can skip this if you want, but that is ill advised!)

Now that you have your unwilling victim, its time to plan your cuts. Although this is optional, I found its easy to map out what you want to do on the computer in paint, photoshop, or whatever program you want to use. Click here to view/download a large Xbox 360 template to mess around with. If you just want to go straight to the case and mark it up, that is what I prefer to do. Now, since this is an easy cut, I measure right above the Microsoft insignia near the bottom vent (when vertical). Simply mark a straight line across the length of the shell parallel to the vent. Measure the distance from the vent to the line you drew above the Microsoft insignia, and repeat this for the other side vent. I found it easy to take the measurement and make multiple marks (i use dots) across the length of the shell to make sure i have a straight line. After this, you need to mark a line across the width of the shell. For this, simple put your straight edge to the end of each side of the vents, and simply "connect the dots." This will give you the area you have to make any design you choose without having the shell compromised in any way (for example, it bends because it doesn't have the structural support of a giant middle piece of it missing). Now, you simply design whatever you want withing this boundary.

The Cutting
*This section is mostly personal opinion, and what works best for me. It may be different for you, but consider them to be basic guidlines*

For the actual cutting, I find that the reinforced wheel works best. You may also used any of the other wheels designed for cutting but beware! they may break on you due to the material some of them are made out of. When cutting, leave room between the line you DREW and the line your are CUTTING. The reason for this, as you will see, is that the plastic begins to melt when you are cutting due to the friction heat is created and melts the cut plastic. Plus, you will sand this down later and make it look better anyways. I suggest starting to cut the width of the console first, making all straight cuts into the corners then sanding them out to a curve later. Make sure you take a break every once in a while to let the Dremel cool, as well as the cutting wheel itself. The speed setting varies from cut to cut, but i usually use the middle setting or something a little higher. MAKE SURE TO HOLD THE DREMEL WITH BOTH HANDS AT ALL TIMES. I cannot stress this enough, as you are working with a very, VERY dangerous tool spinning incredibly fast. Many times, the Dremel will bite into something and take it upon itself to change your design. Slow and steady is best, do not try and rush it.

Sanding and smoothing

Although it may not look like much now, after you sand it and take off all those nasty melted bits it will come together trust me. For the sanding, I do NOT use the small sand paper wheels, but a grinding/sanding piece (Picture below). Sanding is pretty straight forward, and hopefully most of you understand it. For the inside of the shell, I recommend sanding everything within 1/4 of an inch of the cut down smooth. This is because you will most likely be putting in plexiglass or something similar and hot-glueing it to the case.

Remove Xbox360 Motherboard
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Turn upside down (carefull of the heatsinks!) and locate under the Ethernet Port. Notice the 4 unsoldered joints
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Solder 60 cm long wires to them (small soldering iron required, fairly easy, if you could do D0, this is a walk in the park ;-)
I used 2 pairs from a RJ45 patch cable keeps things neat and tidy. Make a note of which wires go to which pairs and pin numbers in my case :-

Green/White = 1 (+)
Green = 2 (-)

Blue/White = 3 (+)
Blue = 4 (-)
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Replace the motherboard and route the cables out where the fan sits

There are various places to put the LED's :-
THIS IS WHERE MINE WENT
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Replace the fan etc, route the cables behind the fan power connector and around the DVD Rom
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

The 360 has very few holes in the front (unlike the original Xbox) so finding an exit for the wires is challenging I used the RF Board connector hole (just big enough for the wires..)
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Put the RF Board back, routing the wires behind it and out of the USB port area - get the button plastic cover on the right way around ;-)
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now for the difficult bit !

Where to place the LEDs the standard front cover has two rather handy indents already in it above the USB Flap J

I drilled these using a 3mm drill (for 3mm LEDs..) and then a 4mm countersink to make the LEDs as flush as possible careful here you dont want to go right through with the 4mm
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

The LEDs were a snug fit so I just melted the plastic around them with a soldering iron to seal them in also note what is the Cathode and Anode before doing this ! Youll need to do some careful leg bending here as the faceplate fits snug on the console
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Solder on the wires according to the notes you made before remember LEDs are directional you wont do any damage if you connect them around the wrong way they just wont work !

Generally speaking, the small plate inside the LED is the Anode (+) and the larger portion is the Cathode (-)

The finished faceplate :-
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

A few pics in action :-

Bottom LED is the link light, the top the Ethernet/Live activity
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Ok so youve probably got a nice spangly new kit that looks something like this, my cathodes have already been modified to fit into my case and your kit may have either a sound controller or a switch on it. Either way, the cable with the molex pass thru on it is the one we will be using.

Oh yeah, and if you can't solder this tutorial is no use to you.

Anyway, see that molex pass through connector? chop that bad boy off, it aint needed.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

from where you cut the molex adaptor off, strip the wires back a little, say 5mm or so, whatever your comfortable with. For reference, black is almost always ground, so whatever colour wires your kit comes with the black one will be ground and the coloured one will be 12v.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

crack the soldering iron out and drop a little solder onto the end of each of the wires, this will make connectiong later on alot easier.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Grab your 360 and dismantle it, if you don't know how to do that then go here if you dont like that tutorial then visit the faq and there are a few more.

Pressing on...ok so hopefully youve managed to dissasemble your xbox, get your motherboard and flip it over and look for the area where the powerplug goes into, it looks like this.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Using the pic below identify the 12v and ground points. Soldering to these points is hard with a low powered iron so a good method of doing so is to lightly scratch at an area of the solder so its clean and shiny and then drop some solder onto it, like ive done in the picture below..
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

grab your wires and solder the black to the Gnd and the yellow (or whatever colour it is) to the 12v, this should be easy peasy since both parts have solder on them. Once done, put a little bit of electrical tape over it to stop any short that might occur.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

once youve done that, flip the motherboard over and put it back in the case. It should look a little like this.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

now im not going to go into any great detail as to where to mount the cathodes/switch/sound controller/inverter because it's completely up to you, the user, and every kit is different. Below are some pics of my setup, this works well for me, but it's completly up to you.

Anyway once youve done that, plug her in and fire it up, if all is good it should look a little something like this.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

hope this helps
Q: What is the difference between Lexan/Acrylic/Plexiglass etc.

A:
Lexan is a trademark of GE plastics.
Plexiglas is a trademark of the Atoglas division of Atofina Chemicals.
Lucite is a trademark of E.I.DuPont DeNemours & Co.
Acrylite is a trademark of American Cynamid Co.
Perspex is a trademark of ICI Group.

Lexan is polycarbonate.
Plexiglas, Lucite, Acrylite, Perspex and acrylic are polyacrylate.

Polycarbonate is harder than polyacrylate, and if someone wants to go dig up the physical properties listings, theres probably a wealth of other differences. I dont think it matters much in a case modding context.

Lexan is much more shatter resistant than Acrylic. Acrylic is more scratch resistant than Lexan.

Acrylic is available in different grades:
Extruded material is manufactured by pushing pellets through a highly polished die. There can be slight imperfections in the surface. Extruded material is usually less expensive and more difficult to work with.

Acrylic can also be cast There are different casting methods, with the more expensive material being more uniform in thickness. Cell cast is the highest grade, and continuous cast is in the middle.
Q: How do I glue acrylic pieces together?

A: IPS Weld-on #3 or #4 are suitable adhesives available from your plastics supplier. You can use other products, but these are specially formulated. Use #3 if youre working with Lexan. Use #4 if youre working with Acrylic. #3 may make your seams appear cloudy if applied in humid conditions. The adhesive is the consistency of water. Use a needle applicator available from your supplier to apply the adhesive. Edges to be glued should not be polished. Use corner clamps to hold the joint together under mild pressure. Apply the cement to the inside of the joint, keeping the joint horizontal. The adhesive will flow into the joint by capillary action. The bond will set in about an hour, but allow eight hours or more for the adhesive to fully cure before removing the clamps.
Q: Can I form/bend Acrylic sheet?

A: Use a heat gun to get the material warm enough to soften. Use a form to control the shape of your pieces. Lining your form with felt can help prevent the plastic sticking to the form (thanks, mashie). Acrylic is flammable, so using a torch to heat it for forming is a bad idea. Thicker material will need to be heated on both sides. Plastic supply houses also carry strip heaters for bending.
Q: How do I drill holes in Acrylic?

A: The best choice is a drill bit designed for plastics. It will have a different cut angle than a bit for metals. Plastic bits are available from your plastics supplier. You can successfully use an ordinary drill bit. Use a low speed, and use a bit of soap to lubricate the bit. Dont advance the bit too far at onceback it out occasionally. Using a drill press is preferable to a hand drill.
Q: How do I cut Acrylic?

A: Leave the protective paper or plastic in place during cutting.
For straight cuts, in order of preference:
Use a router.
Use a tablesaw with a triple-cut blade (blade > $100)
Use other circular saw, with a blade with > 5 teeth per inch, 0 degrees rake.
Use a jigsaw with a finetooth blade. (plastics stores carry one, or use a metal blade)
Score and break the piece (best for 1/8 material)
Use a rotary tool at s l o w speed
Use a hacksaw
Use kung fu

When sawing material thicker than 1/8, use water to cool the blade during the cut. A little soap or wax on the blade can help with lubrication.
Q: Can I polish up the edges of my piece?

A: Do not polish edges that are to be glued. But other edges can be polished by successively sanding with finer grit sandpaper, or using a buffer and compound, or flame polishing.

To get a sharp edge with sandpaper, use a sanding block to keep the edge flat. If you want a rounded edge, use hand sanding. Using wet/dry sandpaper will give the best results.

Using a buffer can polish your edge very quickly. Either sand until smooth and then buff with blue compound, or buff first with red compound, then blue on a separate buffing wheel. Dont allow the buffer to catch the edge of the material, it may get thrown.

Using a torch to polish the edges works well too on thicknesses above 1/8. Be careful with this techniqueacrylic is flammable. Using a micro torch gives good control. The flame polished edges can thicken slightly, so you may not want to use the technique if that affects your design.
Q: My drill bits chip up the plexi/acrylic when I drill holes. Isnt there a better way?

A: Though pricey, I highly recommend the plastic drill bits they leave a nice clean hole. Using a regular drill bit is not too bad if you are drilling with a 1/8 drill bit or less but going larger and it starts to become chip city. If you must use regular drill bits, start small and work your way up one size at a time. Though I havent tried it, one recommendation Ive heard of is to flatten the cutting edge on a regular drill bit and supposedly it wont chip the plexi. Might extend the life of those old, worn out drill bits

The Craftics Plas-Drill bits are quite nice. They have a 90 face angle and do quite nicely in a drill press. Pros use custom ground bits with diamond dust impregnated on their surface. The Craftics are quite adequate for DIY use.

Disassembling the Faceplate

First, we're going to start off with the stock MS faceplate.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Supplies:
Exacto Knife (standard and chisel blades are perfect)
Faceplate
Hot Glue (for putting it back together)
Careful hand (so you don't cut yourself like me ^_^ )

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
This is the finished product. You can see all of my supplies and all the individual parts.
removing Memory card slots A and B

The first step to removing everything is to take off your Memory card doors. It's pretty simple.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
You can see there is one spring for each door. You need to remove them both.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
You can use either your exacto or your bare finger to lift up each end of the spring over their holding spots. Make sure that you keep your finger on top of the coils when removing the second side.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here's the first spring off.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Repeat the same thing on the second spring.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The second spring shown off.

Now, we have both springs off. We are now ready to take the physical doors off. You will see two noches that hold the back of the door "axil" in place. It's hard to show in a picture, but you will need to push the part of your faceplate down where the axils are. You will then need to push diagonaly on the actual axil on one side. Then, the doors pop right out!

Don't be scared, I'm just telling you exactly what to do so that you don't break it. You'll figure it out.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here's the first memory card door. You can see that I popped out only one side. The other slide just slides out. See how it is diagonal? That's the direction I pushed when I removed it.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The first door off.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Both doors off.

Removing the USB Door

The USB door is kind of tricky. Do not use the same method on the USB door that we used on the memory card slot.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here's what it looks like before we begin.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Begin by cutting away the "soldered" plastic on the metal part of the door. When you look at the solder joint, you will see that there are inscribed and circumscribed circles. Cut off the thin circumscribed spots on each side. There are two in total ;) .

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Once you get the melted plastic cut off the metal piece comes out. It also allows the spring and the door to come out.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The door and all the parts shown off.

Removing the Remote Component

This part gets kind of ugly. It's really tricky to cut off these "solder" joints because you can't get a good angle with your exacto.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Before you begin.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
I spent a lot of time on this piece cutting with my standard exacto blade. DON'T USE IT.

I found that it is the easiest to just plainly cut off the solder joint all together. You can do this by shaving off layers of it on both sides with your chisel blade. It won't be a clean or simple job.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Just push on the main shaft of the component when you're finished cutting off those joints. The thing easily slides out.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The individual piece.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Now, you should be at this point with the doors out and the remote component removed.

Removing the Ring-of-light button

You want to be as careful as you possibly can be on this piece. It is a bitch. The ring consists of the actual button, a transparent plate, and four supports.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Here's the ring itself.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Begin by cutting each solder joint into a right angle. The 90 degree angle is facing the middle of the button and the remaining 270 degrees should be facing away from the middle.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Next, wedge your fat exacto chisel between the solder joint and the transparent board. You want to preserve as much of the solder joint as possible for reassembly. *It was on the last joint that I slipped with my knife *

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The button then just pops out. You are then left with the four supports and the transparent board.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The transparent part easily can be pulled out because it is no longer secured. Make sure that you pull it straight up so that you don't break a support.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The button and transparent board removed.
Removing the Signal Component
After doing everything else this should be easy.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Just cut that melted circumscribed circle of plastic from the solder joint. Don't worry if your button splits at the end a little, it happened to me too. A little glue will fix it all up when you reassemble it.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Both solder joints cut.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
All the parts out.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Does this picture look familiar to you?
Yay! Now you can paint all the individual parts !

All right, with the new update improving the look of the picture on VGA, I thought I'd release my method of wiring up a VGA port to the back of the 360, so you can use a standard VGA cable to hook up the 360 to a monitor.

The new method involves a way I discovered to have the 360 automatically switch between VGA mode and normal A/V mode depending on if there is a monitor hooked up to the 360 or not (uses pin 11: monitor_ID).

This tut also includes installing a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can also hook up your PC speakers. The audio output is active all the time, regardless of if you're using the VGA plug or a regualr A/V cable, though you could jsut as easily use another tutorial to wire up a coaxial/optical S/PDIF output instead.

So, let's get on with it!

Required materials:

Xbox 360
Female 15 pin (VGA) port
Female 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (I had some spares laying around from Samsung 616T dvd-rom mods)
A buncha pieces of wire (about 24-26 gague works fine)
Some coaxial audio cable (hacking up an old pair of headphones works great)
Soldering iron
Dremel or other tool to cut the metal shield and case so you can get to your new VGA port

Wiring:

We'll start by saying this: it looks difficult, but it's not really that hard. The solder points are fairly large, it's not like the Xbox 1 D0 point or anything.

The colors of the pins on the pictures of the Xbox360 motherboard and the audio/vga ports correspond, but I will also give pin numbers.

First, the VGA port (shown from the back side, the side you should be soldering to. Pin 1 is top left. Pins and their corresponding grounds are circled together (is important later)

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Pin 1: (Red) - Red output
Pin 2: (Green) - Green output
Pin 3: (blue) - Blue output
Pin 5: (black) - H-sync Ground
Pins 6-8: (black) - Red, green, and blue grounds
Pin 10: (black) - V-sync ground
Pin 11: (Yellow) - Monitor_ID (sets video mode to VGA in xbox 360)
Pin 13: (orange) - H-sync
Pin 14: (purple) - V-sync

Begin by putting a ~ 6 inch piece of wire on each of the data pins, and a different color of wire for the grounds, so you don't get confused.

Now, there's a reason why each pair of wires on the picture is circled. To reduce interferance in the wires, you must twist each data pin (except Monitor_ID) around its corresponding ground, the ground wire will shield the data pin from interferance.

So, you will have 5 twisted pairs coming off the VGA port, plus Monitor_ID. (it helps to label them by sticking a small piece of tape to each pair and writing R,G,B,H, and V on them).

The audio jack (the top of the picture is the end that the plug goes in):

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Top: (black) - Ground
Middle: (red) - Right
Bottom: (white) - Left

Take your piece of audio coax, strip back the shielding on it and twist it up and solder it to the ground pin on the jack.

Then, solder one of the center wires to the red, and the other to the black (if your piece of coax only has one center wire you need to use two pieces, but if you got the wire from an old pair of headphones it will usually have two condutcors inside, or it will be two pieces of coax already stuck together)

End of Part I
Part II

The motherboard:

You obviously need to open your Xbox 360 (bye bye warranty, it's only 3 months anyways who cares), and remove your motherboard from the metal shielding (please be aware of static electricity, it will damage your mobo if you're not careful), we will be soldering to the bottom side of the board, under the audio/video plug.

Each pin is conviently numbered on the board (going across it goes 2, 6, 10, 14... then 4, 8, 12, 16, 20... then 1, 5, 9, 13, 17... then 3, 7, 11, 15...)

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Starting on top left, then moving across:

Pins 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 1, 5, 9, 13, 27 (black) - Ground (they're all connected to each other so it does not matter which ground pin you use.
Pin 4 (green) - Green output (VGA)
Pin 8 (blue) - Blue output (VGA)
Pin 12 (purple) - V-sync (VGA)
Pin 16 (white) - Left (Audio)
Pin 20 (yellow) - VGA Mode select (hook to VGA Pin 11, Monitor_ID)
Pin 3 (Red) - Red (VGA)
Pin 11 (orange) - H-sync (VGA)
Pin 15 (Red) - Right (audio)

OK, solder up all your points (easier said than done, just take your time and triple check that all your connections are correct)

You should have something that looks like this:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

By this point all the wiring is done, so feel free to go test it (jsut don't test it for too long, cause chances are your cooling solution isn't up to spec since you prolly have your motherboard just sitting on the ground.)

With no monitor plugged in, you will jsut get the normal 4 red lights (no A/V cable connected), and the 360 will function normally with the normal A/V cables. But, plug in a monitor, and it pulls the Monitor_ID pin low, triggering VGA mode, and viola!
Part III
Mounting, and case cutting

So, lets get it finished

The best way to mount the VGA plug and headphone jack is to solder it to the top of the A/V port, allowing you to easily install/remove the motherboard, since everything is mounted to the motherboard itself. You're gonna need a pretty beefy soldering iron for this.

Just solder it up:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

For the headphone jack, I soldered the ground leg of the plug to the A/V plug shield, since it is also ground. Be caseful not to let any of the other pins touch the shield.

Then, mark and cut in the main chassis so that the VGA plug will fir through (leave a ~1mm gap around the plug so the outside of the VGA cable can go all the way in)

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now go do the same thing in your outside case.

Just trim off some plastic on the fan so it will clear the cables running to the underside of the mobo, and you're done!

Now congradulate yourself on saving some cash, and having a real VGA plug in your 360 like a PC!

How To Upgrade Your hdd to a 250g![/b]

Need:

Xbox 360 Hd

Hddhackr works with the following Western Digital Drives:

- WD Scorpio Blue Series BEVS/BEVT
- WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
- WD VelociRaptor Series
- WD Scorpio Series BEVS/BEAS

I purchased a 250gb WD Scorpio Blue Series drive (WD2500BEVT) for around $45.


The first thing you will want to do is create a bootable USB drive, for this I used a tool called Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool.
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Unzip and load the program, be sure to right click and run as an administrator.

Select your USB drive
Set the file system as FAT
Tick quick format and Create bootable drive
Select the box with 3 dots and choose the USB Drive Boot Files\MS-DOS folder as the location.
Hit start and you will have a bootable usb drive within a few seconds.
Posted Image

Now Download :

HDD Hackr- [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

250GB HDD Security Sector- [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

For anyone who wants to hack a different size drive here are the security sectors that can be used for a:

20GB Drive: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

60GB Drive: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

120GB Drive: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]


Unzip both to the USB drive you just made bootable

Be sure to rename the HDDSS_250GB.BIN to HDDSS.BIN

The end result should be something like this, dont worry you will not have an UNDO.BIN yet.
Posted Image

You will need to shut down your pc now, I would advise you disconnect all the other hard drive in your computer just to stop you accidentally hacking the wrong drive!

Now connect the hard drive you want to hack to your computer


Power your computer back on, before you carry on it might be an idea to enter you bios configuration and ensure the SATA operation mode is set to ATA or disable AHCI depending on the options you have. On some motherboards this can also be called legacy or enhanced, if you are presented with this you want to set it to legacy. This will vary depending on your motherboard / bios.

The above appears to be the most common cause for people not been able to flash there drives.

Now tell your computer to to boot from the usb drive, this will be different depending on your motherboard, on my pc I have to press F11 then select the drive I wish to boot from.

You will find yourself at a dos prompt, type hddhackr and press enter.


All been well hddhackr will have listed all the drives in your system, in my case the drive I want to hack is number 5.



After entering the number you will be asked if you want to dump, flash or restore the firmware, select F to flash.

Type in the name of the security sector you want to flash, this will be HDDSS.BIN if you have followed this tutorial.

You will get a message saying that the information in file HDDSS.BIN does not match the drives firmware info. Do you want to flash the Xbox 360 compatible firmware.

Say yes to this: Posted Image

You will then be asked if you also want to create partition 0/2/3

Again say yes to this, you drive should now be hacked, congratulations!



An UNDO.BIN will have been saved on your USB drive, keep this safe as you will need it for if you ever want to restore the drive back to normal.

Opening the 360 drive enclosure

Now you need to open your Xbox 360 hard drive, you will need a Torx T6 screwdriver to do this.



You can now remove the top, the mechanism to lock/unlock the HDD-bay on your Xbox 360 console might fall out dont worry its easy enough its put back together, just look how it is in my photo below.

Now you have 4 more screws to remove, these require a Torx T10 screwdriver, you can then remove the metal case.



Now you can unplug the power and sata cable from the drive, then slide it out pulling the drive gently up as you do so.

Posted Image
You should now have your original drive.

If you want to restore the Xbox 1 emulator to your newly hacked drive or your save games you will need to connect your old 360 drive to your computer and boot windows.



[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now unzip and right click and run it as administrator.

Select Drive > Open > Harddrive or Memory card


We are going to backup the Xbox 1 emulator so you will still be able to play Xbox 1 games on the 360.

To do this select Drive > Backup Partition 2 and save the backup.



If you want to backup your profiles, saves, arcade games, demos, dlc and videos you basically want to dump your Partition 3 > Content folder, I had to dump a few folders at the time because Xplorer 360 had random crashes for me.



Now shutdown windows, disconnect your original 360 drive and connect the hacked 250gb drive.

When windows has loaded up again load Xplorer 360 Extreme again, remembering to run it with administrator rights and select Drive > Restore Partition 2 and select the backup you made from your old 20gig drive.


It is important you just close Xplorer360 after that, massing about with anything else will corrupt Partition 3.

Now Download Xplorer 360 250gb Edition: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] - this works fine with Partition 3 on 250gig drives, however trying to modify anything on partition 0 or 2 will just corrupt the drive!! Trust me save yourself some time and dont do it.

Also dont use Xplorer 250gig edition on any other sized drive either, it will just corrupt the drive.

If you do corrupt you drive just connect it to your Xbox 360 and format it.

After you have restored any content you can now shut your pc down and put the 250gig drive in your 360s drive enclosure, it might be an idea to test everything is working correctly before re assembling the enclosure.

And the final product!!

This is a Tutorial on how to make a flush mount plexi glass window on the Xbox360 hard drive.

Ok, I will assume you know how to open the HDD(if not there is pleanty tutorials). I don't have actual pics of the work, so I will just give you an idea of what to do.

After disassembling the HDD and removing the chrome trim, you're ready to draw your window on the hdd cover.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
For example 2"x5". Trace it onto the top of the plastic cover and cut out with a dremel. File and sand the edges untill smooth.

Now get the plexi ready(don't remove the protective film). Lay the cut out HDD cover on top of the plexi, and trace the window onto the plexi. Now you have an idea of how much you have to cut to make the window fit.

DO NOT CUT ON THE LINE! Make sure you give some space all around the outline(I do 1/8" and have a steady hand).

So now you have a rough cutout with atleast 1/8" extra plexi all around. Get your file out and start working your way closer to the line you traced, test fitting as you get closer. The best advice I can give you is, take your time, one slip and you have start over.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Hopefully everything went well and it almost fits into the hole. The window will have to have a tight fit if you don't want to glue it. To the point that you need to force it into the hole.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Once you get it to pop in and it stays you're basically done. You can glue it into place, but be carefull that you don't spill extra glue.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Now you will have to cut out the center support for the chrome trim(you can leave it, but it will in the middle of the window).Cut it on the red lines.
Now the lights...
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Unscrew the four t-8 screws from the hdd and slide it back(no need to remove it).

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Unplug the cable from the drive and wiggle the whole cable and plugs out.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
You will need to strip the yellow wire(5v+), and the black wire(ground).

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
I used 3 leds on each side in parallel. This way you only need 2 resistors. Glues them into place with whatever glue you like. Attach the leds to the power source, and youre done.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
The finished product.

-i used these topics to help me.
-- [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] and [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

I guess i will get started now

Supplies
-xbox 360 & original hdd
-wire cutters
-sata cable
-sata to molex power cable(I also used a molex cable extender, not needed for you)
-wire, soldering iron, electrical tape, and solder
-hot glue gun and glue

First
Strip the side of the sata cable that dosent go into the hard drive (make a mark on the cable of the side with the L shape in the connector or the drop off)

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

On the sata to molex cable cut the molex connector off along with one black and the yellow cable, strip one black and the red cables

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

solder the red wire to a 5v source and the black wire to a ground. Find them [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] OR [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Back to the sata cable
solder the wires to the pins behind the original hdd connector (look at the pic)

Pin 7 is on the side that the L or the drop off was located(on the cable)

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

That is all you really have to do

you might want to cover all you soldering points with hot glue

you might also want to add a switch the the power cable so that you can plug another hdd in the regular place and not have to dissconnect this one!!!


heres a more clear image
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

right side pin colors correspond with the stock hdd cable wires, black green and orange are ground, yellow blue and white are +5v.

dissasemble controller then flip it over so your looking at the board like this.

You then need to pry apart the "arm" that connects the trigger to the actuator (the black thing) fromn the trigger itself, it will come apart, but it will need a little persuasion.

The arrows are to show the direction you should pull the parts

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

one youve dont that it should look something like this, you need to persuade the trigger past the next plastic parts, again the arrows are to show direction, once you do this it should look like the 4th picture.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

once youve done that just remove the spring (carefully so it doesnt fly off) and then you should be able to wiggle the trigger away from the board.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Viola, youre done, to reassmble just do thiese steps in reverse.

hope this helps some people.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

So, you have modded your fans to 12v, and its noisy as hell, well in this tutorial, i will try to explain the best way i can [not too good at it] how to make a variable and fully controllable 12v fan mod.

Its the same as the 12V fan mod, but you are inserting a potentiometer and diode in between. [You must have the diode, as the potentiometer resists the power and can back track and blow your mobo]

So:

12V souce----------diode >I ---potentiometer--------Fans


12V sources
[spoiler]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] [/spoiler]

Items needed:

* Wire [Speaker wire is good]
* 1N914 switching diode
* Potentiometer [1K or less]

All you need to do now, is drill a hole where ever you want to mount it, and glue it in place.

WARNING THIS IS VERY TEMPERAMENTAL SOMETIMES DOSENT WORK AND IT CONVERTS THE SPARE VOLTS IN TO HEAT ENERGY SO BE-AWARE

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Most people have a fair knowledge of how to apply thermal paste and proper procedure, so if you do most likely you can just skim by and see the illustrations for insight. To the other folks who have no idea what this is or getting into this is for you. Initially this is what your XBOX 360 thermal paste under those fancy heatsinks appear to look like some one took some paste, put a fat glob on the GPU, yet hardly enough of the XCPU, threw the heatsinks on their and passed it on to the next warehouse employee. My guess is the heat is probably not at its peak cooling with this procedure. Although the thermal compound for this is far beyond better that the XBOX1, it goes through a manufacturing plant so most likely its a victim of quantity vs quality. I'm not hear to act like this is going to solve anyone who trying to sue m$ problems, but as a hobbiest upgrade it should help knock down a couple degrees off the 360s global warming campaign.

First thing I want to mention although this is not a absolutely difficult upgrade, the clamps of the 360 can be a royal pain to take off and put back on, so proceed with caution and patience. Once your past the first hurdle heres what you have...

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

For this upgrade I used the following cooling products that can be purchase easily at newegg. Here are the links below, they are quite handy to have a round for any computer cooling upgrades.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] - ArctiClean 1 Thermal Material Remover quickly emulsifies and dissolves the existing thermal grease or pad from the CPU and/or heatsink so that it can easily be removed with a clean cloth or paper towel. A few drops of ArctiClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier and some gentle wiping then removes the remaining residue and inhibits flash corrosion on copper or aluminum.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] - A unique high-density filling of micronized silver and enhanced thermally conductive ceramic particles provides superior level of performance and stability. Arctic Silver 5 is optimized for use between modern high-power CPUs and high performance heatsinks or water-cooling solutions.

As well if you have any type of business card, putty knife, etc... you will need to keep it in hand. Initially it is to remove the excess thermal paste residue left from the previous setting. Then afterwards to apply the Arctic Silver 5 compound. So lets get started with what we have.

Before setting the ArctiClean Thermal Paste Remover, you want to get as much of the leftover thermal compound off of the heatsink prior to replacing the new compound. To do so, I used a putty knife although a credit card or stirdy business card would do the trick. Definatly make sure you get as much gunk as you can off in the first run.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

After you get the majority of the residue off from previous thermal paste, you now put drops of ArctiClean 1 on the spots that were unable to come off from the putty knife/credit card. Let it sit for a 30 seconds to a minute. This dissolves the existing thermal grease or pad from the CPU and/or heatsink so that it can easily be removed with a clean cloth or paper towel. Once you get as much that is able to come up off, make sure you use the ArctiClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier and some gentle wiping to remove the remaining residue and inhibits flash corrosion on copper or aluminum. Heres what mine looked like after a few repeated steps.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now that your heatsinks are clean, you are prepared to go advance to cleaning the CPU and GPU, which is alot easier that the XBOX1. Your pretty much going to apply the same method to your CPU and GPU as you did with the heat sinks. First I took my putty knife and edged the previous thermal compound from the corners.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Once you get this accomplished you are now ready to put on your ArctiClean 1 and let it set for 30 seconds to a minute. When you are ready to clean, get your Q-tips out to gently wipe the surface getting all the left over thermal paste up. Its very easy and pretty much should be done rather fast. Once you finished that step apply ArctiClean 2 Purifier to clean up any left over spots you may have overlooked. When you are finished your CPU should look clean as a whistle.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now you are ready to apply Arctic Silver 5 compound to the CPU and GPU. Carefully apply no more than a rice grain size of thermal compound to your CPU and BOTH GPU cores. Take you a business card/credit card/putty knife and spread them out evenly till you get the result below. A small dab goes a long way believe me, you dont want to put to much on the chips or your defeating the process. If your feeling lucky, your welcome to apply the Arctic Silver 5 onto your GDDR3 RAM Chips as well, since the GPU heatsink rests on it as well.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now you are able to apply your heatsinks and clamps back together, once again DO NOT use to much force to remove or apply your heatsink clamps for you may damage an important part to the 360 Motherboard. As well this should be no substitute to *fix* a broken or unventalated system that has artifacts or freezes. Leave it to the M$ repair center to fix your console not yourself, you will void your warrenty with this procedure. If you have any questions feel free to send me a PM.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Take your fan and pull out the connector and find the RED and BROWN wires and cut them so there is enough to strip them leave the BLACK and BLUE since they are ground,

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
IF YOU HAVE A NEWER BOARD WITH A 3PIN CONNECTOR THE MIDDLE WIRES ARE GROUND AND THE OUTSIDE WIRES ARE THE POSITIVE

Then twist the RED and BROWN wires together once you have striped them and then solder a wire on to them and then the other end to any 12v sorce on the board

NOW YOUR FAN IS POWERED BY A 12v SUPPLY

OK YOU WILL NEED A TOGGLE SWITCH WITH 3PINS
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Ok this is the exact same as the easy 12v fan mod but instead of wiring the fan straight to a 12v supply you wire the fans to the switch

WIRE THE FANS TO THE MIDDLE PIN,
WIRE THE THE 12v SUPPLY TO EITHER THE LEFT OR RIGHT PIN
WIRE THE 5v SUPPLY TO THE OTHER UNUSED PIN you can get a 5v supply from the motherboard or the other end of the wires you cut for the fans cause its a 5v supply that comes out of that, or the 5v stand-by supply under the motherboard then you can have the fan running a bit when the consoles off to make sure it get cooled then switch to the 12v supply so it turn off

Things needed:

1 0603 SMT led (actually its best to use 2 of different colours, but its not necessary)
A soldering iron, and solder
The correct Torx screw size (im unsure of this as mine arn't marked, but im guessing its a T15, so don't kill me if im wrong...)
A bit of brute strength to get that damned top off the HD-DVD drive ;)

That should be all you need, but if you don't have that brute strenth you may require to get either a small flat head screw driver, or something simular to help pry the end up.
To start, we're going to need to get the top of that drive off, so pull on the back of it, but try to apply pressure where the arrows indicate:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Next we're going to remove those three black torx screws:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Next your going to have to remove that sticker, and void the HD-DVD drive warrenty... and once you've done that pull the two shells slightly apart and pull the right side (as if your looking at the front of the drive, which is the side that moves most) upwards to remove it.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Next, remove the indicated clip, which has a little catch on it, so either use a fingernail, or a small flathead screwdriver to push on the catch whilst you pull it out. After doing this gently ease the small PCB out of the case.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now put the HD-DVD drive to the side, we now have to work with the small PCB, which looks like this:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Now what i do with small boards like this is blu-tac them to my work suface to stop them moving. Hopefully you should be able to locate the SMD, which if you can't i seriously hope you research this a bit more before you do this. I use Llamma's method of bathing the led legs in solder then heating them up to remove the led, not only is this a good method to remove 0603 leds, but this is a 4legged bi-led so its more than a perfect method for removing this led.

Once the led is removed your PCB should look like this:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

As you can see i've put on the anode and diode points of the green standard LED, and what im guessing is a red error led, you'll need to solder your leds to the appropritate points. To find out the points on your led there is a green arrow or 'T' on the back of it, the point of the arrow, of the bottom of the 'T' points to the diode. For example: (-) < (+) OR (-) -| (+)

After soldering in your led(s) you should definently test it before putting everything back together, if successful it should come out something like this:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

IF it does work you'll want to put everything back together. And now something else fits in with your colour scheme, enjoy.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]