OMG another xbox 360 laptop

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:08 pm

Well, i've posted this in acidmods, but i thought i would come straight to the source. i have a problem building my own xbox 360 laptop. i dont have access to a cnc shop here in killeen texas, so i cant make my own cases. this is what i have now:

What i need some help with is attaching the screen to the case with a hinge. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

BTW here is the thread in acidmods: [sorry link's broken, site has been up and down for awhile now]
http://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=25449.0

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:38 pm

The hinges on Ben's first X-Box 360 laptop.

That's actually a fairly decent way to do it. It can also be done that way with plexiglass. Wompastompa11 did it that way and got some very nice results. Here's his thread.

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:05 pm

thanks for the info, i'll look into it here. probably have the thing mounted sometime this week or by the weekend. just need to scrap somthing up around this house to do it. thread's called "poor mans xbox 360 laptop" so i'm trying to keep cost down. everything i have used so far was collecting dust or broken.

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 5:44 pm

had staff duty yesterday (friday) and got a lot of work done on the broken MB. i'm in works of tearing the good one apart now and putting it in place of the broken one. i do have a question though, can i swap rf modules without any issues? i already dissembled the one off the broken 360 and dont feel like trying it again on the good one. i know it works, all that was broken in the 360 was the gpu and the dvd drive.

all that aside, i found a set of desktop speakers with a headphone jack that cuts off the speakers. now i can complete the setup. i'll post some new pics once i get a bit further.

does anybody know where i can get 9.5 volts at .45 amps for the speakers from the 360? or can i get a transformer to step the 12 volts down to 9?

ciao for now!

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 6:13 pm

Looks good so far. Not liking the username though.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 7:55 pm

ghosstt wrote:Looks good so far. Not liking the username though.

heh I wonder why

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:13 pm

can the 360 use any wifi usb adapter or does it have to be theirs? i hate propitiatory crap.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:37 pm

It has to be theirs.

Or, you can route it through a laptop, and there "may" be a hack for the Linksys WRT54G wireless router to act as a repeater for it. Gotta look into that.

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:27 pm

i searched the inet for hours and found about repeaters. i've already used my Ethernet connection as a bridge for my 360. i was just wondering about other usb dongles.

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:41 pm

themadhacker wrote:
ghosstt wrote:Looks good so far. Not liking the username though.
heh I wonder why

O well.

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:02 pm

just a question for all you 360 modders. i have an amp that i ripped out of some desktop speakers. problem is, the transformer that it uses is a 120 to 9.5v at .45 amps. is there anywhere on the 360 MB that i can get 9 volts from? i shouldnt need all that amperage. or is there a way to step down the 12 to 9? or should i try to run straight 12 to this board? any suggestions?

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:40 pm

Run 12 straight to it. Every pair of speakers like that I have ever seen are running of a 7805, so you should be just fine. In fact, my Sony PC speakers are running at 16v rather than the stock 7.5!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 2:31 am

For a laptop case, why not get just that - look on e-bay for old laptops. Back in the days of 386 and 486 laptops, and first Pentiums, the laptop cases were much thicker. Might be that you can buy one thick enough with a suitable screen size so you can rehouse your system and screen to it. Would need case working, but the case would be solid, no issues with lid closing or hinges, etc. Just a thought.

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:00 am

thanks for all your information. i'm going to try to finish this thing this weekend. i dont have any body filler or fiberglass sheets to work with to make it pretty, but i will get this thing in the box and all wired up. Ben did that new 360 portable with new hinges, i like those, but he said they were like 60 bucks each. that 120 for the pair. i was looking into using kitchen cabinet hinges bc they lock open. maybe i can find a friction hing somewhere in home depot. anyhoo, thanks again. i'll keep u posted with pics and an update this weekend. too busy packing for iraq to do it this week.

EDIT:
Cracked the working xbox 360 open tonight. it has the new gpu heatsink. i was thinking of replacing the x springs with the llama's RRoD fix. but i think that the new heat sink will work out just fine without ripping it out. i hope this thing cools ok.

anyway, found a voltage regulator. should work with the amp if i really need it.
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVoltMicro.htm

ghost0001 · Post by **ghost0001** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:34 pm

here is an update for saturday. this is just the dvd drive, i'm in the process of desoldering the sata HDD and the dual front USB. I'll post pics of that later. here is the drive before being hacked for the dvd unit.

had to take off all four posts and two nubs to make it sit flush to the bottom.

here i used two screws to secure it inside so it won't slide around.

right now i've completed making the sata and power cable longer for the dvd drive and the sata HDD cable. I am cleaning the sata HDD joints now and getting ready to solder in the cable. I still need to hack the box up to fit the fans.

here is the MB with the new heat attached (its a GPU heat sink from an older 360). i hope that a fan attached on top constantly blowing air will keep it cool enough.

EDIT:
Sunday AM
finished the cables, good that was difficult. ran out of shrink tube. too bad radio shack only includes two tubes of the size i need in the shrink tube packages.

thats all the cables i made longer or hacked together.

here is my vga cable with component and composite out. got a switch for vga/component out. i think composite(yellow) is always on.

here is the box, i used tin snips to cut the fan hole out and mounted the component/composite/audio jacks. next to it i glued the switch outside.

i figured out how to use the existing dvd control buttons for the xbox 360. i'm going to use the eject button for the same and the func button for the sync. i was thinking of using another for the power and placing the leds under the darkened screen. i'm still going to use the volume control and the headphone jack. i have an amp board from a set of desktop speakers i will wire into the 12v power. i just hope i dont fry the board. after all works inside, i'm going to pretty it up.

EDIT:
Here it is, sunday night, and now i'm stumped. I just put everything into the box after soldering up the sata HDD stuff and soldering in the new power/eject/sync button. come to find out the rf board from the old unit isnt working with the new one. I plugged in the RF unit that came with it and it works fine, aside of the RRoD. Yup, i dont know why, but its red ringing on me. didnt do it till i did this mod. must be the new heat sink with the thermal paste.
Here is a pic of the somewhat done model:

i'm tired, need a break. i just might extend the new RF module to see if it works. i still need to find a place for the audio amp.