Looking for some ideas for my Xbox laptop project.

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:35 am

Hello,

I've been looking to build an xbox 360 laptop for a while now and have finally decided to get down to it and start designing it. I have a lot of the elements modeled out in Solidworks and I've made a few test cuts (the screen enclosure) out of cheap particle board with my homebrew CNC router and everything seems to be lining up okay. At this stage in the project I have a few questions that I hope someone on these forums might be able to answer.

1. I'm using the new xbox 360 slim. It uses touch sensitive buttons (as well as the LCD menu controls) that I would like to incorporate into the xbox 360 laptop that I'm building. However the "sync" button for the controllers is NOT a touch sensitive button. As well with the volume buttons for the audio board that I took apart. Does anyone know of a good source for additional touch sensitive buttons that I could use for the "sync" button as well as the volume control for my speakers?

2. The speakers that I bought and took apart use an analog digital potentiometer that is somehow integrated into a circuit chip. In addition I didn't realize that they don't have a headphone jack. I'm thinking that I will instead find a different pair of speakers/driver board for my audio. Does anyone have something they could recommend for this? I definitely want a headphone jack, but in addition to this I want to be able to use touch sensitive buttons with it.

3. Does anyone know of a good way to remove the "ring of light" and "eject" touch buttons from the face plate? They seem to be sonic welded or glued. I don't want to break them trying to remove them so I thought I'd ask here.

4. What is the typical thickness of these laptops? The one I have designed is just over 3.5" thick (3.625" to be exact). It doesn't sound that thick, but when I cut out some of the test pieces are started fitting everything together it actually looks pretty thick. I am wondering if I should start to try and "slim" it down some.

5. As my design is now, the HDMI to DVI cable would simply plug into the xbox's normal HDMI port. I wanted to be able to use my xbox 360 laptop as a normal xbox (IE hooking it up to an HDTV) if I wanted to. However when I was playing with test cuts and such, I realized that the HDMI cable would then stick out of the back of the laptop ~2-2.5" before bending around to loop up into the LCD enclosure to the monitor. I didn't like it, I thought it looked ugly. I would definitely like it if the cables had a much lower profile. So my question is, IS there a way for me to keep the HDMI port in the back of the laptop to be used as normal AND hoop up my monitor through HDMI? I was thinking of soldering to the connections on the bottom of the motherboard, but I'm not sure what would happen if that works and then I plug in an HDMI cable through the normal port.

6. Any comments/concerns/advice/questions/recommendations are welcome.

Here are a few pictures of my Solidworks models. Note that I decided to go with a 20" LED monitor because I didn't want to play any FPS games on anything less. I figured the extra space would be a plus since this is my first laptop, however it turns out there I have too much extra space under the hood. It is still pretty basic, I don't have a lot of the details completed. Also I don't have any of the vents and paint designed yet. Still in a primitive stage....

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 3:13 am

Here is a link to a status update for my project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiuSZa9tSas

rickylago2 · Post by **rickylago2** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:51 pm

Looking swell. Great to see others using solidworks. My project is int he same status ATM. Scrambled in pieces on the workbench.
If you don't mind me asking, what are your X ,Y, Z dimensions of the finished unit when closed? I see you have psu integrated.

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:01 pm

If you don't mind me asking, what are your X ,Y, Z dimensions of the finished unit when closed?

The Z-height is 3.65". I could have probably made it about .25" slimmer, if I would make the bracket for the LCD a little thinner. However, I fear that if I do I might have a difficult time attaching the hinges to something "solid", so I will leave it how it is. Unless I modify the cpu/gpu heatsink and fan I don't think it can very much thinner. I don't want to mess with the cpu/gpu at this time. Perhaps in a future build.

As for the X and Y.... it is 19.22"x11.72". I really wanted a 20" screen to play Halo on, I was like "hmm its only 3" bigger than Ben Hecks". However I didn't realize how "big" this was until I actually cut out my case. It is a lot bigger than I realized. I think that if I build one again I would definitely use a smaller screen. The 20" screen really determines the X and Y, and with the dimensions I have now it really isn't that "portable". I think I will call it the "X-top".

Ennova

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:04 pm

Update:
Here is an update of my current progress with the "Case Construction".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BDzEVIKU_Y

rickylago2 · Post by **rickylago2** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:59 pm

That case looks great! Can't wait to see everything in there.

rickylago2 · Post by **rickylago2** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:06 pm

To answer some of your questions, I would suggest a Dell or Hp speaker bar. Powered by USB, small compact, good stuff. I can't remember what it's called at the moment, but there is a part on digikey you can use for ouch sensitive buttons. Benheck used it in one of his portables. I'll try to find a link and share it.

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:20 am

I found some speakers that I'm going to modify to get working. None of the speaker bars I was looking at had headphone jacks. (I ended up making my own headphone jack anyways). The speaker set I ended up using were pretty big, but my case was big enough because of the 20" screen that I managed to fit them in. Anyways I will be taking a break from my build for a while. Here is my last update for a couple of weeks:

PS: If anyone knows why my xbox/LCD take a while to boot up let me know. My main suspicion is that the xbox is having a little issue communicating and getting the "settings and information" from the LCD via the HDMI connection. I am not certain, it is just a theory. However it is a fact that it now takes longer to "turn on" than it did before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTq04p6Uie4

ennovasnap · Post by **ennovasnap** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:45 pm

So I it has been like 4 months+ since I last was working on my xbox project. I guess I got a little un-motivated. I don't know if I'll ever finish it and make it look polished and painted. Part of me wants to redesign it from stratch keeping form over function instead of function then form as in this case. Anyways at least it is functional now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8tFmc_GNPc

humakabula1 · Post by **humakabula1** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:06 am

congrats man, looks awesome without paint
i dont know what your talking about

nice work

pbplayerjim · Post by **pbplayerjim** » Sat May 28, 2011 12:22 pm

What speakers did you use? Nice way of hooking up the monitor too. I was gonna go with an internal hookup and think about having a switch between the external HDMI port and the actual monitor HDMI but this is just easier and still looks good.

Oh also if you have time can I kinda get a guide as to how and where you wired the speakers? I can't figure it out.

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