Xbox Air

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:56 pm

This is the name of my new project, the xbox air (since it will be a laptop and will have no DVD drive). I will be using a picoPSU and possibly a laptop HDD (if you have one for a reasonable price that is at least 60 GB PM me) but I ran into some problems and I want to get them answered.

What modifications do I need to do to make the picoPSU work with the xbox motherboard?

What is a reasonable battery setup for $20-$30 for this portable?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:22 pm

Joes2Silly wrote:the xbox air (since it will be a laptop and will have no DVD drive)

Will it only have 1 controller port too?

Gannon posted some info on using another PSU for the xbox.

For $20-30 worth of batteries, you'll probably be lucky to power the xbox long enough to boot to the dashboard.

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:41 pm

lol, I'll make it work. What would be the most reasonably priced battery to power the xbox air for longer than 2 minutes but not less than an hour?

EDIT: would something like this work?

Ben Cebhrem · Post by **Ben Cebhrem** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:50 pm

For 20-30 dollars, I would suggest a lead acid battery. I don't think there's any practical li-ion battery for that low that will power the xBox for more than a few seconds, at best.

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:39 pm

First, does anybody know anything about using the picoPSU on the xbox? Then, could anybody provide a link to a good battery to power this monster?

crazy_asylum · Post by **crazy_asylum** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:21 pm

Well for the pico psu you need to buy or make a converter, for the power issues if you remove the moving parts such as the dvd drive and swap out the hd and remove a few caps then power consumption should be reduced a lot. Check out the xbox-scene.com forums for more info on building something like this.

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:17 am

Okay, I think I'm going to try to get a few components together and then try this build. I think using Gannon's thread I can make a adapter for the picoPSU. Just curious, but how much would someone pay for a commodity like this?

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:09 am

It'd have to be a pretty decent battery, as my guess is that the motherboard draws 4Amps when running (based on my SBC's draw with a similar processor), which means you'd need 5000mAh 12Volt battery minimum to get a full hour. Which, last I checked, would cost in excess of $120 for Li-Ion, or require a heavy Lead Acid battery (bigger and heavier than masonry brick) for ~$50.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:53 am

tom61 wrote:It'd have to be a pretty decent battery, as my guess is that the motherboard draws 4Amps when running (based on my SBC's draw with a similar processor

Isn't the power draw of the xbox with the dvd drive 50W. Assuming a latptop hdd and no DVD drive will cut this I can't see anything under 30W. Then again I bought an 11.1V 5AH lipo battery for $50 so that might power a full xbox for an hour. Hang on that can't be right.....

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:11 pm

evilteddy wrote:
tom61 wrote:It'd have to be a pretty decent battery, as my guess is that the motherboard draws 4Amps when running (based on my SBC's draw with a similar processor
Isn't the power draw of the xbox with the dvd drive 50W. Assuming a latptop hdd and no DVD drive will cut this I can't see anything under 30W. Then again I bought an 11.1V 5AH lipo battery for $50 so that might power a full xbox for an hour. Hang on that can't be right.....

Is that 50 Watt estimate/measurement at the dashboard, playing a DVD, or in game? If you're right about only needing 30 Watts, that means a draw of 2.5 Amps at 12Volts. I forgot to factor in voltage in my estimate until you mentioned Wattage, and that was with a 5 Volt supply, which would mean that your estimate of 30W would mean 6 Amps at the same voltage as my board.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:53 pm

The back of the xbox says 100-120v, 2.1A. That is about 200 watts, but I really doubt it uses that much (thats how much the 360 and PS3 use playing a game). I would guess that it uses around 80-100 watts, since it uses desktop parts.

EDIT: Says on the xbox specifications on cnet that it uses 100 watts (probably a guesstimate though).

Joes2Silly · Post by **Joes2Silly** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:50 pm

Okay, I'll get a 100W picoPSU but I'm still uncertain about batteries. I need a solution that I can get for $20-30 but I don't want it to weigh a ton...

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:49 pm

Joes2Silly wrote:Okay, I'll get a 100W picoPSU but I'm still uncertain about batteries. I need a solution that I can get for $20-30 but I don't want it to weigh a ton...

You're gonna need a lot of luck. Plug in like Ben's laptops are the only non-luck dependent for $20-30 that don't weigh a lot options. X-Boxen are fairly power hungry.

You might be able to find a Li-Ion pack intended for portable DVD players on clearance somewhere, or at a fleamarket. Perhaps salvaging the battery from a dead portable DVD player (with broken screen would be the best bet), and using the DVD player unit to charge the battery (to avoid the risk of venting/fire/explosion).

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