Making Portable Magic - first step and questions.

[Zeto2k1]

Hello everyone and thank you for taking the time to read through this. I have officially spent the past 2 weeks straight reading through these forums and have decided to put the wheels in motion to build the xbox 360 portable. I think more then anything else i am choosing to prove to myself that i can do this. I will post up a photo or 2 now as well as through out my progress. I do believe that making this "first" project as simple as possible will make it a better "proof of concept" to later expand on and "polish up".


If you look real hard, somewhere in there you'll find an Xbox Portable...

Any way, i've been working on the 360's for some time, between refurbishments, to RRod rapairs i am fairly familiar with the system itself.


a little shot of my "tv viewing" work top.

Ultimately i am working on putting the system together within the next few weeks. I am hoping to buy all the equipment i need first, then test .. assemble then test some more.
Of course i will update as i progress.

I am finding one snag as i peruse through the forums, since the original "portable" the monitor has changed to this slightly more common gateway monitor which, not until after i bought it did i find that Ben had used in the newest models. The one thing i have not been able to find any screen specific break downs of the main board in which he had made it into 3 pieces? if anyone has any advise i am always willing to listen, and learn. That being said although i am new to this forum anyone can please feel free to bounce any ideas or questions in regards to my build or advise. I'll look forward to it.
Thank you and hopefully i'll be showing you my slightly completed project soon.

[Biased]

With the first screen he used, he determined whether or not the power supply circuit and lamp inverter circuit were on the same PCB. Since they were, he had to split the board with an X-Acto knife. I don't know how to determine such a thing on the gateway monitor, nor the screen I plan on using, so I'm not going to even open mine up until I'm sure I can find the power supply and easily separate it from another function if need be. Google is our friend - I'm sure someone's opened it up and taken detailed pictures of everything. Someone can find it.

I wish you luck and I think anyone would agree with me asking you to please document EVERYTHING - soldering, cutting, wiring, etc. every bit of it - with detailed pictures or video. It's a win-win since you'll have something to look back on for reference and you can make an awesome video demonstration out of all the footage if your system looks and functions well. The more video demonstrations the community has, the better!

[exploding.monkey]

Really hope you finish since it would suck to waste an elite XBox and a computer screen.

[Zeto2k1]

Hey Guys thanks for the replies, The original screen i wanted to use was something similar to my LG 1980Q which i have on one of my desk tops. it comes already VERY VERY slim and i believe it has independent boards , one for the video and one for the power as they can't be in the same place, the monitor is really slim and compact. Unfortunately, they do not make the 1780q any more nor was it wide screen and since the 1780Q i could find was $600, i did not want to chop that up!

So, i had found this gateway and it was both a good price and the resolution i was looking for and i went for it.
As of today i have an all new (butane) soldering irons, and a de-soldering iron, i picked up a few blank pcb boards and i found an old a/v switch i had laying around which I'm going to harvest the auxiliary component output from..(it has 8 sets so i'll have plenty extras). I decided to use one of those pelican cases for a shell for now, mostly to see what type of space this will take up and as a guide to build within. For a first project i'd accept that specification. i'm also in the process of building a thermoforming system so i can later build my own shells. This project, however, is not going to be for "water proof/travel proof/over seas" specs. I do plan on cutting into the case as i see fit. That should be coming in Tuesday with the other parts for it. I'm actually surprised about how expensive that little wireless adapter really is.. between $85 - $100, thats crazy. I'm thinking of buying another 360, maybe an arcade with the hdmi in hopes it may be the jasper system and i can leave that elite alone.. it Had the RRod once and although it is fixed, i don't want to put this work into something thats had a problem once. I'll let you guys know how it all progresses, i'm still hoping someone will have a lay out of that monitor board or maybe Ben will post the "part 2" to his ps3 laptop, since it looks like he's going to cover that monitor in that section which, he didn't do in the latest xbox "guides". I'm sure i'll figure it out, but a little help never hurts!

[exploding.monkey]

How many do you have?

[Zeto2k1]

How many xboxes? 1 black elite, 1 white pro, 4 regular consoles - 1 of them was gutted before it got to me, but it's still good for extra capasitors and it did come with both oem heat sinks which is good for when I do repairs.

[exploding.monkey]

Thats like $1500 worth of XBox.

[Zeto2k1]

Yeah, i guess i've spent my money in toys here and there, i did buy a few of those previously broken with the intentions of fixing them. 4 have been fixed, that 1 was stripped before i got it, and that other one is a lost cause. its actually my friends old one, he got the rrod, sent to Microsoft for warranty, 6 months later got it AGAIN, gave it to some guy off craigslist, a WEEK later got it a 3rd time. after that point i'm staring at a used and abused system. I got it running, but it was just soo intermittent, i deemed it a lost cause, i actually gave him one in exchange, and deemed his another "parts box 360". Actually at this point i've spent $700 towards this portable project and i haven't even BOUGHT the new xbox yet.. definitely not the most cost effective project but i still feel its worth it, take it with me to work on the weekends and what not, it'll be fun!