lots of xbox questions

[samjc3]

since i finally have a battery that can power an xbox for a reasonable amount of time, i figured i would start work on my xbox project. but, i have some questions:

-how do i tsop flash? i dont know anything about it.

-how do i get 3.3 volts out of 12 volts or 5 volts? is it a 7802?

-how many amps does an original xbox draw, on each of the power lines? ie, 3.3v, 5v, and 12v, :dahroll:

-if i tsop flash, can i easily replace the disc drive with a laptop drive? or do i have to use a laptop hdd, and no disc drive, if i want it thin?

-i wouldnt be opposed to buying a new xbox, that is already tsop flashed, assuming the price is right.
EDIT: after looking into tsop flashing, i have decided i dont feel like getting all the boot discs and files and stuff. i would like to buy a tsop flashed xbox. pm me about it.
thanks in advance! :awesome:

[vskid]

-how do i tsop flash? i dont know anything about it.

-how do i get 3.3 volts out of 12 volts or 5 volts? is it a 7802?

-how many amps does an original xbox draw, on each of the power lines? ie, 3.3v, 5v, and 12v, :dahroll:

-if i tsop flash, can i easily replace the disc drive with a laptop drive? or do i have to use a laptop hdd, and no disc drive, if i want it thin?

-i wouldnt be opposed to buying a new xbox, that is already tsop flashed, assuming the price is right.
EDIT: after looking into tsop flashing, i have decided i dont feel like getting all the boot discs and files and stuff. i would like to buy a tsop flashed xbox. pm me about it.
thanks in advance! :awesome:

-Search around, spend a couple hours on xboxscene.

-An LM317 is the equivalent "7805" you need. It outputs 1.25v without any adjustment, use this calculator to use resistors to change the output to 3.3v. I don't think the pins are in the same order as the schematic shows on the calculator's site.

-3.3v - 4.8A, 5v - 13.2A, 12v - 1.2A Thats what the PSU on mine says.

-You can, but I'm not sure if it can play official games. I happen to have a laptop DVD drive and an IDE adapter, so I'll try it out.

-It really isn't that difficult, if you already have an Xbox that can be flashed, I recommend giving it a shot. Doing stuff yourself helps you understand how it works, so you can troubleshoot future issues easier. I have a tsop flashed Xbox, but it isn't for sale. I threw a 80GB HDD in it, copied all my games to it, its great.

[snowpenguin]

I don't think an LM317 can handle 5 amps. Or can it? I thought linear regulators were usually 1.5 amps tops?

[vskid]

I don't think an LM317 can handle 5 amps. Or can it? I thought linear regulators were usually 1.5 amps tops?

Ya, theres no way. If something is needed to power the 3.3v line, I'm not sure what to use. If he just needs to power LEDs or something like that, an LM317 should be fine.

[snowpenguin]

I'd go with a switching regulator like a PTH08000, no need for even more heat.

[Joes2Silly]

Here is a massive collection of TSOP flashing tutorials, read them. In the end, you really just need to solder two sets of points and load up eurasia flash disk, slayers, or another boot disk and flash that thing. But be very careful! You need to have a 256 kb bios image that is supported by 1.3 xbox that are TSOP flashed. You really have two good options, either x2_4983 or iND-BIOS.5003.

[64M320N3]

That series still can't supply enough amps, snowpenguin.

[Harlequin]

I would suggest using the laptop IDE drive and no DVD drive unless you absolutely want to play DVDs on it. A decent sized drive can get most games stored on it. You can softmod your xbox without having to solder anything. It takes about an hour to hotswap softmod your xbox. Elsewhere in the forums (cannot remember where) someone posted a tut on how to manually wire/bridge the DVD drive into thinking its perma closed and is present.. I would go that route because, again, it requires less wiring.

having been one of the few people to manually wire a PC DVD -> xbox DVD I can assure you that it is not the most fun in the world. It requires a mountain of patience and a lot of work as well as some very delicate soldering. Unless you have a guide for the pinout for the DVD drive it will probably take hours to complete. Since it is a laptop DVD drive, I am 98% certain that you wont have access to a pin out. If you had time and two identical drives, i would suggest taking one apart, soldering a wire onto every test point, and then powering it up to test each wire one at a time to find the signals you need. Then take the magic wires (tray in, tray out, drive open/close, and data ready) and hook them into the other drive so you dont have 200 wires sticking out of the dvd drive. If you don't want to power the drive through some strange IDE splitter to laptop IDE power splitter, you will also have to make a custom power adapter. You can see how this is starting to add up. Additionally, you will *need* a DVD drive that doesn't include spin down. Most drives do and it became such a common feature that it isn't typically displayed on the drive info itself. All this work, just to add a device that is going to draw an additional 5 - 10 w of power....

Yeah, I would opt to not include the feature if you are battery powering it.

[samjc3]

i think i have decided to use a picoPSU. my battery is an energizer xp18000 wich can put out 5 volt, 9-12v, and 14-20 volt. i think it will run an xbox for a reasonable amount of time, right? im not sure wether its 18amps at 5volt or 18a at 20 volts, though. would it work?