Xbox 360 Laptop Work-Blog (Updated 1/6)

[OMGpedobear]

You guys youst to post every day or so, its gone very quiet. You havent killed your xbox have you ? An update would be most appreciated, been following this every day only to find that nothing has moved in a month. Dont quit now if that's whats happened, you ahev come too far .

[collinE]

That's funny, I was thinking the same thing. I know how life comes in the way and that holidays have dug into their work as well, but we neeed to see that progress! I liked the look and was thinking it looked stealth inspired. Need to see the finished product.

[thetwoj1014]

My most sincere apologies to everyone following, finals came a little bit faster than I or my friend had anticipated so stuff really hit the fan there for a while. That said, the laptop is currently fully assembled and in the stress testing phase I have a ton to write about the rest of the assembly, so it will probably take me a day or two to type it all out, along with current pictures of course!

I promise to have an update up by the 26th, so make sure to check back then!

-JJ

[thetwoj1014]

As it turns out I ended up with some extra time today, so the update is published! Be warned, it is fairly lengthy so make sure you have some time before browsing your way over there For those of you not acquainted with our blog yet, here's a little teaser to hopefully get you to check out what we're up to!



-JJ

[QuickSkope]

Hey guys, this is Jake Cooper of Nanaimo BC, and Im starting the same roject you just finished. I was wondering 2 things,

1. Can you link me to the monitor you used?

2. How do you test which wires go where when reconnecting something (original power port to female ATX with a multimeter, or voltmeter.)?

Thank you so much.

P.S, im looking at this one, but not sure it ships to where I live.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Gateway-FPD1775W-17 ... _596wt_991

[thetwoj1014]

The link you provided is the monitor(s) we used, the Gateway 1775W. It's a beautiful screen, just finiky. Evil, if you will.

As far as your second question, I'm not really sure what you mean. We used pinouts on the web for almost all of the 360 components, Ben's guide has several, other sites have what he doesn't provide. For custom cable testing and stuff like that we used the continuity test feature on our el-cheapo multimeter. If your two probes aren't making a connection it should read 1 (infinity), while a direct connection will read very close to zero, if not zero outright. This indicates a solid connection between two points.

Hope that helps!

[QuickSkope]

Alright, well thats really covers what I was expecting, Im 14 and trying the modding scene. Modded some firmwares and cases, but never electronics. Borther got me a Soldering Iron for Christmas, but it's not the best (Radioshack brand.) Heres a picture.



Did some pretty good soldering for a NeXxtech brand. BUt could you link me to the site you used for your Monitor, or you just Ebay it up? Because that link doesn't ship to my adress, and I perfer not to bid. Also, I am totally clueless with De-soldering (you guys said you had relatively no tech knowledge) So I was wondering, is it the De-soldering Iron that makes all the differece? Also, could you link me to your Soldering Iron, and your De-soldering Iron (whats the wattage on them?)

Also, to extend, for example, the DVD power cable or something, which wires did you use? Or did you just jack them from an old PC?
Thanks.

P.S your laptop looks gorgious, how did it go over with the family?

[collinE]

Must be nice to have it basically finished. I cried on the inside reading about your screen problems. You're a champ for rebuying so many LCD's. You inspired me to stay away from that model Gateway.

[QuickSkope]

Well, I don't think it was the model itself (It might have been weak) but he probably could have been more cautious, like always use a new wipe (1 screen dead) and such. Also, Collin, got any soldering Irons you wanna recomend? Or monitors maybe to be safe?

P.S, why would he not buy so many LCDs, these are pretty cheap (found them for 50 or so $ on ebay with shipping.) And I think most of his screen problems hit AFTER he was done resoldering and extending wires. Actually, a lot of them happend right when he was trying to finish.

Lesson: buy the LCD last, and you will have more of an insentive to not quit. But, you might also waste a lot more money.

[thetwoj1014]

Here's a direct link to a very modestly priced one on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Gateway-FPD-1775W-1 ... 53decfa5d8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I payed a decent amount more than that for all of ours, so I would jump on that if you want to use that kind of monitor. As far as us not being cautious enough with our monitors, I'll give you that on the first two. After that it was just electronics not cooperating, having little or nothing to do with the amount of care we took with them. Also, considering the fact that the monitor was the only stuggle throughout the entirety of the project, I'm fairly sure our level of caution was fairly appropriate. That said I actually would use the screen again, I just wouldn't put the inverter so far from the backlights.

As far as soldering irons go, in my opinion the actualy brand doesn't matter so much, it's all in the wattage. We used a 15W for our basic wire soldering, while our 45W desoldering iron, AKA the 'turkey baster' (both from radioshack by the way) took care of melting most of the RoHS solder. We also used a decent amount of solder wick, and had a 35W and 45W soldering iron when the desoldering iron needed a little help. Make sure you have a solid holder for you irons though, there are a couple melty bits in my table now thanks to a cheap stand.

[thetwoj1014]

Must be nice to have it basically finished. I cried on the inside reading about your screen problems. You're a champ for rebuying so many LCD's. You inspired me to stay away from that model Gateway.

Yeah, it's definitely a relief to be able to actually enjoy all the hard work we put into it, at least until we have to sell it because we can't make next month's rent

The Gateway is actually a beautiful screen, and if you learn from our trials and tribulations I believe you would have no problems and would not be disappointed at all. It's picky, but very pretty.

[collinE]

I'll second your soldering iron recommendations. Pretty spot on with my feelings.

Well, if the relocation of the inverter is the only problem, then maybe I'll try the Gateway out. My only experience with monitors is the all-but-obsolete Westinghouse that Ben used. Pretty manageable screen, but not as thin as the Gateway.

[QuickSkope]

Must be nice to have it basically finished. I cried on the inside reading about your screen problems. You're a champ for rebuying so many LCD's. You inspired me to stay away from that model Gateway.

Yeah, it's definitely a relief to be able to actually enjoy all the hard work we put into it, at least until we have to sell it because we can't make next month's rent

The Gateway is actually a beautiful screen, and if you learn from our trials and tribulations I believe you would have no problems and would not be disappointed at all. It's picky, but very pretty.

Ok, well it's cool, I have a 30 W soldering Iron, and it's pretty nice, but the tip it's very small. Anyway, it would be good for soldering, but the problem I have with the soldering Iron right now is: when I heat up the bottom of the wire, and try to put the solder on top of it, it won't melt, maybe it's the size of wire. But it works when I put the tip to the cable, then melt the solder around it, so It works Ok. Which Size did you guys use when you did it (what Guage). Anyway, Got a new Xbox for 175$ (a Pro with a falcon motherboard, Can you believe it, special at bestbuy today and for the rest of the week) Good catch thought.

Alright, so Just 2 question,:

1.Which guage did you use?

. And Which De-soldering Iron did you use, they don't have a radioshack in Nanaimo, but I saw a solder pump for 10$ at the source, but it looks unreliable. Any thoughts on that. I like the turkey baster. it looks cool.

P.S Im pretty sure that it's the wire, cause I had an old PC, and now I stole some wires for Molexes (got those from it too.) but the wires is pretty thick. What you think?

Thanks for all the help.

[thetwoj1014]

Another update! Oh no!

[collinE]

i don't know what you need to fix on the paint, but if it's a small nick or something, you can used a black magic marker.