xBook Worklog (Now Powered via PicoPSU!!)

[hackmodford]

Okay I did some detailed testing with the ol' multimeter
Here's my findings...

PicoPSU Standby .04A
Monitor Standby .03A
================================
Just Xbox no monitor
================================
Xbox "2.5" HDD" + DVD 4.37-3.6 (2.5 at one point) A
Xbox 2.5" HDD 3.5A
Xbox DVD 3.3-4A
=====================================
Just monitor 2A
=====================================
Everything monitor xbox all drives etc.
=====================================
5A just in dashboard (normal operation)
5.3A when watching a m4v movie on HDD
6A when playing music and using visualizers
Viewing Pictures 4.8A
Game (HDD and DVD) 6.5A (DVD might have been slightly more but hard to tell)

[hackmodford]

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WT ... LXUF47&P=8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Something like that ought to power it fine.
Ill probably buy this last at this point since I can power the xbox. I'm just scared to play with it for too long.

[Biased]

Quick, get this beast done before April 15th so you can play in the farewell party for Halo 2!

[Harlequin]

Toshiba 60 GB 8mm 1.8" Embedded Microdrive Hard Drive - MK6006GAH

Electrical Voltage
3.3V at 5%
Power Consumption
Start 1.2W typ
Seek 1.4W typ
Read/Write 1.4W typ
Sleep 0.08W typ
Energy Consumption Efficiency 0.005W/GB avg

by my calculations the Seek/Read/Write (which would draw the most Amp) is around 0.5 amps, maybe a little under.. If that stays true then your numbers would be:

Xbox "1.8" HDD" + DVD 3.8-4.5 A on the top end.. this doesn't seem to ring true though since it was quite a bit less than that when combining your 2.5 and DVD
Xbox 1.8" HDD 0.5A
Xbox DVD 3.3-4A

The way I see it, you could be cutting 2 or more amps by switching out to one of the more common zif drives (60gig ipod classic)

[nevermind1534]

If you're doing that, you might as well just use CF cards. I'm not sure about their lifespan, though.

[Harlequin]

the xbox doesn't like working with compact flash. The seek/read/write time is way off for some reason. The boys at the scene have discussed this quite a bit..

The smallest HDD that was found to work was the 1.8 HDD ripped from a zune. iPods use the same drives so I would imagine it would be all good.

[hackmodford]

Hey guys I've got a weird problem now...

I seperated the xbox and monitor since I don't think the PS can handle it all. (remember the fuzzy screen)

Okay so now they're running seperatley and the picture is worse Very worse.

If I use composite it's bearable but worse than it was before. There's two fuzzy barish areas.
If I use comonent it's horrible and my screen can't barely even recognize it as a video signal.
The two barish areas are like completely distorted.

What could cause this?

[vskid]

Try hooking up another ground between the screen and the xbox. Also, I have a DVD player screen that looked like crap after I removed it from the rest of the player, had symptoms similar to yours. I checked the composite line in the DVD player and found a capacitor on it. I desoldered it and added it to the line going to the screen, looked a ton better. I haven't been able to find much about it, but I think putting a 220uF cap on all the video lines, positive towards the signal source, might fix your problem if it isn't a grounding issue.

[Harlequin]

You should probably try to connect it via VGA as well. It's probably the best that you can get out of the original xbox without hacking up a VGA -> DVI -> HDMI adapter (which probably wouldn't even work).

I'm still holding out that you take the plunge on a 1.8 HDD and see if it can all run on the one PSU line.

[hackmodford]

When I get time I'm going to try the extra ground idea. (and test it with composite, if I get results there it should happen everywhere else right?)

[hackmodford]

Adding a second ground wire got the picture "almost" back to normal!
Adding a third kinda helped but not much.
What is wrong? What should I do?

[mako321]

add more grounding wires to different grounds

[hackmodford]

Seriously?
Is there some kind of scientific explanation?

[kibble]

Maybe electrical explanations. Are your video wires shielded with something that's grounded?

[hackmodford]

I would assume so since I'm using a store bought (ebay bought) cable at the moment. I haven't "hardwired" the video connection yet and probably never will (why should I )

So I don't think that is the problem.