It seems a few people have been doing some damage to their Xboxes by trying to solder the P and E points as recommended in the Chameleon install manual. I'd like to suggest 2 much easier and safer alternatives. I can't verify these myself, as I don't have a Chameleon, but I'm 99% certain that the methods below will work with the Chameleon.

Alternate Method 1 to attach the Power and Eject lines to the Xbox without soldering:

Use the pic below as a guide. Locate the front panel wiring harness (a connector holding 9 yellow wires). You can see that Pin 1 is indicated by a small triangle on the motherboard. Using Pin 1 as a reference point, Pin 2 (Power button line) is opposite Pin 1. Pin 4 (Eject button line) is next to Pin 2 (diagonal from Pin 1).



EDIT I decided to take a better picture of this connector:


If you want to tap into these lines without soldering, you can simply insert a wire into the wiring harness next to the corresponding yellow wire. The pic below tries to illustrate what I'm talking about. It's easiest to do this with the connector unplugged. Note that the wire in the pic is not fully inserted. This is just to illustrate where to insert the wire. When you're done, you don't want this much exposed wire hanging out. You only need to strip about 2mm of wire to insert into the plug. Do this for points 2 and 4, and you're set. This method does not provide the ultimate in secure connections, but is very easy. For a more secure connection, use the Method 2 below.



Alternate Method 2 to attach Power and Eject lines to the Xbox (in my opinion, the best method):

I unfortunately don't have access to a digital camera right now, but I'll update with a pic when I can. For now, just use your imagination

On the underside of the motherboard, locate where the front panel connector plug (from the 1st pic above) is soldered. Then simply solder the P and E wires to the corresponding pins on the underside of the motherboard. Once I get a pic, I'll illustrate exactly where the points are, but I hope you can see what I mean.

EDIT I finally got around to taking a pic of the points on the underside of a v1.0 Xbox. Here it is:


These points are quite easy to solder, and in my opinion much safer than the points recommended in the manual.

This post has been edited by dzv: Jun 5 2003, 05:18 PM

great post - ill add it at the start of my pinned one if you dont mind. Chris

can i pull out one of the yellow wires and then put it back in ... or not... without screwing up the connection?

i like what you suggest!

you will probably save alot of xbox's!

Very nice. I may try it with my second Cham just to confirm that it works, but I don't see why not.

As to pulling out the yellow wire, it shouldn't be too difficult, but also very unnecessary. You could even attach the E and P wires to the BOTTOM of the pins that the yellow wire harness plugs into (not the bottom of the MB, but the header pins that they screw into), but best to do this with the MB out of the box.

Thanks again, I bet that will help quite a bit.

If anyone else beats me to testing it, let us know!

heh yeh id love to try but dont have the time with all these exams - i think this will be my last post for a few weeks - good luck people. Chris

@rgtaa Yes, you can remove one of the wires and re-insert it. To remove it, you need to lift the small plastic tab on the side of the connector, then pull the wire out. There's one tab for each wire.

this would have been really helpful had i not fucked up my box earlier today.

i dunno when this was posted, but its damn good alternative.

soon as my dad touched the end of the resistor, the thing flew off faster than a flaming ninja. now my box is dead.. my header pin, stuck , and my only hope is to return the fucker.


i was wondering if this is the reason why my chameleons' led was flashing instead of solid. i turned it on, and everything seemed fine, but there was just fuzz on the screen of my tv.. no cromwell ..

flashing led, no bios booted, and when i tried to turn off my xbox, it would turn off and turn itself back on..


any ideas where it went wrong?

Update:

I've added a couple of pictures to the guide

By connecting E and P's of the mod to a cable, you tether the mobo to the case. I did not want to submit a post earlier saying this. Which would have put a damper on the problem of ppl destroying the resistors.

Your idea of solder E and P underneath, to the connector is a better choice!

Now whats your best way to get the wires back up to the top, back to the cham's E & P solder points?

QUOTE

By connecting E and P's of the mod to a cable, you tether the mobo to the case. I did not want to submit a post earlier saying this. Which would have put a damper on the problem of ppl destroying the resistors.

Yes, but by simply inserting the wire (no soldering) you can simply pull the wire out if you need to remove the mobo. But this isn't my preferred method anyway

QUOTE

Now whats your best way to get the wires back up to the top, back to the cham's E & P solder points?

If you look at my pic of the bottom solder points, you'll see the wires are leading off to the left. That's towards the side of the motherboard where the LPC is. I simply taped the wires to the motherboard, making sure to keep them away from any 'danger spots'. (Danger spots are places where the wires would get pinched or pierced by components, case screws, etc.) Lead the wires all the way to the edge of the motherboard, then over to the top where you can attach them to the Chameleon.

sounds good!

just tested this and it works perfectly

NOW ... we have to get DZV to make a NEW Chameleon tuturial as good as his E and P points! ... with pics ,ect! ...

...so people have a Crystal CLEAR guide and we can see a TON of Success Stories!

Thanks again DZV!

P.S. Easybuy should hire him as consultant!



This post has been edited by rgtaa: Jun 5 2003, 09:17 PM

Well thanks for the kinds words rgtaa.

Unfortunately, I don't even own a Chameleon yet, so it kinda makes it hard for me to make a tutorial with nice pics

just to add my tuppence, I did it the jamming wires into connector way, but I used a single core wire that was just slightly too thick to slot in, so what I did was use a pair of pliers to fltten the end into a wedge, and slid that in, the rest of the wire wedged in nice and dsnugly so theres very little chance of it ever slipping out by accident!, nosolder, no mess, and seems to be working fine