Opened A Xbox To Find A Hitachi-lg Dvdrom, **MERGED TOPICS** Options

[truBB]

Here is a start of a tutorial. (no where near complete)
Thanks to wenid for the excellent work... and others involved.

1. Parts & Tools list:

LG model GDR-8163B (figure 1 & figure 2)
hook up wire 26-28AWG
soldering iron & solder
LM324N Op-Amp or equivalent
1Kohm resistor (quantity 2)
phillips screwdriver
xbox



Figure 1


Figure 2



2. Flip over the dvdrom.
Remove screws shown:



You should now see the bottom:


3. Solder points, solder the wires to the points shown. Label your wires. (another pic from LordRaiden)


4. Wires soldered.


5. Cut out notch for wire feedthru


6. Route wires thru circuit board


and thru the feed thru:



7. Hook up circuit as shown:


8. flash dvdrom... to be added...

Yeah, I know, I'm not nearly done with this tutorial. But its a start...
If anyone can figure out how to fix the "ready" signal, I'll update the schematic.



Here's my mock up
(I'm over my limit in pics for this post)


I tried a bunch of stuff with the ready signal, but failed miserably. It doesn't need to be inverted, as some might think. I just noticed that if I hold 'ready' on the xbox side to 5VDC, it fails apon boot with no dvd in. If I hold 'ready' on the xbox side to grnd, with a dvd inside, it boots the dvd. If I hold 'ready' on the xbox side to grnd, with no dvd inside, it boots to the hard drive.
In short:
XBOX side:
ready = 5VDC, dvd inside
ready = gnd, boots dvd if found, then defaults on HD.

GDR-8163B side:
ready = 4.33 w/ dvd inside
ready = floating w/out dvd

If I plug 'ready' in as shown in the schematic, the voltage reads 3.84VDC w/ dvd inside.


Another note, I have also ordered the IDE FLASHER from Germany. (any help on using this thing would be appreciated.. ahem, ahem, wenid)

This post has been edited by truBB: Mar 14 2005, 07:56 AM

[ferrari_rulz_02]

well thats a good start truBB. well done

[LordRaiden]

a last my points are are valid!!!! Good job truBB.

This post has been edited by LordRaiden: Mar 14 2005, 01:01 PM

[wenid]

a last my points are are valid!!!!

Sorry, but no. I don't know why truBB assumed I was using your points. I am not.
I may well be wrong, but the point he has marked as LDin does not appear to match your Y point anyway and either way it's wrong. That point is connected to a pin on the ROM chip, so I did once have a wire connected to it, but only during the fun and games of flashing the ROM. The LDin point I'm using is actually labelled LDIN on the 8163B circuit board and is near the LDOUT point.
For my ready signal I'm currently using a kludge based on tracing back the signal on my real 8050L drive. I don't know if it's really working properly, but I do know that the same approach did NOT work for TRAYIN and TRAYOUT (although it might be worth revisiting these -- maybe they are the right polarity but the wrong voltage). I'm also pretty sure that the ready signal used here is not right either, as evidenced by truBB's experience and measurements.
I almost certainly won't have time to do much of anything on this for a while, possibly quite a long while, but if/when I can squeeze it in I'll be working on the flashing program first.
I haven't got my notes handy right now, but at some point I'll try to post more info about the points I traced etc.

[wenid]

Another note, I have also ordered the IDE FLASHER from Germany. (any help on using this thing would be appreciated.. ahem, ahem, wenid)

I'll help if I can, but the whole thing is fiddly, complicated, and took me several hours all told. I certainly don't have time to go into all the gory details here, so I'm afraid you'll have to work out as much as you can on your own and PM me (or post here if you like) with specific questions if/when you have problems.
PS. Good work on the beginnings of the tut. It's looking pretty good except for that little problem of the points, which isn't really your fault since I never posted complete info on what points I'm using.

[truBB]

Doh, snafu on the LDin point. I soldered it per Lordraiden's points, just didn't show the pic correctly. ..Yeah these points are hosed...

LordRaiden, could you help me find ready? Duh, if LDin is labeled on the board, I'll correct this tonight...


This post has been edited by truBB: Mar 14 2005, 05:50 PM

[LordRaiden]

Doh, snafu on the LDin point.  I soldered it per Lordraiden's points, just didn't show the pic correctly. ..Yeah these points are hosed...

LordRaiden, could you help me find ready? Duh, if LDin is labeled on the board, I'll correct this tonight...

Try this for the ready signal.
Ready

[truBB]

LDin shown.

[LenteSubigo]

I finally set myself up to test the patched version of the Windows 8163B firmware updater and have found that it doesn't work. Maybe it does some kind of CRC check or something on the ROM image. I will try to have a look at it in a dbugger soon, or maybe Lente could get back to the Dangerous Bros. about it.

I am working on the flashing issue. I still don't have a 8163b, so when I get a version that may work I will send it to wenid or someone else who has a 8163b they would like to test with. I will keep you all notified when any breaks happen.

[wenid]

The ready point I'm using based on my traceback of the 8050L circuit board is labelled TP126. It's on the other side of the board than what's shown in all these recent postings. It's near another point that is more clearly labelled TP129 about an inch in from the edge that has the two ribbon cables hanging off it and roughly midway between the two ribbon cables. If you can't fid it let me know and I'll try to post a photo.

I am currently using a 1k resistor between the test point and the wire to the Xbox because there is a 1k resistor in the 8050L circuitry that is "missing" from the 8163B. I don't know if this is necessary at all. I also haven't actually made any measurements of the voltage at this point -- it may be totally bogus.


This post has been edited by wenid: Mar 15 2005, 06:33 AM

[Kdawg22]

I also recently got one of these drives. Before I opened up the case I thought it was a thopmson, I was a little angry, lol.

This post has been edited by Kdawg22: Mar 15 2005, 06:32 AM

[truBB]

Well, no go on the ready signal still. I'm not sure about this, but I think the opamp isn't going to do the trick. Or my wiring diagram is screwed up.
I'm going to try a few more things...

[wenid]

Well, no go on the ready signal still.

Bugger. Now does that mean my drive here should not be working at all...?

I'm not sure about this, but I think the opamp isn't going to do the trick.

Sorry to disagree, but it DOES do the trick. It's what I've got in the working drive here right now.

Or my wiring diagram is screwed up.

I've just looked at it again (more closely this time) and you've shown pin 11 unconnected. It needs to be connected to ground.

This post has been edited by wenid: Mar 15 2005, 02:16 PM

[truBB]

Yeah, I noticed that I didn't have ground hooked up in my diagram, but I do have it connected in my circuit. My pics are completely buggered... To be fixed once I get it working.

I have LDin & LDout soldered to the dvdrom correctly now. I also have Eject correctly soldered. Do you know where Ready should be?

Should it be here?
or someplace else?


I realize that you [wenid] have it working, I'm just trying to duplicate your work. I appreciate all the help.

[wenid]

Do you know where Ready should be?

Not really. See post #370 for a description of what I did here.

I realize that you [wenid] have it working, I'm just trying to duplicate your work.  I appreciate all the help.

I have it working in the sense that I can use it, but I'm not sure that it's all functioning exactly as it should be because I haven't had time to test it properly.

This post has been edited by wenid: Mar 15 2005, 11:52 PM