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

[LenteSubigo]

Hi everybody.

I'm a french xbox user, and i come from the french site www.gueux.be

I'm trying to do a test for the Hitachi-LG flashing firmware, but i'm asking me some questions.

Do i have only to put my f*cking Hitachi in my PC, and run the flashing program with the .bin firmware? If it's only that, thanks you a lot, i'll do this as soon i could.

But if no, could you say to me... 'cause I don't understand everything here and i don't have so much time u see !

So... greats thanks and see you soon.

PS : Do anyone flash his Hitachi here? Does it works? Does it read original games?

Thanks. ++

Just download the 8050l firmware flasher off of xbins. It has both the flashing utility, and the actual firmware built into one file. Install the 8163b into your pc, and then run the program in windows. Easy as that.

[shearpleasure]

hey Lente does the motor have to be rotated 180 degrees like the sammy drive did or is it just the software modification... if its just the firmware upgrade that would be sweet.. thank you for taking the time to figure this out for us... i cant get my hl drive to properly rip backup games to my harddrive ... it rips them using dvd2xbox or complex 1.60 but when i go to execute the game it freezes... if i install the pc drive do you think i will still have the same problem? any type of feedback would be greatly appreciated my friend... Shearpleasure

[valko]

Hi. It's so fine ! Who tryed to flash his Hitachi here? If anyone could confirm me it works, i'll flash mine tomorrow.

Thanks a lot english people


Byeee

[Maverick-DBZ-]

LenteSubigo has flashed his drive and it's working just fine. I know there is another person that did it but I forgot his name.

[wenid]

If you can't find the "Ready" using the approach I suggest, you are not doing it right or don't understand digital circuits.

Since you people persist in telling me I don't know what I'm doing and make no useful contributions yourselves, I've decided to stop wasting my time posting to this forum. I may make some further replies today (because I do have a little spare time today), but that's it. I will continue to work on this project for my own reasons and may continue to read the forum, but since only two or three postings so far have actually moved my work forward, I may not bother.

The latter seems to be more likely since you persist in using an OpAmp for a digital circuit.

The reasons for using an op-amp have been stated repeatedly. If one of you purists can come up with something REAL that is simpler, cleaner and WORKS, fine. So far no-one has.

Perhaps you need to review what I did originally for the 616T on xboxhacker.net to understand the consequences of not using the correct ready signal.

I'm quite familiar with 616Ts, thanks. I've modded literally dozens of them. Last time I looked, much of that stuff on xboxhacker was inaccessible, or at least diffcult to access. Why not explain yourself here?

Perhaps you do not know how to read a datasheet.
74HC14 Datasheet
Specifically (Page 2 VT+)

I can read fine. This datasheet is not the one I used as reference, so clearly the Fairchild part's specs differ from the Texas Instruments part's. If this is true, then people will have to make sure they buy the correct make of 74HC14, which may (or may not) be more trouble that it's worth.
(The datasheet I referred to can be found at http://www1.jaycar.com.au/products_uploaded/ZC4821.pdf)

I really don't like your attitude.

Well bad luck. Do you really think you've got any right to complain about MY attitude after the way YOU've carried on here?

From what you have posted so far you have minimal, at best, hardware engineering skills.

So what? I never claimed to be the world's leading expert (in fact just the opposite), but at least I'm actually doing something, which is more than can be said for just about anyone else. I was following this thread for a couple of months, watching and waiting to see if any progress would be made with the firmware. Nothing happened until I was finally in a position to spend some time and money on it myself and then I had a working drive up and running within a week or two.

Your mod is more of a kludge than it needs to be since you do not understand basic electronics.

So offer a REAL alternative. My mod consists of one chip and two resistors. It's simple enough for people even more ignorant than me to do. That's all I am aiming at. If you've got something better fine. I don't see it here anywhere yet.

Others try to help, and you ridicule.

What I get offended at is not their help but their ridiculing MY efforts, just like you're doing here, with this stuck-up, holier-than-thou attitude.

Wow, you flashed the firmware from an XBOX original drive to a PC drive!! Nobody ever thought of that before

Idiot. What I did was connect 31 tiny little wires to 31 tiny little spots on the 8050L circuit board, many of which are right on top of each other, hook it up to the IDE Flasher I bought, figure out how to get it talking to my PC, read the firmware off the flash ROM, then repeat the 31 wire process again on the 8163B to write the firmware to that drive. As I stated before, this required a substantial investment of time and money on my part. I then freely donated the results of my work to this community. In return I get crap like this from people like you who just want to make themselves look good by coming in and telling me I'm doing it all wrong, but without offering a useable alternative.

Maybe you think it's "good enough" and "nobody cares", but these are just excuses for poor engineering.

I'm not trying to be a great engineer. I don't have the time. That's one reason for publicising what I have done -- so people who do have the time and knowledge can come up with something better if they feel that way inclined. I don't see how that requires them to put down my efforts, however.

[demonleon]

Hi
I have flashed my unit GDR-8163B whit the file GDR-8050L0012.EXE my unit is now 8050L. but is possible returns to
GDR-8163B? I have tried the file GDR-8163B0L23.exe but ever say "this program can't be used for the selected device." 
Thanks
bye

The file, GDR-8163B0L23.exe contains firmware for Retail Version ...

it will not work on OEM ...

sooner or later, someone will release a firmware for the oem version ...

[Tiros]

I'm not trying to be a great engineer. I don't have the time. That's one reason for publicising what I have done -- so people who do have the time and knowledge can come up with something better if they feel that way inclined. I don't see how that requires them to put down my efforts, however.

That's exactly what I was trying to do!
My original post #382 did not put anyone down. It was a sincere, nonsarcastic, suggestion.
You yourself requested help on the OpAamp circuit, explaining that you didn't really understand it. You stated that VOL was 1.2 but still "Seemed to work"
I tried to explain the benifits of HCT in post #429. Do you need a diagram?
HCT will not be manufacturer dependent.

It was only after Lente and yourself PERCEIVED this as an attack, that things got ugly. There is no shame in using another part, It does not detract from the great work you have done so far. I was actually suprised to see the outlashing over a mere suggestion.

Now this is a REAL attack:
Your design is marginal and will not work consistantly.
There is an easy answer. You have been presented with details on the significant electrical performance benefit of HCT, the problems with the OpAmp, and you choose to ignore/argue. Do it right or don't do it.
You can quit now or finish the project. Do whatever YOU want.
Like I said before, if you quit now the hack WILL survive.
Thanks for your contributions so far.


This post has been edited by Tiros: Mar 20 2005, 06:59 PM

[taximan89]

the regular lg drive works perfect, besides not being able to read cd-r.

[Tiros]

The more i think about this....
The existing original firmware must make use of the same tray in/out signals for normal PC drive operation. The control microprocessor reads these lines during normal operation. They are connected directly to I/O line on control CPU. So the question is, after you flash XFW, how can the xbox firmware understand the inverted position of these switches? I.E. after you flash with the XBOX firmware, the drive becomes an XBOX drive, but the CPU will still see the wrong polarity of the tray signal since it is running on PC drive. If the signal is truly inverted between the two drives, the FW should not work at all.

Since the drive seems to function correctly with either FW, the internal signals that the control micro sees must have the same polarity between the two drives. This leads me to believe that there may well exist signals internal to the drive (@the control mpu, not at the switch contacts) that will be of the same, correct polarity of the original drive. Tapping into these signals directly, would eliminate the need for ANY external logic.

How to find them and "ready"?
Trace the original yellow xbox drive wire signals directly to the CPU I/O pin where they are connected. Maybe they are directly connected to switch, but keep following circuit to the control CPU. The polarity has to be right at that point or control CPU will be confused. Connect to same pin on CPU after flashing. The "ready" signal is an OUTPUT from the control CPU, so once the drive is flashed, that CPU pin WILL become a "ready" signal, even it it was not before.

This post has been edited by Tiros: Mar 20 2005, 08:28 PM

[truBB]

I'm still looking for the ready point.
Thanks to arron1017, I used some images to help me since I don't have a LG 1050L dvdrom.





Then manupulating the images with a transparent one on top, it looks like ready is pin 14? 15? 16? counting (from one) upwards from the bottom right corner. Can ne1 confirm this?


This post has been edited by truBB: Mar 21 2005, 05:00 AM

[xboxmedia]

i just flashed mine and it works great. i was wondering if anyone has the diagram to attach the yellow cable. I'm using a "Y" Cable. Thanks

[Shortacid]

For all of you who have done the mod to the drive, which chip did you all end up using. I just got in some op amps as Wenid left the forum. So now I am going to go to rat shack and mouser.com and see what I can find.

And also did you use the ready coming out of the CPU? I haven't had a chance to get elbow deep, but got the drive, (some) chips, and now just time.

Wenid sorry to see you go man, you were doing an awesome job.

[taximan89]

HL drives are brand new and made by Hitachi and LG hence the name HL. They typically read DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD-RW, and maybe CD-R if you are lucky. These drives are compatible in all XBoxes to date. HL's have a speed of about 16x.

http://www.xbox-linux.org/Talk:Xbox_Linux_...D_Burning_HOWTO

According to this site they are 16x. Is this true?

[pxpx]

i just bought and flashed one of these drives.......worked like a charm

[AntMan3DFX]

Well its ALL GOOD for me.

1. I bought a LG GDR-8163B Drive from NewEgg.com $25 total.
2. Installed the drive in my PC and flashed it with the EXE (bios included).
3. Plugged it into my XBOX (used a Y molex for temporary)
4. It works all good. I just press the old drive EJECT at the same time
I press the NEW drive EJECT to swap discs..
I needed this cuz my original Xbox drive got Dirty Disc too much, I was
sick of it.

NOTE : If it isnt wired in properly (like stated above) the only way to
get it to work properly is to shut off the xbox with the disc in it and turn
it back on to boot. Otherwise U can press eject on both drives if U still
have your old one in an plugged up to the yellow wires like usual.
The only reason I did this was to temporarily check until I have time to
solder in the yellow wires.