Xbox In A Dvd Player Case., Work log. Options

[Barney_1]

Recently I purchased a "broken" xbox on ebay. After dropping in a chip (45 minutes) and a new hdd it was fully functional again.

Because this is my second Xbox, I've decided to put it into a DVD Player case so that it will fit right in with my entertainment center setup. I purchased a broken Pioneer DV-343 on ebay:



Here's everything striped out of the case:



I've got plenty of options with this model of DVD. As you can see, there is Optical Audio, Digital Audio, Analog Audio, Composite Video, S-Video, Component Video, and even a switch to toggle between component of composite video. I should be able to in corporate this switch to toggle the video settings of the xbox:



I had to dremel out the raised mounting bumps for the bottom of the case. Now I should have no problem drilling and threading holes for standoffs:



That's it for now. I would like to mention that yu_mum did a project with almost the identical case. His posts will be a great help but I will be doing a few things differently.

[MickRaider]

these are always fun

[lostboyz]

cool man, good luck Ive got just a couple things left on mine to do, I also listed a lot of others that have done them if you want to reference any of them

[Barney_1]

@ MickRaider

I agree, I'm having a blast so far. I've been brain storming for a few weeks and the answers have slowly fallen into place. I've either got all the parts I need or they are in the mail.

[Barney_1]

Ok, so now I have the stand-off holes drilled and tapped:



I want to use the A/V ports soldered to the DVD motherboard (at the top of picture) and the IR port which is at the front of the board (pictured at the bottom). In order to do this I have to cut the top and the bottom off. First, I desoldered the VFD (pins circled in blue). I plan to cut along the red line. You can already see the line marked in sharpie for the cut at the top of the board:



I used the re-inforced fiber cutter wheels for my dremel to cut the board. This is the same type of wheel I used to cut out the protrusions in the case's base. With all the cuts made, I have the boards mounted in the case:



My next step is to desolder the A/V connector which will make adding wires to the correct pins a lot easier.

[NiC_CC]

these are pretty fun projects. It has alot more flexibility than the normal xbox case offers. I enjoyed working on my/vslan's project norcent xbox i did a while back.

I would recommend keeping the ground of the M/B seperate from the metal of the case... My xbox fried because of a freak short that happened between it and a tv capture device.

[Barney_1]

I don't think there's any possible way to keep the groud separate. I would have to insulate the standoffs which wouldn't be hard, but the A/V connectors would definately ground to the case.

Do you really think frying is likely if the case is grounded?

[NiC_CC]

well, like i said... mine was probably a "freak" accident.
but i know for sure because my case was grounded, thats y it fried. its probably just because the tv capture device was a POS and as long as you don't set the xbox close/ontop of one, you should be fine.

i don't remember what brand or anything. I think you would be safe as long as the case's bare metal don't touch anything else that is on... and is wired to the xbox at the same time.

This post has been edited by NiC_CC: Sep 5 2006, 10:44 PM

[r_one_oh_seven]

That looks pretty good, and its a massive case, so if you get some good gpu/cpu coolers you should be able to make it pretty quiet while staying cool.

[Barney_1]

I've ordered 2 60mm Vantec Fans for cooling. I'll mount one blowing out where the CPU is, and one blowing in near the PSU. I think those will be very quite and provide more than enough cooling.

What I'm still puzzling about is how to mount the DVD rom. I have ordered an LG 8163B and it's not here yet, but sizing up the situation with another PC Dvd-rom it will be not only tight, but in a difficult place to mount brackets.

I also have a 16x2 VFD on order from Ebay..... should interface pretty easily with my X3ce chip.

[Barney_1]

Ok, after about two hours of work I finally got the A/V connector desoldered and removed from the board. The good news is I think I did so without damaging the board, but at the same time I'll be amazed if this thing still works when I get it all put back together.

I used Cat 5e cable to connect the A/V pins on the xbox board to the A/V plugs from the old DVD motherboard. I had thought of getting 30 gauge wire for this but decided to try out this route after a little guidance from other XS folks.

Here is the bottom of the xbox and dvd motherboards, now connected with the wire:



Here's what we have on the top of the motherboard. Notice the wires are soldered where the A/V connecter ought to be:



Finally, everything in the case, motherboard now connected to the A/v ports. Notice I have also installed the non-conductive material around the PSU:



Next up I need to cut holes in the back panel for the ethernet port and the power plug and move them to their new locations.

[lostboyz]

i need to get pics up of mine now that it is nearing completion, but im using the s-video port as my ethernet spot as i will never use it.

and dont forget your mode select switches for component/composite

lookin good though, smarter than me, i mounted things last rather then first, ended up having to have the mobo sideways.

[Barney_1]

There is a mode select switch already on the DVD player. Just one switch will work. I used wire to jumper pins 11 and 12 as always on. Because pins 10 and 14 are common ground, I soldered one of them to the center pole of the switch. I then connected one side of the switch to pin 9 and the other to pin 13. This way one switch position will enable composite and s-video, the other will enable component video.

[Barney_1]

Ok, time to relocate the power and ethernet jacks.

I'd rather not desolder the ethernet jack if I don't have to. After searching for a couple of days for alternatives, I decided to make a keystone jack work for me. These are the wall-plate based rj45 jacks that you can pick up at Home Depot. Here is the plate, I've already drilled two mounting holes in it:



And after cutting it out to fit into my case:



Now it's time to cut a hole in the back of the case for this jack. I have also removed the plug from the psu and will cut a hole for it in the case. I purchased a tungsten carbide cutter tip for my dremel. After practicing with it on the case of a broken DVD rom I started to get the hang of it. Let the cutter do the work, using almost no pressure at all works the best. I traced the openings in pencil, drilled as many holes as I could fit in the space, then used the cutter tip to come just up to the lines. I then used needle files to finish the opening by hand. I think they came out well. In the picture you can see the hole for the power port (marked with blue arrow) and the network port (marked with red arrow). The yellow arrow marks where the original DVD power port was. I plan on cutting a fan hole there later:



Now I went to my local computer store and had them make me a cat5 cable with a jack at just one end. I purchased the keystone jack that goes with my wall plate from Home Depot. This came with a plastic punchdown to connect the wires:



I used some lamp cord from the local hardware store to connect the AC port to the PSU. I figure I should be careful because that will carry 110v to the psu. I just used some 6-32 bolts and nuts to secure both the power and ethernet ports. Here is everything put together in the case:



And finally, the exterior view with ports installed:



I'm at the limit of what I can do with the parts that are here. I have ordered an AT power extension chord in order to reach from the psu to the motherboard. I can't test to see if everything still works until that arrives. I am also waiting on two fans and a DVD rom drive. I can't wire in the power and eject buttons until I get and mount the VFD display on order and fabricate a bracket system to hold the two drives.

Oh well, perhaps a couple of days to clean up the mess I made are just what I need!

[Zorak666]

Dude, that's sweet.