Modifying The Xbox 360 Dvd Drive For Pc, Help!!! Options

[Talioangelus]

Well I've been tackling this lil issue for the past 3 days and have managed to get the drive to eject (the light blinks rapidly after using my eject button in place of pin 3 and tied to grn) so I'm pretty sure i'm still missing something. LoL I'm going to take a break from it for a few days, I'm certain that all the information I need is in this thread and that I just need a fresh outlook on it. Hopefully I'll manage to acquire some better parts and talk my buddy into getting involved with it too.

After using a push button plugged into the dvd drive on pin 3 (no wire to pin 3 on the xbox 360 mobo anymore) and onto GRN I managed to get the drive to eject but I am fairly certain that the box isn't liking this method since the ON-light blinks rapidly (modeB style, but I'm pretty certain I haven't sent it into modeB). I then had another push button between pin3 and 3.3v hoping that would act as the return for the drive.. no go... I understand pin3 is already 3.3v (well it isn't anymore after it's been cut from the xbox) so again I'm probably missing something that's staring me dead in the face

If anyone's got any photographs of this method please post, though I understand whole heartedly that the vast majority would simply solder a pushbutton to the mobo itself and be done with all of this. It's not my xbox, it's my buddy's who doesn't mind me working on it but would rather not the MOBO be soldered to... Though we have in the past, lol. Thank you RDC for your patience and understanding, sounds like I need to study things a lot more closely... or charismatically talk my buddy into pulling the board for some very minor surgery =)

[RDC]

If ya need a pic of the switch working look at any of the Xecuter kits. Push buttons are only closed when they're pushed, true depending on the type, but if you're using N.O. Momentary ones like what's on the motherboard that's the problem.

Ya don't have to pull the board to solder to it for either the Eject or the Sync, and Sync you'll have to solder to the motherboard. On the top of the actual Eject/Snyc switches is enough lead to solder the wires to. You'll also only have to solder 2 wires to the board, one for Eject and one for Sync as the other side of each of them is Ground and ya have access to that all over the place. So again ya can putz around with that all day or solder up 2 wires and be done, plus it'll work the first time, provided ya solder them to the right spots.

The left lead on top of the switch (Blue) is the Eject line, same with the Sync switch the left side ids where you'd solder your wire to.

[Talioangelus]

Hehe, let me explain the setup I'm involved in here. We've got several 360's bought off ebay that were 3 red ringed and opened already... we've got a heatgun, decent soldering iron/bits, I grew up around electronics but didn't take much interest until recently, and my buddy who has actually put up the capital for all of this worked as an RF tech for awhile, microscopic soldering and such

So I've got several xbox's to work with... 5 in the room right now, 4 of which work (yay we don't totally suck at reviving the boxes).. and one that we absolutely could not fix. This one became our experiment board.. and practice board for me. Well, I decided to look at my practice board for a moment based on the pic you gave to me.. I looked at the blue line and thought to myself "jeebus that's TINY" then followed to the button itself where you intended for the soldering to take place. That looks like a safe place to work on, honestly wouldn't have to pull the board.

But I was looking at my practice board and noticed... The little tabs you mentioned and pointed out are cut off on this one, BARELY any contact is showing on it. It appears factory issue in that way, no one cut from it or whatnot... So I decide to look at the one in the PC case and voila it's got the correct tabs.. enough space that I could probably hook up some alligator clips to test it before committing anything to iron. I thought I'd mention though that not every box will have those tabs, lucky for me the one I intend to modify does! I can try to get some pictures if my explanation doesn't make sense!

[RDC]

I figured after I posted that there would be some boards with a little different switches in them, but if the one you're messing with has them then bonus.

[mcraenz]

RDC your info and diagrams have been a great help, I just finished building up a little adaptor so I can have a spare MS25 drive in my PC. I used a LM3940 regulator for the 3.3v.

It all seems to ok except one thing; the eject, when I power on the the drive with the DPDT the tray is closed and 3.3v is going to pin3 via the NC on the SPDT when I push the SPDT it grounds pin3 and the the drive ejects, now if I push the button again the tray starts to go back in then comes out again the only way I can get the tray to go back in is to hold down the SPDT and then power off the drive while it's closed, then when I turn the drive back on it stays closed! Any ideas what I might have done wrong?

[RDC]

RDC your info and diagrams have been a great help, I just finished building up a little adaptor so I can have a spare MS25 drive in my PC. I used a LM3940 regulator for the 3.3v.

It all seems to ok except one thing; the eject, when I power on the the drive with the DPDT the tray is closed and 3.3v is going to pin3 via the NC on the SPDT when I push the SPDT it grounds pin3 and the the drive ejects, now if I push the button again the tray starts to go back in then comes out again the only way I can get the tray to go back in is to hold down the SPDT and then power off the drive while it's closed, then when I turn the drive back on it stays closed! Any ideas what I might have done wrong?

Thanks, much appreciated.

From your description of what ya have to do is sounds like ya don't have the correct switch. If ya have to hold the SPDT switch then it's not a SPDT, it's a SPCO or SPTT most likely. The SPDT only has 2 positions, up or down and it stays in one position or the other, if it has a third or returns to the center when ya let go of it that's a different kind of switch and would be the problem.

[mcraenz]

Hi RDC,

The switch looks a lot like this:


It is marked C, NO , NC

I have pin3 of the drive connected C (common), ground connected to NO and 3.3 connected to NC, So I should be able to tap it once and it should open, tap it again it should go back in? Or should I be using a toggle switch? i.e toggle between NO and NC?

[RDC]

That's a Momentary switch and exactly why it isn't working right.

If ya want a switch ya just have to push once instead it would have to be a 'Latching' type of switch or a SPDT.

[mcraenz]

Ok cool. So I shouldn't expect it to work like it does in the xbox or on a normal cdrom drive, i.e tap open/close? Its more like 2 possible positions, open or closed?

[RDC]

Yes, it has to be either 3.3v or Ground on that line to open/close the drive in that way, the way the single push button works on the 360 motherboard is a lot different.

[mcraenz]

Great so everything is working as it should, I've now reversed the gnd and 3.3 on my micro switch so I push it and hold it to eject,put the disk in and let the switch go. Thanks again for your help RDC.

Cheers,
mcraenz

[RDC]

You're Welcome.

[dakota76]

RDC

I was wondering if you could tell me what the parts list would be for the diagrams on PG. 1 of this thread
Id like to give it a try
also if i understand the diagrams correctly
it would eliminate the need to use the 360 to power the drive for flashing
also to put into modeB it looks like you have 3 switches how would it work
Thanks Dakota

[dakota76]

RDC
I looked at your diagrams and just wanted to make sure i had it right before i built it

Thanks Dakota

[RDC]

Your diagram looks alright, except if ya plan to use LEDs ya want the 3.3v (orange line) from the center of the one half of that DPDT to come from the 3.3v Regulator, not off to the right there, essentially you'd just connect that top left pin of the DPDT to the center right one, then the Red/Green go to your LEDs Anodes (can be any color LEDs) then to the proper Resistor and then Ground, of course that's only if ya want LEDs to show if it's in modeB or not and that's really only useful for v59 and older Hitachi drives.

A parts list is really dependent on where ya get them from and what types, you can use toggle, slide or latching switches and there are all kinds of 3.3v fixed Regulators to use as well ya don't have to make it with the LEDs, so come parts aren't even necessary, suffice it to say that a compete list would be..

4 Pin Male Molex connector - To plug into a drive power connector of the PC's PSU.
DPDT switch x 2 if LEDs will be used, if not just one is needed.
3.3v Regulator
SPST - For Eject
Capacitors - Anything from 0.01uF to 1uF will be fine.
LEDs and the Resistors for them.