Funny shit from those other deck people...

Quote #1 from XDECK..

LMAO ROFL

The thing with laptop harddrives is you're going to get less than half the space for more than twice the price. For the little bit of increased space you're going to get, I don't think it's worth it. For an xbox it'd be cool, but I think the majority of people here want the space, considering so many want multiple hard drives. Just to get the capacity of one large 3.5" drive you'd have to have several 2.5" ones and end up paying much much more.

laptop hardrives are to expensive and not worth getting when you can get a 250 gig hd for $125

I'd like to keep the initial case and design as modular and configurable as possible, maybe a laptop drive bay could be added to the options, 2 standerd HDDs or 4 Laptop HDDs that seems overkill lol, but some other form of possible intergration might work out, of course our main focus will be around the 3.5inch drive that a huge majority of the ppl will be using it seems.

ya definelty stick with the bigger drives not many people use laptop ones

I just wanted to state we've picked up a CAD designer, still any extra help will be appreciated. After reviewing I would like to welcome

Free_frag to the team as our drafting monkey

Hi Guys,

I am a part time modder here in the UK, I love all the ideas kicking about. I think one on the hd's should be in a removable caddy like the Vantec EZ I know you have all probably seen it before but I think with it being black and the digital display it could make the front look great and it would also eliminate the pain of having to keep opening the box to change a drive. I would love to see a dvd burner but I think it would cause a lot of problems so maybe not worth it ??


keep up the good work


http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/produc...d=16543&cat=328

ok all i can say is wow good job guys much more than what came out of those douches before you guys ok back on track.

sorry if this has been answered/asked/etc but will this XS Case be a complete case or just a raised cover top thing. just was wondering and man from what ive seen i cant wait till this is ready its like a rebirth for the scene hehe

ok so yeah in closing good luck and when you sell em we will buy em

long live the scene

I think it's pretty safe to say that it will become a full case replacement. It gives us more control and options on placement, etc.

have an idea for how to make the DVD IR dongle internal:

On the board that controls all of the cases other features(fans, LEDS, hard drive switch, ect), have a female socket that the 3rd and 4th contoller ports plug fits into(not sure if these plugs are standard or not) that would split the 4th port to an adaptor that fits into the dongle's plug that connects with the contacts (similar to the poor mans usb adapter on llama.com) or if not possible to construct then go with a standard female xbox controller plug (this would take up more space) Then it would re-route to a wire lead that connects it all back to the motherboard

Then all the end user would have to do is plug the dongle and the conroller ports into the board and the board to the motherboard and mount the dongle to the back of the faceplate with whatever method they choose (glue, epoxy, velcro, duct tape, gum) This would save the trouble of getting that damn dongle open and soldering wires. and if possible the control board could switch between controller and dongle on the 4th port automatically or aleast have a switch(ahhh another switch)

I hope it is clear what I am saying, I think this is a good way to have simple internal IR capabilities. The only reason I could see this not working is cost or if those plugs are custom and cant be bought. But it could at least be a addon feature

As far as I know twisted plans to totally incorporate the dongle switching. I even have the digi-key part numbers for the male and female headers for the controller ports. I'd like to see a portion of the front panel made from that black plastic they have on remotes. It would look black, and you could mount the XIR/DVD dongle hardware internally without drilling a hole.

A@ron

That stuff also serves a very important role - if filters out all other wavelengths of light, so that sunlight etc doesnt saturate the detector (doesnt matter if you are not opening the dongle, as it has it already, but if you open the dongle, you need to keep that filter.

dont you guys worry about dongle stuff I'm all over that

yo twisted, is there any news on designs or nething you cant post yet? man, this private thread has only been a round like 3 days an already im in need of more info

keep up the good work dudes!

trust me most of the stuff we've talked about isn't very interesting to people outside of the project

and dont worry I'm still making version 2 of the hardwiredvd dongle tutorial just I'm moving the development into this project... for this project (if we even end up using it) it will be integraded in with a bunch of other things.

trust me you guys aren't missing anything

We're going to still discuss what we're doing here, just how to go about doing it will be kept private to aviod rip offs

It's seeming the Audio/Video output panel is going to be easily and affordably available, and will be a part of the upgrades.

Again, we're trying to keep the initial case basic, just a case. We'll add features and options beyond that.

when you guys do make em make us a crystal and green versions so i dont have to feel jealuos of the kids with the crstal boxes and damn twisted you are a badass good luck on the projects and sign me up for one once you get em in

i was gonna buy a a crystal case but then noticed it was sent from uk to uk only and then reread it and saw that it was only the box not the casing

here was the link it was posted on xs a while ago
here

lol he bought a box "a cardboard one" not a plastic one lol. some people just amaze me

Call me Naive

I had been following the old thread by Palmore with the 4 drives etc etc.

Now I have read through a lot of this thread - I guess my understanding of the old thread was - Palmore was just working the box "for the heck of it" he was on a mission to make it work and I admired him for that and all the ppl that dreamt with him on the idea. So I watched from a far to see his progress - I still am interested to see where this thread goes.... please don’t get me wrong – this is not a flamer post at all!

I can definitely understand case mods as I'm a bit of computer nut and have mine "tuned up" more that the average person. Some of the box modes that I have seen on this site are very impressive and I can understand someone modding a box to integrate the IR receiver and or LCD... and other kewl customizing features.

What I don't understand "or maybe skipped over is..."

What the heck can this box do? With talk of mass production, why would the average consumer want 4 hard drives, 2 dvd rom or dvd burner, switches or, etc etc.... (some confguration of multiple drives)

I don't understand why I would want a micro, no mini "atx" style computer with 64MB ram and 700MHZ (or the guts of a DreamX) processor when I currently own a P4 3Ghz with 1GB ram with all the bells and whistles and more software and storage (450GB in my home ) than I want to admit to… and with SAMBA/XBMC you can stream your video and audio to the box.. From what I can gather all you really need a HD on the box for is storing games. Has anyone considered the software Or will you Market this new projectdeck as hardware only Homebrew apps are kewl are they gonna be licenced for production? Have you figured out if this demand is for the +/-100 people that are around this thread, or is it for the masses?

Just some food for thought as I personally enjoy reading about this concept – but have no clue what I would use it for? I have a modded box with a 160GB hdd, I also have a DVD rom drive and burner in my tower…

I just want to know the features and benefits... and why I or you would want to buy one?

Gtjays Posted on May 22 2004, 11:03 PM

Woohoo 22 pages of reading....my mind is blurred....
But..great work!!!
I really like the idea of custom customizing aka the customer will choose what to add. Everybody will be able to spice up as the see fit.
At first I was a little against multi-HDD idea, but now I think it would totally kick ass.
The "slot-changing-like" system is definitely the way to go in my opinion. That way everybody will be able to customize as they want.
Here is one of my ideas that I thought off while reading about feet positioning and at the same time the idea of putting mobo on top of DVD/HDD. What if:
-A set of 4 holes will be drilled in specific locations(for even leg attachment) on EACH panel of the case? That way to see the bottom of the mobo, all the person will have to do is flip the DVD-ROM and install the feet on the opposite side.
-That would also make a good positioning strategy, if user desires to place the case on the side: just unscrew the feet from the bottom and screw them into the side panel.

Think it mighr be usable?

I have an idea that I think people might like. Stealthed controller ports. I got the idea from what I did with the A106 case I put my xbox into recently. Just to show you what I mean, here are some pics.

Stealthed:




Exposed:



There is a door that slides up and down, originally to cover up a floppy drive.

i like that case. was it expensive? stealthed ports would be a good idea.

edit sorry didnt see that you posted the model number.

if it was going to be smaller and still have covered ports like that the if there was an lcd it could be integrated into the sliding cover so that when ports are not in use it would look like it didnt have ports

edit i dont know if tht made any sense but yeah

The athenatechs are nice because they have just about everything stealthed. I did the same thing, have my controller ports hidden behind a 3.5" bay door.

Ok, I haven't read thru everything on this thread the ideas around sound awesome this is gonna be great but i dont know if anybody brought this up but yall could try switching between hdds by using the 23rd wire of a 40 wire ide cable as a way of switching between drives just make sure you dont use the original 8 gig otherwise more space would have to be taken up anyways when you cut the 23rd wire behind a hdd it tricks the xbox into thinking that device isnt connected anymore that wouldnt take up much room i think yall got the idea from here oh ya and great idea on stealth ports i like this plan if this does come up ill be inline to get a xs case keep up the good work people if i had money right now id donate. right now though im just getting a job

It's probably going to switch the drives via power, not ide, because with the ide method you're leaving all the hard drives running all the time, which eats up power and causes heat.

Twisted. I see you are working on version 2 of the Dongle issue.

I read the hardmods thread.. Interesting Tutorial.

I came up with an idea for ya that should solve the problem with Port 4 and the DVD dongle.

How about this.

A solution that the DVD is hardwired (like you had in version 1)

Though a switch method but with no switch.

This would be perfect for this project.

The DVD dongle is wired to port 4. But the switch is the controller. When Controller 4 is plugged in it disables the dongle. So in essense the controller port receiveing a controller (pluggin in controller 4) turns the Dongle off. Though would solve the problem of version 2.o working too well and might simplify things.

After reading about some of your work im supprised you havent come up with a solution for 4 HDD's on the push of a button.

I really liked my idea... I don;t know if you read it or saw the crappy diagram i came up with a few pages back.

There is still a display that will say 1, 2,3 or 4.

THough it relys on the push of one button.

Can't you create a circut that will take the +5 and + 12 power from a molex on the powersuppy then the circuty diverts the +5 and + 12 to one of 4 molex imputs on the circut with the push of a button. One that cycles from 1-4?

Anyways an idea to tool with.

Let me know if either of these ideas work for ya or give you any ideas.

{DEMON}

Wow! I just got back from a month of work and have really missed a lot! I've made a few calls to some injection plastic mold "friends" and I'll see about the prices for a few prototypes. If you need any CAD or Maya 3D models just let me know! I'd be more than happy to lend a hand in getting this project produced!

J

Demon, wouldn't your method require modifying the yellow wire in the controller in some way? I would think you'd have to. One of the primary reasons for twisted's original method was to make it so you wouldn't have to alter the yellow wire.

double post oops. just hit post once and poof 2 posts.

Cant wait to see what you have in store for the dongle Twisted! Alternative to using the 12V Relay? Rock on you guys, cant wait to buy a few of these!!!!

If you haven't filled out the Survey yet please take a moment to do so. We're taking it down at midnight tonight (Sun 23 May).

Link in my sig.

THANK YOU!!!!!

Why not name it X-elixis or X-omiosis?Keep up the good work!

just done the survey and I cant wait to see the results.

i like the idea of going with a home entertainment size case.
i brought my box mainly for media purposes and it would be the dogs to see it nestled in with rest of my AV stuff. taking pride of place on the top of coarse.

I know there are already cases for this purpose but they look to minimal.

4 hdd'
2 dvd's
usb
sheet metal sides and top with a brushed ali front

ohh drool.

anyways I would pay £75.00 to £100.00 for a good case
" and not just a 19 inch av one" thats produced from the scene for the scene.

props to palmore and the rest of the team for putting your time in to try and produce what many other ppl have tried and failed miserably to do. oh and all x-s for there constant support to better the scene.

sorry double post

I was checking out those phantom plugs and they are way sick It gave me an idea. I think it might be harmon kardon that does it but i have seen amps and stuff were the faces are like a dark plastic. When it is turned off it is just a totally blank smooth face. But when its turned on all the lights and indicators are mounted behind the face plate and they shine through. Does that make sense? Maybe have the slider for access to the plugs and switches/buttons and then the lcd and any leds/ indicators would be behind the face plate. Use the touch idea to turn on/off. Maybe touch the jewel to turn it on. Then when it was turned off it would be just a sleek looking mysterious box. No one would suspect the ultimate power that lies inside.

{{DEMON}} I dont know if you realize but I've already wrote a tutorial to switch the dongle on port 4 when it "senses and input" it runs on the relay and the tutorial has been up for nearly a year

I'm working out the bugs on a new method that does the same thing but without a relay... and I think it'll work much better than before

as for IDE switching right now it's really a tossup between switching power and switching IDE lines, switching power definilty cuts the power to the unused drives which lowers the heat, however to control that with a circuit requires the use of some hefty relays, also because it uses relays it can be done with the xbox is in standby mode and cycling the power to HDDs when the xbox is booting up/shutting down, or even accidently drasticly reduces the life of not just the hdds but the PSU and possibly some of the other components (also why I'm searching for a relay-less dongle switch)

switching ide can be done while in standby so when the xbox powers on the switch as already been made, and it's far easier/less expensive to control via some ICs than by relays. also since the inactive hard drives arn't in use it's probably not going to use any power/generate any heat anyway. this along with the exact switching method has yet to be determined but... I'm workin on it.

also that blacked out face harmon kardon... I know exactly what you're talking about, my marantz reciever does the exact same thing... it's nothing a little plexi and tint can't solve (check out the macro-black PC over at bit-tech.net, an execlent example)

Some links to things I mentioned

My Hardwired DVD dongle tutorial

Bit-tech's Macro black (the first three pics are when it's powered down and the 4th and 5th are when it's powered up and shows all the cool stuff)

my tinted jewel tut (same principal as the macro-black)