Hi all
A short tut has been submitted to tutorial on xboxscene this should help with converting lg 8163b to work on an xbox. This should fix problems with TRin, TRout & Cd_Rdy. Keep up the good work!

@XBoXMan



My tray closes when I power off my console ... but If it works with HFM, than i guess its better to use it !!!

I finally got my hands on one of thes LG xdrives. Points per wenid, confirmed.

Basically,

uC (pin 49) ==== 1K (r227)====pin 5 (tray_out)
uC (pin 50) ==== 1K (r228)====pin 6 (ready)
uC (pin 52) ==== 1K (r229)====pin 8 (serial)
uC (pin 65) ==== 1K (r230)====pin 7 (tray_in)


Must be because the circuit is different. I will have to look into it further and compare the drives.

@truBB

does that mean you got it working 100% or you're just saying the points were correctly traced?

Yeah It works great. I only had the problem that my lead in and lead out wires were switched. Maybe I there is a mix up somewhere, but I think I messed it up. When I switched them all was working perfectly 100%
Look at the result...

Old link dead, and I cannot edit my post...

Ubermod

I was just verifying wenid's points.

You seem to be missing power and ground wires ;-)

I think he's using the Y power splitter

Waste of money/space :-P


Does anyone know where to buy cheap molex connector sockets?

The socket (for the DVD drive) is preferable, however the plug (the one on the ends of yellow cable) would suffice if it's cheap!


cheers,
Bourkie

Just go to the molex web page, and request eng'r samples...

I aassume the PC Hitachi Drives are as Good a Replacement as the Samsung 616t's?

Have all the points been traced Correctly?

Don't feel like reading 38 pages of stuff...

IS there a tutorial and Firmware URL?

Thanks,
{DEMON}

PS: I got 5 Hitachi Drives here ready to mod if this is 100%.

Thanks in advance.

{{DeMON}}

What part number are they? (I looked but couldn't find the specific ones)

Also, would they send about 50 eng'r samples?!

The GDR-8163b can't read cd-Rs, AFAIK. The current mod is not 100%; if you hook it up per the french tutorial, eVox incorrectly displays its status. It does work as expected though, reading originals and backups if flashed correctly. Other proggies may have problems: such as xecuter3, smartxx, flashbios firmware, when looking for media (untested).

Walking into this thread and asking 'where we are', and 'i don't feel like reading' is showing me that you're lazy and unwilling to contribute. Read all pages, and you'll find answers to your questions.

Hi guys,

I've been following this thread for a while now and finally decided to try this mod. I flashed my 8163b and have been using it with the original Thompson drive still in my xbox and all was well. I pulled out the soldering iron today to complete the mod and ran into some trouble. I did the four wires like patx posted, but I couldn't get it to work. I put a 1k Ohm resistor on the ready wire. Should I have a resistor on any other wires? What I'm seeing is when I press eject on the xbox, the drive ejects, but when I put a disc in, it doesn't load the game, just sits at the dashboard. I'm guessing then that the eject wire is connected properly. That leaves cdin, cdout and ready. I tried both the HFM and HFMRDY points for ready and same thing both times. Could this be my cdin and cdout wires reversed?

Ed

I have done 2 drives now and i had to reverse the tray in out wires.
you can tell if they are wrong in evox eject the drive an the status will say no disc if reversed.

If you see a static "init" or "ejecting" when the drive is ejecting/opened then it is correctly wired, game should load as soon as you close the tray.

IM just so active in other threads, I really don't have time to go through 38 pages to find out the status of this project. I read the first 3 or so pages when it hit X-S and i was just asking POLITELY for a status report to save me some time. I took the LAZY comment with a grain of salt not a lazy person just very busy and active on here theres too much to keep up with.

Thanks again,
{{DEMON}}

I had the same problem with the mix-up of the tray in and the tray out wire. But You see it directly, when evox is saying all the things the wrong way around. When I switched the two cables in the motherboardconnector it worked great.

Are you sure you now get correct evox status?
(I don't) (switched and unswitched cables)

The original wire set-up appears backwards on evox, switching the wires makes evox disc status switch between 2 things (maybe tray open and tray closed -can't remember) back and fourth quickly.

Also, in the v1.0 I tried, ind-bios froze on logo screen. (drive is not flashed)

I'm sure. I switched the two wires. First he said checking when the drive was open and open when the drive was closed. Now I get it all right: open, init, game ...

Are you sure you get init? I also switched the wires. Works great accept Init does not work. It skips right to game.

I got init but never saw open, when the tray is ejected, it's just a static "init" or "ejecting".

I get 'No disc' when there is no disc. I get 'ejecting' whitch turns into int (i think this should be init, but who gives a sh*t) When inserting a disc the 'init' turns into game... In my opinion it's perfect like this.

This all seems to be tied to a timing issue - whether the signals are seen at right time or not. I'm having similar experiences trying these points too and it sounds like some logic gates could help resolve some of these issues but then we are right back to solutions like the first ones.
I've had the best results by also connecting the 'fifth wire' from Wenid's tutorial (the blue wire) but it still does not work perfectly.

this is very good... where is the final instruction???

Yeah, you're exactly right. When I checked HFMDRV and HFM, on the 8163b, the signal pulses before the disk is actually ready. The thompson xdrive, on the otherhand has both TRAY_IN & READY go high at the exact same time. So a proposed solution is prolly just an AND with both of these, plus a cap-resistor-diode circuit, for the HFM. These signals are maybe found on the board, but I have yet to dig into it again.

I believe valius, hooked something like this before.

truBB,

Yeah - wish I had a scope to probe this - just seeing everyone's different problems smelled of timing problems. Hope you have some good luck trying something - keep up the great work!

As rutgerius said, it opens it closes, it ID's the disk and it reads fine. The simpler the better.
This is what I did - I've got a propper guide with better pics that I'll get on xbox-scene when I'm definately happy.

great job Plagued with an excellent post. your picture makes it very clear to see what is required for this mod. now nobody will have to entertain questions from those who are two lazy to read all 39 pages of this post. i should be ordering the LG 8163B drive in a few days, and i would be more than happy to provide some high resolution photos of the PCB for you to use in your turtorial. just let me know if you need anything.

This info seems to be clearest on what pins go where on original drive.
Confirmed processor points
Assuming you have problems AND are using these points the following info may be helpful.

The ready signal is firmware controlled. If that pin is "ready" on the original, it must be "ready" after you flash the LG too. Unless something else is different about the hardware, causing the firmware to misbehave and synthesize an incorrect "ready" signal. So what could be different? Lot's of things. My first suspect is the timing of the open and close switches. This was a real problem for 616 drives that are not "T". Some users figured out by reshaping internal plastic on the disk tray, that the switch timing could, and needed to be, adjusted to make the firmware "behave" in that drive.

This is all a moot point if it's already working properly. It seems to be for some.
At this point is is unclear to me exactly what the "problems" are.

@TrueBB
You seem to have traced the connection points exactly to CPU.
Does it work 100% or no?

Acid Test

Thats for me!!!

i just have 256k

I used Plagued's post yesterday. The drive is working but it is booting intermittenly. Sometimes it starts to boot the game but drops back to dashboard, other time it does recognized an .xbe and says it is invalid.

The only difference on my setup is, I am only using one +12v and one +5v pin from the yellow connector (I am using the right two). And the left two pins for each ground.

Would it make a difference if I tied the two +12v pins and the two +5v pins together? I don't see how it would change anything, but maybe I am missing something here.

@Tiros
It works 0%. Doesn't work at all. Patx also confirmed this. eVox reports 'open' all the time, and it doesn't detect the dvd. This is using the same points from the xdrive to the 8163b. Wenid also recognized this problem, as he got a 'newer' 8163b, and didn't work 4 him as well. The only drive that works 100% with this connection is a drive that wenid has, which is manufactured somewhere in early 2004. Wenid also postulates that the firmware maybe the issue, since he flashed the working 8163b, with the IDE-flasher (and a original backup of the firmware).

thought i'd add my experience...

i've got a white GDR-8163B manufactured in Dec 2004
i used the firmware flasher from 'the usual places'
i used the same points as Plagued (HFMDRV for ready, 1ohm resistor on ready, cd-in & cd-out), molex splitter for power and functionally it's working 100% for me.
I do have the issue that others have mentioned of evox not showing the correct 'opening, closing, init, game' sequence, but this doesn't worry me as it passed the 'acid test' and does what i need it to do

Yes, you need all wires for all supply rails. Single thin wires cannot carry enough current to power the drive properly, which is why they use multiple wires in the first place (shoddy, cheap-sh*t design if you ask me, but then that's Micro$oft through and through). You should also hook up the third ground wire.

OK, When I use a seperate ATX power supply it seemed to work most of the time. So, I soldered both +12v and both +5v and used all three grounds. It seems to be working most of time now.

It's almost like I have to let the drive sit there idle for awhile before I try loading a disk, to get it to work. But once it starts working, it keeps working no matter what I do until I power the xbox down for an extended amount of time.

It's odd, but what I did noticed when using a multi-meter is that when it fails to boot a disk, the ready signal has dropped low to zero volts. When working, it sits at +3.4v.

You're right,

Yesterday after i got my connectors i started modding my 8163B, i came to the conclusion that it spins down after about a minute or so.

Unless we can solve this it wont work.
We have two options:
1. Find the hard/software that makes the drive spin down
2. Find another ready point(probably seen something)

Wenid does your drive spin down?,
does the led stay on if you let it sit in evox for about 5 minwith a dvd inside?,
and does it keep saying game in evox?
Is there a possibility we could get some hi res pictures of your main dvd-pcb front and rear?

Hello, my LG GDR-8163B is dated on December 2004, and I have noticed that the drive spin down only when playing a DVD, I pause it about one minute. Playing games, the drive work fine for me and never goes down.

Mine is the Jan. 2005 version.

It just died again. I can't get the drive to load anything again. For instance if you try and load an .xbe from a file manager, when you click on the file it says it is not a valid .xbe, click a few more times and you get the icon and load confirmation, you click yes and it starts for a second then reboots.

I wonder if my drive is just defective. All signals are good and solid but it just refuses to work sometimes.

Talking about a december 2004 drive(the white one)

Hi just a question BTW great job to everyone who helped with this so far. I just finished reading this thread (about 3.5 hrs LOL). My qusetion is why are we trying to do it ? I thought at first it was to put a 16x speed dvd drive in an xbox. but now i see that when this finally works 100% we will be back where we started again. With a 16x PC DVD drive dumbed down to 2-4x Xbox DVD drive that has just as many problems as the original drive. In order to make this worth wile someone with working knowledge of the firmware needs to at least crack the speed limit problem at the very least. As far as the CD-r what does that matter CD-rw or even dvd-+r/ rw will work fine for what we use it for. It's a great effort and i don't mean to knock any of the hard work done I just don't see what all the fuss is about if it going to be the same thing when it is all said and done. If i have misunderstood what i have been reading and it will infact work at 16x then hell ya lets continue . P.S. as far as a timing issue there is a tut on xbox -scene dealing with another drive that does use a nad gate to solve this exact problem of the timeing issue. reguards all slipknots

Hey all.. This is a real interesting thread,..Especially considering my phillips DVD drive in my xbox just up and died..

It's funny, because I was using DVD +R media in it, loading auto installer 1.01, and it just up and died.. Would not eject, or respond to any commands..

I had to manually get the disk out, and I still can't get anything from the drive..

Any repair tips on that issue?

Anyhow, damn. I dunno what to do now, I have my box running with a LG8162B, but it of course cannot run original media..

I really don't want to shell out 100+ bucks for a replacement xbox dvd drive.. So I guess I am in the same boat as a lot of people..

So, what should one do?

The reason this is a great mod is becuase it can read orginals and is a cheap replacement.



It being a cheap replacement drive makes this worth while. I wouldn't mind seeing the firmware hacked for faster reading speeds but I doubt it will happen.

I have also noticed the spin down problem when pausing a dvd but that is a minor inconveince I can live with.

Thanks to everyone for hacking this I love my lg xbox dvd rom.

Played with this again this weekend. Did my final install, which is basically the same as what everyone else is doing, except I added a few more components to get the "open" signal from eVox.
Here's a 2.7MB wav file to see my dashboard status. (1 week d/l)
1. I ejected, put in Slayers disk xbox dvd.
2. Ejected again, put in Original Xbox game.
3. Finally ejected, put nothing in.

I'll post more info later on the circuit.

Hi,

I've a quick question on this too, I've attempted this mod, and it's fine as far as it currently goes but I can't get it to work with the PX Game Loader utility. Whenever I put a disk in using this program it refuses to read it.

Things to bare in mind are -

1. I've not flashed the firmaware as I want to be able to keep the 16x read quality.

2. I'm only trying to read in Backup games (as I don't want to risk my originals until I'm sure they are safe), and as I haven't flashed the firmware there is no way to read the original anyway.

3. I'm also trying to move data accross from CDR and DVD to the HD in an affort to read the files from the HD (I.e. Video, Music, shareware etc).

Anyone else experiencing this problem, any solutions?

And excellent work to TruBB and Wenid amongst others Thx

Cheers
Jinxter

There are more problems here than appear on the surface.
I have reason to believe that not reading CDR and the "timeout" problem are related. My drive is experiencing both problems.

The current state of this hack is no better than using the stock drive, except for booting originals. At this point you would even be better off not flashing, since you get CDR compatibilty, faster read, and no timeout. The points people are using, since they are not the same as the original xdrive, will likely produce the same result even without flashing.

It's not over yet, I have some ideas, but right now IMHO, it's not even close.

firmware to read dvd real 16x? My Dvd read 5x max speed...

Hi again I have a few more questions. #1)When the firmware is flashed can't it be patched? before it is flashed to the chip? What i mean is even though the people we have helping have the ability to crack the code but will not do it (by the way it won't matter in about 8 months because of the new system and all being backwards compatable) Can't they patch it at the very end of the firmware in normal code that will super seed the part of the encripted code that gives the drive the read speed limit. sort of like forgetting to close an HTML line and having the last command stated carried threw out the rest of you code. ( AND #2)If you mod the drive to work with the xbox but do not flash it the original will not boot but will you be able to FTP with a PC and rip it so that you can make and play the back up??? If you can then don't flash --make your copy ,put your original back in the box and play your back up till you mess it up then make another copy.

Here are the o-scope traces of the GDR-8050L xbox xdrive. Mine is Manufactured Dec 2004.













The labels are represented by the cable pin out shown here: (expertly cut&paste)



I have to agree that the firmware is either different, or the firmware is set up in a way to determine which circuit is available, and provides the right output. I would like to rip the firmware from the drive I have, but the traces are just too small for me to solder to, and I think I'd screw it up.
My brother looked at the above, and found that the 'ready' signal lets the xbox also know when to start looking at the other signals. In other words, wait till ready goes low, then check tray_in & tray_out. If you look at the second pic from the top (empty/opening), you'll see that ready is pulsed even though there is no disk.

We checked and triple checked the traces from the 8050L to the 8163B, and found that pin 50uC and pin 49uC behaved differently between the two (ready and tray_out, respectively).