Hi all,

I am not sure if this topic has been posted before (I did a quick search and found nothing of the topic), but I have acquired a spare Xbox 360 DVD Drive from a dead Xbox 360 and I want to use it in my PC permanently 0800 enabled to read Xbox Discs on my PC. The only problem is that I have to plug the power cable into the Xbox 360 motherboard everytime I wish to do this.

Is there any way I can modify the Xbox 360 to work enclosed in a PC?

Thanks in advance!

Don't ya think it would be much easier to make an adapter to power your 360 drive in the PC alone instead of stuffing the whole 360 in there?

Both Xecuter and Xeno make an adapter to power the drive from a typical 4 pin molex connector that you'll find in the PC. You can also just make one up yourself, which would be better since you'll want to be able to mount the Eject switch somewhere convenient, it's only a handful of parts. Just a molex connector, 3.3v 1A fixed Regulator, a push button for Eject then a power cable from a 360 so ya have that connector to plug into the drive.

RDC, I am only trying to fit the DVD drive in my PC with the appropriate plugs. I was unaware that Xectuer and Xeno made these, thats what I was looking for. Anyone got tutorials for making these parts?

Doesn't say drive there, and I knew what ya meant, it was a joke.


You don't make the parts, again with the meanings so literal, though this is a forum and all anyone has to go on is what they read. I've already listed off what parts you'd need and I've diagrammed out how it all would get wired up around here a couple of times, should probably add it in the tutorials, but here it is again for now.

The DPDT switch isn't really needed, unless you want to be able to power the drive on/off independently from the PC.



CAP is short for Capacitor. The exact value isn't really that critical and leaving them out isn't going to hurt anything in this case.



You can use a SPDT switch for Eject or any push button type that has 3 connections, like a Cherry switch of an arcade button. Ya don't want to use any plain old 2 connection push button for this since you need 3.3v or Ground on that line.



You don't need the modeB switch at all since you have a Samsung drive, just putting it in here for anyone that does.

So if I want to just hook up a molex adaptor, I should use the following based on your diagram:

Yellow Wire on Molex (12v) - Position 12 on Xbox 360 DVD
Black Wire on Molex (GND) - Position 11 on Xbox 360 DVD
Black Wire on Molex (GND) - Position 7 on Xbox 360 DVD
Red Wire on Molex (5v) - Position 8 on Xbox 360 DVD

is this correct?

Not exactly, you're completely forgetting the 3.3v that's needed on Pins 3, 4 and 6 from the Regulator. The one at Pin 3 will need a SPDT switch installed to be able to Eject the drive manually, ya can probably just do it via Windows really, though I'd add it in there anyway, never know when/if you may need it.


Pins 10 and 12 of the DVD power connector should have 12v connected to both of them,

Pins 5,7,9 and 11 are all Ground, and should all be used,

Pin 8 is 5v, ya got that

Ok, one more try... (*big sigh*) Can you please explain the 3.3v thingy. I do not wish to add a SPDT switch as I am going to manually eject the drive using Windows.

Yellow Wire on Molex (12v) - Position 10 & 12 on Xbox 360 DVD
Black Wire on Molex (GND) - Position 9 & 11 on Xbox 360 DVD
Black Wire on Molex (GND) - Position 5 & 7 on Xbox 360 DVD
Red Wire on Molex (5v) - Position 8 on Xbox 360 DVD

Hope I got the molex connection right this time - I've wired plenty of things before in my Xbox 1, 360 and PC but this time I feel like a complete noob

You need to put a 3.3v Regulator in there (the big black thingy in the diagram, says 3.3v Regulator on it) because the drive needs 3.3v, 5v and 12v to work. You have the connections right now, but you need the 3.3v ones as well. All you can get from the molex connector is 5v and 12v, hence the need for a Regulator, unless ya want to go hacking into the 3.3v line of your PCs ATX PSU to get it, I wouldn't.

Most Fixed Voltage Regulators are about as simple as they can be, Input, Ground and Output, just 3 legs, just like in the diagram.

Ya connect the Input leg to anything over what the Regulators output voltage is, in this case it's a 3.3v Regulator, so it needs to be 5v or more, which is fine because ya happen to have access to 5v right there on the molex connector, Red wire. Then the Ground leg seems fairly obvious, but it needs to go to a Black wire if it's not. Then the Output leg of the Regulator is your 3.3v that needs to go to Pins 3, 4 and 6 of the DVD drives power connector.

I apologize if resurrecting old threads is taboo here, but the project/issue I have run in to directly correlates with this thread's line of dialogue. This is my first post on xbox-scene and if I've posted improperly please forgive me.

The project I have been working on involves placing the 360 motherboard, dvd drive, hard drive, and possibly soon the PSU into a PC case. Routing the on/off switch for the system itself proved easy with a simple push-button attached to pin 5 and ground on the RF module.

I am trying to avoid soldering on the board itself, and thus is why I have not simply done the same thing with the eject button on the DVD drive. I would very much like to create a separate eject button for the DVD drive while it is still attached to the 360's motherboard. Based on the schematics provided in this thread, this should have been a relatively easy process but I have run in to some issues following these directions.

What I have tried is using the 360's original DVD power cable as my source of powering the drive, thus I have everything I should need in order to eject and return the drive. Instead of locating a 3.3v regulator of any sort, I simply used the 3.3v from pin 6 to eject the drive. So it's as follows...

A simple push button from pin 6 (3.3v) tied to pin 3(eject)... then another push button from pin 5(GRN) to pin 3(eject). This should provide the same scenario as a SPDT, where unless both button are pushed at once (eww bad times) then one should eject and one should return. However, this is not the case, and only half of it works properly. I will continue testing, but I'd like to know if 2 separate buttons will work? or if I should try to find myself a proper SPDT? Will the 3.3v from the board work?

Again, sorry if this is not in the right location.

Pin 3 of the connector already has 3.3v on it, ya don't need to put 3.3v on there and ya can't just short it out to Eject the drive, which is all you're doing with those kind of switches wired up that way, it has to be either Ground or 3.3v, hence needing the SPDT switch.

Soldering the the motherboard would be much easier and ya know it would work with just one push button type switch, and unless ya plan to pull the board over and over again there's really no reason not to just do it that way. You'll also have to solder to the board for the Sync switch as well, so no reason to not go ahead and hit the one spot for Eject while yer there.

Well I'm trying to avoid soldering to the board as much as possible as getting things snug and secure inside was a quite a bit of a hassle to start with, lol. Was hoping that an eject button from the cable to the DVD drive would be simpler, so I'll have to find myself an SPDT switch. Single Pull Double Throw? So basically a switch that rocks to one end and back to the other but centers in the middle with no active connection?

I guess what confuses me is that on the diagram above it has one actuation of the SPDT activate a connection between Pin3 and a regulated 3.3v... the other throw connecting Pin3 and GRN, hence why I was hoping two buttons would work for the same end. I figured that 3.3v was for ejecting the drive and GRN was for returning the drive.

Prior to this guide I had used a simple throw switch that went two ways, and it seemed to work for ejection and returning, but since it kept Pin3 at 3.3v or GRN it failed to work properly otherwise.

Ya can solder to the little bit of the switch contact that sticks up from the original Eject button, no need to pull the board.

The SPDT switch kinda goes 'in place' of Pin 3, that is the center lead of the SPDT goes to Pin 3 alone, not with the wire that's already there, just by itself, so you decide if Pin 3 has 3.3v or Ground on it by which position the switch is in.

Thank you kindly for explaining that more clearly to me, I very much appreciate it. In the end I hope to just solder a pushbutton directly to the board, but for this stage of the game I'd rather have a cable capable of doing it all on it's own. This way I'll also have a cable relatively prepared to modify for ModeB switching if the need arises.

Again, thank you! The whole thing makes a lot more sense now.

do you know a dvdrom flashed with kreon bios does the same thing and they are around 30.00 bucks???

Do you know (obviously not) that he's putting the entire 360 in a PC case, not just the drive. Try reading all of what people post if ya plan to comment/answer on it in the future.

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 =)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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

You're Welcome.

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

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

Thanks Dakota

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.

RDC :

Pin 3 : must be on 3.3 V to Close, and GND to Eject (Pick either one, right), USE SPDT switch


What about pin 4 ?

For Lite-On, must I put 3.3V to pin 4? or NC ?

Thanks

Don't mean to step on your toes RDC, just thought I would hit this one-

Pin 4 only matters for Hitachi drives, except 78 and 79's. For All drives, pin 4 on 3.3V puts the drive into a normal operating state, simulating the same setting that comes from the motherboard.

If you are building this simply to do a liteon, with no intention of doing any other drive, or never doing a hitachi <78 then you only need a DPST for power, connecting the 5v and 12v, and a SPDT for the eject, or DPDT if using an indicator led.

When you do your liteon drive, connect the drive first with the sata and your homebrew power adapter we are discussing here. Don't forget to plug in your probe! ( easy to incorporate into this same device if also homebrew) After everything is connnected, set the DPST for power in the on position and the eject to the closed position, then power up your pc. Once booted into windows or dos, and you see that the drive is recognized, hit the eject button, ejecting the tray. Then hit the power switch to off, and then return the eject to the closed position. Push the drive halfway back in, then hit the power switch to restore power. You are ready to proceed using the probe! If you have problems getting the key using the probe, you may need to experiment with the tray, moving it alil further closed or less. Personally, I close it to where the cut out section stops being straight and starts to curve, but that is a matter for another thread. Outside of that, you should be golden.

Trust me, yer not, and I've already had to answer these questions multiple times in PMs.

RDC

Thanks for the info and list of parts
but i didnt understand what you were saying about the 3.3v line

RDC, I've made a DVD Adapter. So here's the configuration :

1. Pin 3 is floating. It will be momentarily connected to GROUND to eject the tray and I will have to hold the button to close the tray. It is working on Lite-On and BenQ.
2. Pin 4 is NC - Not connected to anything
3. Only Pin 6 is connected to 3.3V

Any other else is the same as your drawing.

The main problem is :

I cannot power up Hitachi drive. It won't be recognized and it wont eject at all.
I've used 3.3V 1.A voltage Regulator and the the other voltage supply is correct at 5V and 12V.

Any help RDC?

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if the 3.3V supply is indeed necessary as I am reading conflicting things?

From what I can tell there are 4 types of DVD Hardware.

1) Toshiba Samsung - Two types of firmware MS25 and MS28. I am told 3.3V not strictly necessary as pin 7 (from drive perspective) unconnected. Eject can be achieved by shorting pin 8 to GND.
2) Hitachi - Various firmwares 48,49, 78, 79, etc. I this the same hardware though?
3) Benq
4) Lite-on

Can anyone confirm if they have these drives working with eject functionality without the 3.3V?

The reason I ask is that if we do not need to supply 3.3V then a simple cable will suffice to power the drives from a PC and be able to achieve flashing.

Cheers
Muzland

RDC: Two questions.

I am having a problem finding a 5v regulator local to me, and without paying $12 to ship one from newark, I was wondering if I had these options.

Could I use a 5v Regulator like this one http://www.thesource.ca/estore/Product.asp...product=2761770 and use a resistor to step it down to 3.3v? Or, can I just go without it, and say no to an eject button, and will Windows Vista take care of ejecting/loading the drive tray?

Thanks in advance.

BUMP

do you think 3.5 volts would be too much for the required 3.3v? i don't really want to order a 3.3v regulator. i was thinking about using a 5v regulator and putting 2 diodes on the output, doing this gives me about 3.5 volts.



using a voltage divider (check wikipedia, i think this is what you are talking about) doesn't seem to work because the voltage changes when you add additional loads. it may be possible but would require some clever design.

Well you can try 3.5V but are you really willing to risk the xbox drive which costs more then a little 3.3V regulator.

haha yeah good point. i ordered one from ebay for about $3.50 including shipping.

Nice tut RDC.

Schematic

hey i need some help, my 5v from the first switch just goes up in smoke is it because i dont have a cap between it and ground?

edit: Yes it is because i had no cap. thanks

What are the exact specs for the capacitors? I've bought two polarized electrolytic capacitors (60v, 0.47µF). Are these ok? Is it right that 60v is just the maximum voltage and doesn't really matter?

Other threads talk about mandatory 'low-ESR' capacitors for LM3940 (Voltage regulator). What about this?

Mine look similar to this:

ive got one that says 50v, 4.7uF
dunno exactly

i need some help i can power all my drives except my liteon dg-16d2s with my homemade kit.this is the first liteon ive tried. it works in xbox, but my connectivity kit just doesnt do anything with it i cant eject.ive tried manually but nothing hapopens any ideas

ummm...wouldnt it be easier to get one of those samsung drives and flash it with the kreon firmware instead of going tru all this trouble?

Hmm.. doesn't all drives have the same pin assignment? Are you sure its not just erased instead?
I finally finished my cable with eject, power, modeB and Sata connector. I flashed a Liteon74 with it properly.

well i thought it should have the same pin assignment. maybe its where i take the off the 5v to the regulator im not sure. its not erased it still works in the xbox just seems no power goes to the drive through the kit. but surely the other drives wouldnt work if it was something to do with the 5v

i have on/off eject and mode b switches

it seems my regulators may keep dying i measured voltage after it and it was 0.04v. its this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MIC5205-3.3V-Regulat...#ht_2037wt_1163

what regulators are you guys using

would this one be better

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LT1121CZ-3-3-Linear-...14#ht_500wt_975

I've been looking EVERYWHERE and I was wondering if anyone has a complete schematic (or link to; sorry if it's somewhere obvious and I've missed it wouldn't be the first time) By complete schematic I mean one that covers all xbox drives,modeb and eject inclusive with clear pinouts (if that's not too much to ask, I've seen some stuff that comes close but I need to be sure) and finally it would be nice (but not necessary) if included the correct TX/RX Normally unconected pinouts used for dumping serial lite on keys. If some1 can provide/point me towards everything but the latter I will personally build a complete schematic including all the rs232 based liteon stuff (and a non-rs232 version) with photos wrapped-up in a nice tut (I'll build it into a clear jiffy-box with pwr sw, eject button liteon seirial etc...



Pleeeeease help me as I want to build this box asap!!

PS: My version will have both pc and xbox360 motherboard connectors to alteratively supply power with eject pin isolation so I can have tray half-out and powered by 360 or what pc,psu etc..