I've finally bit the bullet and opted for lasercutting the case pieces. A company near london has quoted approx. £50 for everything, which i think is very reasonable. I sent my adobe illustrator dwg's and i am just waiting to hear back on materials, then i can get this mini put together at last

I can not wait to see this WIP finished, looking forwards to the final pics!

Thanks, looking forward to finally finishing it

Well done on the work so far and for taking the plunge taking your project to the next level by getting the laser cutting done.
Depending on what the material price comes out at you may want to consider getting a few made up as it easy to cut multiple pieces of the same design so should not increase the cost too much.
Maybe get a quote for 1 off, 2 off, 5 off and ask on here if anyone wants a bare case?
We all know how many sales enquiries Ghostavel got for his original design...
Just a thought, but if you are anything like me - money is tight and just getting one project complete is hard enough!
Keep up the good work.

The lasercutting quote i have is £50 (including the material and an etched xbmc logo) plus shipping and vat. Unfortunately the laser cutting company are really taking their time getting this done for me. I've emailed them again today asking for an eta so hopefully it will prompt them to get on with it.
When it arrives i'll post pics and the illustrator drawings (also a link to the company i am using to get it cut) so that anyone can have one made for the same price i am paying (probably around £80 all in). Im not looking to profit from this.

A small update to the project, im using an even smaller psu (to save even more space):



Its a PicoPSU 60 WI (http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-60-WI?sc=8&category=13). Im having some problems getting it to work though.
When i first turn it on, it works ok, all led's on the atx to xbox convertor come on but the 2.5" hdd doesnt seem to spin up. If i turn it off then try to power it up again it turns on and off very quickly.

I have posted my problem on sickmods forums and Pablot said i could connect a 5v line to the PS_OK signal on the atx side of the convertor, bypassing that check, but that could cause the psu harm. I also read a post on here stating:
"The Xbox motherboard has a lot of capacitors on it to keep the 5V supply clean and smooth so the chips will work correctly. However, when the motherboard first starts up, all the capacitors are discharged, so the PSU must supply enough current at startup to both run the motherboard AND charge the capacitors (the inrush current can be over double the normal operating current). So, with the amount of capacitance on the motherboard, the Picopsu can't handle it and will not power up, that is why some capacitors need to be removed."

Either method could cause damage to the xbox and psu.

I am not sure which method would be best, nor do i know which of the caps, or how many i should remove (if i chose that method). Can anyone point them out on the pic i posted above? I dont want to remove the wrong ones or too many of them.

hey man, check this out: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=536915

you need to remove 3 caps. However, when I did that mod i removed all those caps and installed a few big new capacitors. I used one 3300 µF and 3 3300 µF caps, all 16V. Everything worked fine

good luck with the 60w picopsu!

EDIT: changed your picture

http://forums.bit-tech.net/picture.php?alb...;pictureid=3005

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!
When you remove capacitors, do you just bridge the 2 points where the caps legs were soldered to with wire? Does it matter how thick/thin the wire is?

whatever you do, DON'T bridge those spots. A capacitor doesn't conduct energy, it stores it, there's no connection between both points. Just leave them.

Thanks, that could have been a FATAL mistake lol. I'll remove them and see if it helps the pico start up better.

Looks lush mate.. well done. So does the original case in white mind!

I hope it turns up for you soon! Keep chasing them and get an eta.
They will no doubt be using your job as a 'filler', getting more expensive jobs out the way first.
Good work also on making your plans 'open' to the community - nice move.

Got an email today, the guy is in the US at the moment but will be back on the 18th. He said he will get straight on with cutting the acrylic so hopefully i will have this xbox mini finished by the end of the month

Sweet news.. then I just want some INSTRUCTIONS! Or a price for the job

LOL well I have asked him to give me a quote for a few extra pieces. I'll see how things go with mine first

amazing, keep up the great work. can't wait too see the finished product.

Another small update, ive bought an upgraded motherboard from trusty for this xbox mini. It has a 1ghz cpu and 128mb ram. I might have to change the psu connector if he hasnt got a v1.1 xbox though...more work lol.
Also i've pestered the laser cutting company again (they're really taking their time!) and apparently they'll try and get the case cut tomorrow. We'll see!

Finally the case hase been laser cut and will be posted shortly! I should have it by monday so i can start getting everything together
The cost of making 2 of all parts of the case was £78, any further orders are £19.50 plus VAT and shipping (very reasonable!) so if i screw up these 2, i can order more.
Stay tuned..

looks pretty sweet. how long is it going to take to put together?

update on mine. sickmods finally made some more atx converters so should be able to finish mine this week. i'll post some more pics later this week, won't look as slick as your though.

Its going to take a while to put together as i have to route the edges and heat bend the side pieces, then glue in the motherboard mounts etc...lots to do. Im also waiting for my upgraded 1ghz, 128mb motherboard (should be here by thurs/fri hopefully). Luckily i have a couple of days off work so i can get a start on it all.

Yes i saw that sickmods had some more atx convertors in stock and bought one (just in case i need it lol). Good luck with your mini, looking forward to the pics

Thanks trusty! My upgraded motherboard arrived today:





Luckily its a v1.0 so i dont have to change the psu convertor connector but now theres a controller port daughterboard to allow room for.
Its a shame its raining here today, or i would be heat bending the case (cant really do it indoors).

Iceberq's are installed, also i removed 3 capacitors as recommended when using the picopsu.



Next: soldering the lan activity led to the underside of the motherboard.

WOW. it has really been awhile since i have been on this site, modding just keeps stepping its game up. Great work. seriously. i wanna see the finished piece.

Thanks,
i want to see it complete too but stuff keeps getting in the way (work/weather/life in general) lol.
I have some time off work coming up in a few days though so i'll try to get this xbox mini done.

Routed the grooves on the side and back pieces, now i just need to heatbend them without breaking anything

I've made the fan bracket that will hold it in place on the bottom of the case. Also i had to shave off 2 areas on the inner base to allow for two yellow components that are more than 2mm in height and were warping the motherboard when it was screwed down:





Now im working on the wifi adapter mount.

Looking good. Can't wait to see how this one comes out.

Hows this?:

Excellent . It looks 100 percent manufactured and professional.

sick! absolutely sick! looks pro! Only thing i'm wondering: Why did you cut grooves for the baseplate? You could have put it flush with the bottom of the sides then glued it to the edges inside, since you wont need to remove the bottom for any reason.

The grooves are for extra strength. The base plate sits 3mm higher than the sides as a 3mm faceplate will be going over the top of it which will cover any screw holes (same for the top piece, i have a faceplate for that too). Therefore the faceplate will be flush with the edges.
The bottom piece will also be epoxied in place though the top wont as i will need access to the internals.
Glad you like it so far

A1 and a few extra gold stars for your planning and attention to detail,great idea for the location slots but if you epoxy them thats it,why not just silicon it in place,Im sure in time you might want to have another tinker with it.

Im only epoxying the long front/side piece to the baseplate, the rest will be held in place by screws. The back piece will clip on (internally) so its easy to remove and shows no external screw heads. I will be putting 4 inner supports that will be screwed into the baseplate and inner top plate either side of the air vents effectively sandwiching the two together (if that makes any sense ).

I cant believe how much that looks like his.


Incredible.

I got it as close as i could without having any schematics to work from, only the pictures ghostavel posted. A lot of the design was guess work and lots of measuring, making mock ups, remeasuring and adjusting the design etc.
I will be working on it again from the 20th as i have a week off work then. I aim to have it completed by the end of this month, if all goes to plan

Really impressive work. Got me into taring my xbox 1 apart to do one myself. Any chance you could post some drawings? Of course i could just measure everything myself but if you could it would help alot!

I'll be posting the designs when i know for sure that all the measurements are correct for all the pieces to fit together properly (there are some small adjustments needed first). I'll post them as jpegs and as adobe illustrator .dwg's also. That wont be long now, bear with me

lol this put my slightly obesse mini to shame lol, well looks like mines is out the window, although, my budget for this project is at a staggering.........0 lol. i dont like spending money , im a little bit stingy but would love to make a mini like yours. keep up the good work and looking forward to the .dwgs, im a CAD operator so i constantly look at drawings, be nice to look at one i am actually interested in lol. Any way, your wifi thingy majigar, is it connected to the xbox via usb or rj45 cos i have a usb one sitting here doing nothing, and would like to adapt it to use on my xbox.

edit: never mind i noticed it is a usb one, i take it you just wired it direct to one to the controller ports, either 3 or 4? lol no wait it has rj45 on it too, damn, will a usb one work or does it have to have the rj45 (i already know what the answer is but hey ive got to hope lol )

The wifi bridge is connected via ethernet cable (the usb lead that came with it is only for power). I will have a short length of cat5 looping from it to the xbox's ethernet port (i could have soldered in directly to the xbox's ethernet pins but i wanted to keep the port in case i need to reconfigure the wireless bridge's IP settings in the future. A usb one wont work as the xbox doesnt have the drivers to use it.

The case design isnt anything fancy, i've never used illustrator before which meant a lot of trial and error at getting it all together lol. Luckily the laser cutting company i used only needed 2d "cutout" plans which made it simpler for me.

As for money, well ive gone a bit crazy on this project lol. Ive spent enough on this to buy another ps3!

lol yeah i thought it would have problems with the drivers, you could solder the cat5 to the internal port and keep the port there, aslong as you solder onto the correct points, i cant see any reason why it would cause a problem, unless the xbox does checks to see if the is a cat5 connected and if in that case then your way is probably best, ive came up with a few different plans for different xboxes but the problem i have is, that i want the xbox to be pretty much the same as it is with the exception of a laptop hard drive and a pico psu. so because of the cd drive, i cant really make it any smaller than i have designed as i would need space for a slimline dvd player to go in there. and my budget for this as i have said is 0 lol so most of the work would be done in at my work which is capable of cutting the holes i need using a labeling machine.

Ok i've started work again,

Here you can see where i've had to cut out a piece of the inner top panel to allow for the 40mm fan (it also helps hold it in place:


Test fitting the back plate (needed to make sure all the cut outs on the back lined up correctly with the motherboard placement):


I've also remade the inner support posts from 10mm square acrylic rod (all 38mm high) which will help hold everything together.

Im still aiming to have this done by the end of the month

very nice work m8, do you have dwg files which you could post to me? slight thing that does concern me is the temperature of the cpu/gpu, i dont imagine i could use my normal cpu/gpu heatsinks on there might be a little too confined for that. How are you going to mount up your dvd drive, do you have any ideas for an ecternal dvd drive?

I can send you the .dwg's in a rar if you pm me an email address to send them to. They still need some tweaking though, oh and i've allowed a bit extra on each end of the sides and back pieces so that i can overlap them (not done that yet either).

As for the temps, ghostavel has already said that he doesnt have temperature issues and his set up is the same (iceberq 4's on CPU and GPU).

Im not including a dvd drive in this mini as i can ftp anything i want over to it (using the internal wifi bridge) and i have a 250gb laptop hdd in there (yes there's space)

So far today i've been sanding and rebending the sides/back to get it just right...shame the weather isnt cooperating (keeps raining on and off )

Inner supports and controller port bracket are in:



The heat bending setup (i had to make some adjustments):

Suprisingly nice weather today so i've managed to do a bit more:

Support posts are in. The top and bottom panels have been drilled through and will be secured to the posts with small laptop screws (as they have flat heads):



Ive chamfered the side piece and back piece edges (where they meet) to make a smooth join. Dont worry, its not all fixed together yet hence the gaps:



And as it all stands now:

That is sexy! Cant wait to try it myself Again very nice work, keep it up.

Looking really good. I like the high gloss finish. Looks very slick

But why is there an opening where the top of the fan rests?

The fan is 40mm x 40mm and the internal height is 38mm hence the cut out. Dont worry, once the faceplate is on you wont see that:

looks great. one quick question, which ac-dc power adapter are you using for the psu. Have heard that some people have to get a 9A one to get it to work right. We have pretty much an identical setup, so whatever you use I should be able to use also.

Im using an EDAC adapter:
model: EA11203A
AC INPUT: 100-240v~2.5A
50-60hz
DC OUTPUT: 12-17v 8.5A

I am having some problems getting it to work though. Im not sure if this is down to the ac-dc adapter (this one is 8.5a whereas sicknasty used a 5a adapter and reported it working ok. It also could be my soldering to the sickmods atx 2 xbox adapter or the psu itself (which i doubt).
On first power up the sickmods adapter lights up all 3 leds, the psu led comes on and the xbox starts booting but the bios screen stutters and freezes (sound stutters too). If i try powering off then on again the sickmods adapter flashes the ps-on led once then it goes off and the fans pulse once (acting as if theres a short somewhere).
Im going to try using 2 zener diodes, a 4.7k resistor and a npn transistor as in this tut:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=536915
He used the same xbox version, he removed the same capacitors as i have and he used the exact same psu so im hopeful that it will fix the problem. If you get yours working correctly, let me know.