First off, although I had thought this was my original idea, through searching the forums I discovered that there have been similar mods, but none quite like this. So to give credit where credit is due, I would like to thank Firepyro for his tutorial Internal 360 Wireless Adaptor
I wont go into detail on how to disassemble the wireless adapter because our friend Firepyro has already done that. Also, my apologies for the lack of pictures. My wife had the digital camera and I could not wait to get this done. I will be as thorough as I can with the instructions, as well as point you towards any pictures that may help. I will also take some pictures when I get home (posting from work
)Supplies
Xbox 360® Wireless N Networking Adapter
Belkin USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra Mini Hub (or something similar)
- I chose this hub because it is small enough to fit internally into the 360. There may be smaller out there.
Some extra USB wires (I chose to stick with traditional color coded wires for a clean/uniform look.
Soldering Iron
Solder / Flux
Flathead Screwdriver
Wire Striper and Snips
Electrical Tape
Shrink Tube (Optional - I just like the clean look)
Hot Glue (Optional as well - I am still learning proper soldering techniques, so I needed to secure my wires)
Step 1
Disassembly of the Xbox 360® Wireless N Networking Adapter and your XBOX 360.
Step 2
Disassemble the hub. It is just glued together, so take a butter knife or a flat head screw driver and pry it open.
Please note: I would have liked to desolder the actual USB connectors on this hub to save some space, but I do not have the skill nor the tools to do that, so I left to ports on. Any of the connections to the hub were soldered on the bottom where the pins are connected to the actual hub board.
Step 3
Clip the USB connections off the Hub and the Xbox 360® Wireless N Networking Adapter (There is no going back after this). Strip the outer coating of the USB cables coming from the hub and network adapter...about a 1/2" or so, exposing the bare wire. You will see (or shall I say should see) a bunch of braided wire surrounding the internals of the cable. DO NOT CUT THESE, instead, take the braided wire and twist it together to make it look like another (thicker) wire. You will be grounding this to the motherboard as in Firepyro's pic.
Step 4
Heat up your soldering iron. As in Firepyro's tutorial, locate the USB pins on the bottom of the XBOX motherboard. Notice that you will not have a yellow wire in this installation. Start soldering the hub wires to the pins on the motherboard (DOUBLE CHECK to make sure you are soldering the correct wires to their corresponding pins on the motherboard). Cover up your solder points with electrical tape to protect from shorting them out.
Step 5
Now this was the most adventurous part of the mod. In order to keep the back USB port functional, we are going to have to break it first. Yes. Start by removing the shielding that surrounds the USB port and Ethernet port. Don't toss them, you can put them back on once this part is done. You are going to see 5 silver leads coming from the USB port going straight down to the motherboard. Those leads are connected exactly where we soldered our USB hub to. Now armed with your snips, cut the leads at the very bottom by the motherboard. Working from right to left, cut the first 4 leads. By leaving the last one uncut, we keep the port grounded.
Now, you may see where we are going with this. By cutting these leads, we render the USB port useless, but the hub is now acting as the port and the XBOX doesn't know otherwise. What the plan is, we are going to solder the leads from the USB port to a set of leads on the hub, extending the hub USB port to the back USB port.
Step 6
Take four 5" long wires (preferably left over USB wire you may have laying around...color coded helps) and prep for soldering (striping and tinning). I snipped the leads smaller (to the point where they just barely bent to go down to the motherboard...doing this allows me to cover the port back up after I am done the soldering). Solder you wires to the correct pins on your XBOX USB port. This is where I used hot glue to hold the pins down as I had to bend them up a bit in order to solder them properly. Run the wires down to the bottom of the USB and Ethernet casing, and place the shielding back on. You may need to snip the shielding a bit in order to make it fit properly. Now, run those wires to your hub and pick a port to solder to. Once again, DOUBLE CHECK to make sure you are soldering the correct wires to their corresponding pins. Solder them up, and cover your solder joints with electrical tape.
Step 7
Now its time to solder your Xbox 360® Wireless N Networking Adapter. Take your clipped USB wire from your network adapter and pick a port on your hub and solder away. I dont believe I have to tell you again to double check your solder points. Now, like Firepyro had stated in his tutorial, you cannot get your wireless adapter running unless you ground your braided wires. What I did was run a ground wire from the hubs ground on the bottom of the motherboard (that we had soldered earlier) to this braided wire and everything worked no problem.
I will update this post with pictures as soon I can figure out how. Can you guys suggest an easy place to host. Please also, give your feedback on the post as it is my first.
Cheers and happy new year!!!