=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- :::::THE COMPLETE X-BOX MOD::::: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ::::::::::By: Confedx19::::::::: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Disclaimer: This guide is only to be used as personal reference and not to be distributed, sold, altered, or broadcasted on any site without my concent. Any violation of these terms is a punishable offense, and can result in fines, lawsuits, jail-time, ect. Thank You. Notice: I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for any personal harm, damage to any property including you X-Box. By doing any of the mods in this tutorial, you take full responsibility for the outcome of your work. You should also know that once you open your X-Box, any existing warrentys will be null and void. Thank You. ~Table of Contents~ 0. Version History 1. Introduction 2. A Few Helpful Ideas 3. Basic Knowlege and Tools a. Things to Know b. Things to Have 4. The Mods a. Opening and examining the X-Box b. Painting the Case c. Changing the Front LED's to Red d. Adding new Front LED's e. Lighting the Jewel i. Preparing the Jewel ii. Option 1, The LED Method iii. Option 2, The Cathode Method 5. Credits -------------------\\-// 0. Version History xxx -------------------//-\\ Current Version - .3 Version .3 - 5/25/04 - Sections 0,1,2,3 and 5 Complete, Section 4: parts a,b and c Complete Version .6 - 5/27/04 - Section 4: part d Complete ----------------\\-// 1. Introduction xXx ----------------//-\\ Welcome to my first tutorial. In this tutorial, I will show you how to turn you boring, dreary, ugly X-Box, into a gleaming, hot, X-Box God. I will cover painting, and lighting your X-Box. I hope you have as much fun doing these mods as I did! When reading the ASCII diagrams, you may see a legend which instructs you on what symbols mean, please pay attention to those. Also, in the legend, if you see "Connect points A, B, C, ect." That means those letters are connecting points on wire that you can't see. Example: :::Legend::: :::Connecting Points A ------A[]A------ Although the box is in the way of the wire, the wire actually looks like: ---------------- This is because the two A's are connected. CONTACT ME AT: confedx19@yahoo.com I will be more than happy to help, just as long as you keep it polite. Also, please do not ask when the next version is due. I will get to it when I do so don't bother me, it wont help. -----------------------\\-// 2. A Few Helpful Ideas xxx -----------------------//-\\ In case you are not too inventive, creative, or imaginative, here are some ideas for colors for Modding. (Primary refers to the "X" color, secondary is everything else [see 4-b]) Primary Secondary Front LED's Jewel Color Chrome Black Blue Blue Chrome Dr. Blue Blue Blue Silver Silver Purple Purple Chrome Black Purple Purple Silver Silver UV UV Chrome Black UV UV Red Blue Red Red Red Gld./Org. Red Orange Silver Gold Orange Orange Hey, this is just a list of ideas. Use it if you like. If you're not, the go ahead, be creative, have fun! Anyway, it is your X-Box that you modding. (Gld. = Gold, UV = Black Light) -----------------------------\\-// 3. Basic Knowledge and Tools xxx -----------------------------//-\\ a. Things to Know LED's: Just to let you know, the positive leg is small on the inside, negative is big. ____ / \ | _ | ||/ || || || +----+ | | Negative--->| | | |<---Positive | | | | | You should also find that the LED's positive leg is slightly longer. Soldering: Although it is possible to do most of these mods without soldering, it is good to know how because you will need to do some soldering in some of these mods. Wiring: Hey, I'm not asking you to be a mega genius at wiring and electronics, and I am telling you basically what to do, but it never hurts to know, or at least sort of know what you are doing. Painting: Well, I can tell you how to paint the damn thing, but you should at least know how to correctly paint, or have someone else who does know what they are doing paint it for you, 'cause you can ruing a good case with some bad painting if you know what I mean. b. Things to Have Torx Set (Not going to go into exact sizes, just do yourself a favor and get the set). Dremel Tool With: Cleaning, and Grinding/Sanding sets Soldering Iron Solder Flux (Optional) Hot Glue Gun (Preferably with Glue) Spray-Paint Wires Resistors LEDS (Everything else needed will be addressed with the mod itself) ------------\\-// 3. The Mods xxx ------------//-\\ -----------------------------------\\-// a. Opening and Examining the X-Box xxx -----------------------------------//-\\ Tools Required: 1 Torx Set Alright, before we can actually mod, we should get inside the X-Box and see whats inside, MmmmmKay. First Look for the screws here: Diag. 1 :::Legend::: :::S=Screw +----------------------------------+ |S S| | +-------+ | | | S | | | +-------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------+ | | | S | | |S +-------+ S| +----------------------------------+ The screws on the squares are under the stickers and the corner onesare under the pads. Lift up and were in business. See the aluminum casing, well, you can get rid of it once you pop it off of the case if you want. what you should see on the inside is this. Diag. 2 :::Legend::: :::|, /, \, -, and "=" = Wires :::v = Plugin Ports :::Connecting Points A --BACK-- ||Yellow Wire || Gray Ribbon || ========================= || ///// =========A\\\\\A=== || ||||| // ||||| \\ vv vvvvv VV vvvvv || +---------------+ +------------------+ || | | | | || | | | | || | | | | || | | | | || | | | | || | DVD Drive | | Hard Drive | || | | | | vv | | | | Power | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------------+ +------------------+ --FRONT-- To get the drives out, you'll need to hit some screws around the outside of each drive. Once you have the drives out, you should see somthing like this. Diag. 3 --BACK-- +-------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | Mother-Board | | | | | | | | | +-------------------------------------------+ | Daughter-Board | +-1--------2-----------------3------------4-+ Controller-Ports --FRONT-- If you want to take the front plate off, first, look for a yellow wire group connected near the daughter-board, unplug that, then unplug the controller port wires from the daughter-board. Now, pry out each side of the front plate until it pops out. Congrats, you successfully took apart your X-Box, wasn't that easy. Now, you are ready for som real modding. ---------------------\\-// b. Painting the Case xxx ---------------------//-\\ Tools Required: 2 Cans of Spray Paint (Preferably Krylon for Plastic) 1 Roll of Masking Tape 1 Rag 1 Bowl of Warm Water and Dish Soap Mix 1 Craft Knife 1 Torx Set 1 Flathead Screwdriver 1 Ball of Blu-Tac Now we are ready to make our X-Box look cool. First, after taking off the case of the X-Box, wash off the case using the rag, and the dish soap water mix. Let it air dry before you continue. Next, decide what two colors you will use. For this mod, we will refer to the "X" part of the case as the primary color and the other parts the secondary color. Next paint the whole case using the SECONDARY color. Make sure you do at least 3 coats, and remember, DO NOT USE TOO MUCH PAINT!!! Let each coat dry inside in a well ventilated area. After you finish that color, tape all secondary colored areas with the masking tape. Use the craft knife to get a nice clean cut. Also cover the Jewel, because you REALLY do not want to paint the outside of it. Now, paint the rest of it with the PRIMARY color. After you are done with that, peel off the tape and your done! Now for the front plate. As you did in the first section, pop the front plate. Continue to paint as you did with the top cover. To get the DVD drive cover out, just pry the side with a small flathead screwdriver until it comes out, this part will be primary. To get the back, simply use some Blu-Tac to cover the ports. It will probably be best to have the cover on at this point and have masked the top part of the cover to ensure not getting paint on it. Make sure you leave some tac left outside of the port so you can grab hold of it. Paint that and guess what? You're done! Now we can get on to Part C (If you want the LED's Red), Part D (If you want the LED's to be another color other than red), or Part E (If you want the front LED's green) ----------------------------------\\-// c. Changing the Font LED's to Red xxx ----------------------------------//-\\ Tools Required: 1 Torx Set 1 Flathead Screwdriver 1 small Needle Alright, lets just skip to the chase, this is a damn easy mod, so lets get to it. Open the box and get to the mother board ( take the drives out). Pop the LED wires and the controller ports and pop off the front cover. Now, see the chip on the front? Take that out by just pushing the Tab and pulling it out. Now, see where the wires are connected to the chip? Notice the numbers on the wires. 1, and 9. Now, find 8 and 7, 6 and 5. We are going to switch these. Use a small needle or somthing to push back the tabs holding the lil suckers in to get to the wires. Make sure you switch the wires on the end that plugs in. The new order should be: Old: 123456789 New: 123465879 Plug her back in, get you X-Box put together, and WOW, your front LED's should now be an evil Red. Majik I tells ya. ----------------------------\\-// d. Changing the Front LED's xxx ----------------------------//-\\ Tools Required: 1 Torx Set 1 Flathead Screwdriver 1 Soldering Iron 1 Roll of Solder 1 Can of Flux (Optional) 2 3mm LED's (Your Choice of Color) Just to make things clear, this mod is for anyone who wants LED's that are not Red, or Green. This time you will need to install your own Diodes. Open the box and get to the mother board ( take the drives out). Pop the LED wires and the controller ports and pop off the front cover. Now, see the chip on the front? Take that out by just pushing the Tab and pulling it out. Now you should have the LED board. Okay, look at the LED's; see anything odd? The LED's have three legs! This will make a few problems but don't worry, we can get it to work (If you have the wires in a different order [changing the LED's to red] switch them back, I don't know if it really effects anything so it's always good to be safe with your X-Box). Now, cut the existing LED's out, preserving as much of the legs as possible. Now, there will be a special way to soldering the LED's so pay attention to the diagram. Diag. 4 :::Legend::: :::R = Red LED Wire :::G = Green LED Wire :::M = Middle Leg :::(+) = Positive :::(-) = Negative :::E = Eject Button :::P = Power Button +-------------------+ | | | G(+) E R | | M(-) (-)M | | R P (+)G | | | +-------------------+ If you have soldered it correctly, It should work just fine. Make sure that nothing is touching the Red LED wire. If you do not know how to solder, just have a friend who does know how do it for you. If the connections are bad, big deal! It just won't light up. Just find out whats wrong, and fix it. Now its on to the fun stuff, lighting the Jewel. -----------\\-// 5. Credits xxx -----------//-\\ I would like to thank: Me, for writing the guide www.xbox-scene.com, for teaching me to mod my box Microsoft, for hours of mind-melting fun Krylon, for awesome paint LSDiodes.com, for cool diodes Direction.com, for the awesome Cathodes Notepad, for the good text editor My mom, for giving birth to me Everyone that has read this mod, because without you, I have done this for no reason at all. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Copyright, 2004 confedx19 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=