A new one

[Mittns]

Hello.

I'm from Germany, soon in my mid 30s, electrician and love electronics, programming, tinkering and everything that has to do with automation.

After several years, i wanted to play on my old xbox again.
Since I also wanted to have fun tinkering with it too, I got myself two xboxes, as my old one fell victim to the clock capacitor and took some components with it.

The time and effort of ordering the missing parts, repairing the circuit tracks and testing everything wasn't worth it for me, so i bought two new xboxes.

 

Now i have two 1.6b boards, a black one and a crystal in good condition.

Also a lot of spare parts like 4 dvd drives, shells and other components.

I pick out the best parts from everything and then build a decent Xbox.

 

The black one serves as a test subject and if everything works as I imagine, the mods will be built into the Crystal.

 

Currently i'm using my SmartXX LT OPX and the Cerbios 2.4.1. 

It's a good modchip that has never caused any problems back in the day.
Multiple banks, easy to install and has its own menu with settings.

 

Done: 

-Soldered the SmartXX LT OPX directly to the board on the bottom side

-Replaced new thermal paste (Arctic MX4) for CPU and GPU -> Reduced temps. ~2-3°C

-Removed 2 0-ohm resistors from the cpu -> Reduced temps ~7-8°C (Now 56°C with load -> before ~66-67°C) Thanks to @eeksdee

-Replaced 40-Wire to 80-Wire IDE cable

-Added IDE to SATA adapter (green one) (I have 3 working adapter, you don't need an overpriced startech adapter but you need at least the 80-wire ide cable.)

-Replaced the hdd with a 2,5" 1tb ssd

-Bought an ElectronXout hdmi adapter (Tested several adapters, the black levels were bad in all cases except ElectronXout)

 

 

Planned:

 

-Fan Upgrade (

I'm currently building a frame for a 70mm fan in Tinkercad without having to mill anything away.

 

-Ram Upgrade 

Waiting for delivery

 

-Find a solution for the high power draw in standby (5-6W!)

Maybe the 3V3 to the SmartXX causes the high power draw, i need to test.

If so, I will install a 3V3 voltage regulator and take the voltage from the 5V of the psu, which is only switched on when the Xbox is turned on.

 

-Replace the two front led's with adressable led's and build in a microcontroller

Arduino or rp2040 or something similar.

I want to equip the LEDs with a smoother effect when they are on/off/color changing.

The program (currently for my rp2040) is almost ready and also working 90%.

 

-Find a psu replacement (Maybe)

Maybe build my own solution.

 

The plan is to make everything look as original as possible, just with some mods and optimizations.

 

So far so good, that’s all from me for now.

Edited August 29, 2024 by Mittns

[nikeymikey]

Welcome. 

Sounds like you have big plans for that xbox. 

One thing I would say is that if you want to use UDMA 5 or even 6 then you do need a Startech adapter or one of the upcoming community designed ones that are currently in design/testing. I am not sure if those will end up being any cheaper than a Startech though. 

I have always ran Startechs in my main consoles, never had an issue. But recently I've been testing a few of the green (M03) adapters that I had laying around in a spares box. So far 2 have been ok, managing to support up to UDMA 4 but the other two have died on me after a week or so of use.

[Mittns]

 

5 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Sounds like you have big plans for that xbox. 

Yes.

I have a lot of ideas and a 3D printer just standing around.
Let's see what else I can come up with.

I also want to try my hand at PCB design, if i find some time.

 

I first considered installing the HDMI chip from MakeMhz, as I always prefer native video signals.
However, the price + shipping is quite expensive.
I also don't like closed source projects.
The Stellar project seems good and has a lot of features, but you are dependent and you can't change anything yourself, I don't like that.

 

4 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

One thing I would say is that if you want to use UDMA 5 or even 6 then you do need a Startech adapter or one of the upcoming community designed ones that are currently in design/testing. I am not sure if those will end up being any cheaper than a Startech though. 

The question is whether there is actually a noticeable increase in speed.
I am currently on udma 4 and the speed, just because of the SSD, is actually quite OK.

Many people say that an ssd is not much faster than an HDD, but I can't confirm that.
You can notice a certain increase in speed, especially in the menus.

Of course, the faster access time of an ssd is not comparable to that of an slow HDD (even with 7200rpm).

+less heat

+less noise

+less power draw/consumption

 

4 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

I have always ran Startechs in my main consoles, never had an issue. But recently I've been testing a few of the green (M03) adapters that I had laying around in a spares box. So far 2 have been ok, managing to support up to UDMA 4 but the other two have died on me after a week or so of use.

Try to re-solder all pins.

The soldering of these adapters are sometimes really bad. (Mine are the ones with the jumper for master/slave)

All threee of mine works with udma 4 without problems.

 

 

[nikeymikey]

Already reflowed all solder on the adapters before installing. Not my first rodeo

[Mittns]

hmm, did you measure the capacitors (if you use hdd)?
There aren't that many components on it. (Unless the controller is defective)

The QC sticker is also a nice placebo component. 

And 80-wire is definitely a must, I couldn't get any of the adapters to work with the 40-wire.

[nikeymikey]

7 hours ago, Mittns said:

hmm, did you measure the capacitors (if you use hdd)?
There aren't that many components on it. (Unless the controller is defective)

The QC sticker is also a nice placebo component. 

And 80-wire is definitely a must, I couldn't get any of the adapters to work with the 40-wire.

For the small amount of money I paid for them, I just chucked them in the bin. No big deal. Just bought some more Startechs and went on

[Mittns]

11 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

For the small amount of money I paid for them, I just chucked them in the bin. No big deal. Just bought some more Startechs and went on

I had a Startech adapter that went up in smoke when I went from master to slave (for chimp).
What I want to say is, the adapters aren't really premium either, except the price (and the controller is better).

 

I now know that the green ones have problems with the 40-wire cables, i found out after hours of trying.
The Xbox boots 1 out of 20 times, even without dvd drive, i almost went crazy.

But with the 80-wire cable it worked straight away, maybe that's why they have a bad reputation because people haven't tried it with 80-wire cables.

I've seen many on reddit using startech adapters with 40-wire.

[nikeymikey]

23 minutes ago, Mittns said:

I had a Startech adapter that went up in smoke when I went from master to slave (for chimp).
What I want to say is, the adapters aren't really premium either, except the price (and the controller is better).

 

I now know that the green ones have problems with the 40-wire cables, i found out after hours of trying.
The Xbox boots 1 out of 20 times, even without dvd drive, i almost went crazy.

But with the 80-wire cable it worked straight away, maybe that's why they have a bad reputation because people haven't tried it with 80-wire cables.

I've seen many on reddit using startech adapters with 40-wire.

An 80 wire cable should be used with EVERY SATA adapter as standard, regardless which adapter it is. Anyone using a 40 wire should expect issues, its as simple as that. 

 

As for your adapter going up in smoke, nothing is perfect 100% of the time. I have 4 Startechs that have been in use for at least the last 5 years and still going strong. Also tbh there is no need to use Chimp anymore now that FatXplorer exists. It's a much safer AND easier way of upgrading/building a new hdd. 

[Mittns]

6 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Also tbh there is no need to use Chimp anymore now that FatXplorer exists. It's a much safer AND easier way of upgrading/building a new hdd

Yes, it's easier and faster to copy data because you can mount the partition directly in windows with fat explorer. 

But copy data or create a new hdd is also easily possible with onboard tools or from the AIO installer disc. 

But just for copying data faster isn't worth 30€ to me, even for the great fatxplorer.

And let's be honest, how often do you create a new HDD?

 

In FTP I only get around 10-11mb/s, but then you can just leave the Xbox running in the background.