Starting a new project

[Blacknight94]

Well i just traded away my old case to a friend of mine cause i thought it looked like . So, now I have a fresh white xbox . Im going to be painting the case and the faceplate a very bright blue, and leaving the power button, memory door a and b, the sync button, and the usb door white. I need ideas for a window (creative ones here..) and I already have the blue RoL on my xbox, so thats covered. What i do want to ask is, will wiring leds in the hdd and making a window get me banned from XBL? I still want to be able to play, and im not worried about the window, just the leds in the HDD. My other question is, can you wire leds IN your 360 without getting banned from XBL? I bought this aurora light kit but its pissing me off so im getting rid of it. I will post pics as i go along with this project. The reason i asked all this is because ive read that microsoft can read the voltage going in and out of your 360, which obviously leds will change. Any answers to my multiple questions and all feedback will be greatly appreciated. And if anyone here can find a page that tells me what hardware modification i can do without getting banned it would be great, such as adding leds.

[Winterz117]

i was thinking about this, and i wantedto do the same thing, so i got the idea of making a 2 AA battery pack wired up with an on/off switch (or a fader) and then you could just run leds of that. maybe you need a bigger battery pack, but there is room in the 360 for that

[Blacknight94]

Well i want to be able to wire some leds in the HDD window, and i want to do some in the 360 too, but i dont want to unless im positive that i cant get banned from XBL for it. I will be painting my 360 today and tomorrow, so i will take pics as i go along.

[Winterz117]

what im saying is that if you use an external power source for your leds, IE the AA battery pack, it wont change the voltage coming from the xbox so there is no way microsoft will know unless you get the ring of death and send it to them!

[Blacknight94]

what im saying is that if you use an external power source for your leds, IE the AA battery pack, it wont change the voltage coming from the xbox so there is no way microsoft will know unless you get the ring of death and send it to them!

2 AA's isnt going to get me enough voltage for leds in the xbox.. especially if im going to have like 10 leds in the box, isnt that like 20V = 10 AA's? I wonder... and where the hell am i gonna fit that in the box? From what ive heard, adding leds to the HDD cant get me banned from XBL, does anyone care to clari/veri(fy)?

[802Chives]

LEDs in parralell, only need the forward voltage exceeded for one LED.  The only thing that limits you is max discharge of the batteries.

Check out:
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

fill in the forms and it spits out the design. If you use Blue Leds you could easily do this with 3 AA batteries to run 10 LEDs in parralell.  If they are Red, 2 AA batteries will suffice.

You are thinking in series, parrallel will get you further with less voltage, however battery life will be less than a series string with huge voltage.  Neither way is better than the other, just a trade off from amount of batteries to the life of batteries.

[Winterz117]

yeah parallel works really well, thats how i wire all of my leds in controllers and whatnot

[Blacknight94]

[quote name='Ktmrida4lyfe' date='Sep 7 2008, 07:52 PM' post='4339392']
Okay guys its been a while and im kinda busy with school starting and all but heres an update with a few pics... So far ive painted one side of the case, my hard drive, the faceplate, and the 2 pieces that go onto the bottom and top of the xbox.






Im not really sure what to do about the hdd window, i was going to make a flush fit as seen in the tutorial on xbox scene but ive tried 3 times and failed 3 times... so i dont know what to do about that... i will be putting 6 white leds in it though with a frosted window. I need some help with this, and does anyone have any good ideas for a window design to go in the side of the case? And as for lighting it im thinking about cutting a hole in the back of the case and running an external 12v power supply so i dont have to worry about getting banned from Xbox live, cause that keeps me entertained. Does anyone have any suggestions for that or know what type of wall supply ill need?
[/quote]

[Blazinkaos]

Very nice did you use certain type of paint meant for plastic.

[Winterz117]

great work dude it looks great

[Blacknight94]

Very nice did you use certain type of paint meant for plastic.

Yes I did I used Krylon Fusion for plastics, its my favorite paint now It drys very evenly even when your doing light coats. So, anyone have any window ideas?

[802Chives]

Looks good so far, for the window i would try an led effect like this guy did:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=142491

he used a 2 layer technique for 2 colors, but I think one would look pretty snazzy too.  I think he used Lexan plexi, but just about any plexi could probably work.  Not sure how he etched it, but would guess that a mask and a sand blaster would work, even a v groove made by a dremel tool would probably work for this effect.

try a practice piece to make sure the desired effect is achieved, as well as 1/4" thick plexi to accept all the LED light.  Been dying to see this done on 360 mod, I know there are some 2nd party cases that do this very thing with the masterchief.

Good luck

[Blazinkaos]

Yes I did I used Krylon Fusion for plastics, its my favorite paint now  It drys very evenly even when your doing light coats. So, anyone have any window ideas?

I thought you used every saying good thing bout it.

The window im willing try that so im all ears who knows how to do that.

802Chives this link http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=142491 that you just posted. I looked through it yea i kno that you cut a certain amount and mount the leds under so they only slow were the cuts are but adding another piece about without the leds interacting with the other lost me there.

[Blacknight94]

Looks good so far, for the window i would try an led effect like this guy did:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=142491

he used a 2 layer technique for 2 colors, but I think one would look pretty snazzy too.  I think he used Lexan plexi, but just about any plexi could probably work.  Not sure how he etched it, but would guess that a mask and a sand blaster would work, even a v groove made by a dremel tool would probably work for this effect.

try a practice piece to make sure the desired effect is achieved, as well as 1/4" thick plexi to accept all the LED light.  Been dying to see this done on 360 mod, I know there are some 2nd party cases that do this very thing with the masterchief.

Good luck

I dont know if I can do all that or not, it looks very freaking cool, but thats complicated. XD

[802Chives]

really simple guys, just need right tools to do it.

Forget about 2 colors of leds and start with one.  You would need to essentially aim the leds so the light goes into the side of the plexi glass, on all 4 sides.  I would guess 4 LEDs on each side would do it, more would have better effect.

Then "etch" or groove the window with sand blaster or dremal tool in the design you want, on the front of the window.  With any luck the parts that are "etched" will glow brilliantly like in that link I posted.  The deeper you go, the better the effect, also if it is fairly complex may want to "etch" certain features on the back so that they dont block each other.

If you need another color it will be another layer of plexi stacked with the first one with difernt color LEDs in the side of that layer with the features that you want "etched" into that piece.  The thread didn;t do a good job of explaining that.

Just give it a whirl on a practice piece, try to polish surface that led light goes into as best u can, and use a clear epoxy to glue LED in.
would be cool to see one of you try this

[Hazer]

Already did.

https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=20594.0

Its called edge-lighting. I did not go so far as the 2 color/2 sheet method, but I have a virgin X360 thats beggin for a Naruto Shippuuden theme. I am already working details in my head.

[Blazinkaos]

Already did.

https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=20594.0

Its called edge-lighting. I did not go so far as the 2 color/2 sheet method, but I have a virgin X360 thats beggin for a Naruto Shippuuden theme. I am already working details in my head.

I probably end up doing the way Hazer did it. But you etch to get the design in the plexi glass.. so is that like a chemical you guys used i believe.

[802Chives]

Hazer, you crafty devil.  The jack of all hacks.  Nice job on that wii, looks very clean. There you guys go, barring stained glass cathredral windows , that is one of the coolest window effects out there.

Stained glass zelda theme would be sick for wii, but thats just cuz I am old school.

[Hazer]

No chemicals. Just good old-school dremel action 

The project log shows some tips on how I did mine.

[Blazinkaos]

Nice... The project log do you have the link for it or is it already on this forum...

[Hazer]

Um.... in reply #15, that is the link to the project log on this forum.

[Blazinkaos]

ight thanks