Author Topic: Xbox One Controller Breakdown and LED Swap (Read 41044 times)

Modded Matt · « **on:** December 20, 2013, 09:23:48 PM »

Xbox One Controller Breakdown and LED Swap

Introduction
Here I will walk you through the steps of cracking open that shiny new controller and install a new LED.

Parts Needed

0805 SMD LED of choice
What ever mod you are doing

Tools Needed

Security T8 torx screwdriver
T4 torx screw driver or 1.5mm Allen
plastic pry bar/auto trim tool/stiff thin plastic

Difficulty rating: 1/5

Average Time to Complete: i.e 30-45mins

Notes:
There are two difficult steps here. Removing the screw covers at the beginning and pulling the bottom board out of the top shell are both difficult steps. Take your time and don't force it.

Step By Step Tutorial
1- The fist step is one of the hardest. You will have to pry the shell apart to remove the cover hiding the screws. You will want to use a plastic tool of some kind to do this because you don't want to leave marks in the plastic when you pry it apart. a plastic pry bar from a auto body trim set would be best, but a thin stiff piece of plastic will work. I found using two pieces works well one to pop up and hold up each side of the cover so it does not re-engage itself. start prying the crack up working from the trigger opening towards the grip of the controller. It feels like your going to break it, but I haven't broken one yet.

2- After removing both side screw covers, you will now use your security T8 screw driver to remove the five screws shown below:

3- Once the screws are removed, the top face will lift off freely

4. Now pop the back plate off

5. Put the top and bottom shell in a safe place so you can get to work on the main section of the controller. You will need to desolder all four rumbles from the joystick board. Remove the two main rumbles and set them aside.

6. Next you will need what I believe is a T4 screw driver (my set did not go that low I used a 1.5MM allen wrench) to remove two screws holding the joystick board to the inner frame:

7. Now separate the two PCB boards from each other by lifting the joystick board straight up so not to damage the two connection headers:

8. Remove the six T4 screws holding the button board to the inner frame:

9. Now that the button board is loose, you will need to remove it from the shell. This step makes me nervous because its a tight fit and feels like its going to break. You need to lift up on the bottom of the board and pull it back from the top plate. Pull up on the top plate to help free the board.

10. With the Button board removed, you can change the LED. I used the flood/float method to remove the old LED without damaging the pads. When installing the new LED the positive side is on the left.

11. After swapping the LED, connect the two boards together

12. Put them in the bottom shell. Insert the batteries and test your LED.

13. as long as the LED turns on, Put the controller back together and enjoy. you will need to separate the two boards to reassemble the button board and the inner frame. Make sure the button pad is in the proper place.

FAQ/ Troubleshooting

the button board gets hung up on the play and charge port during both disassemble and reassembly. be careful not to damage the board.
If your LED is not working or not as bright as it should be, add solder to the connection pads of the LED

Modded Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2013, 09:25:02 PM »

~~need to fix img links tomorrow. Im too tired now.~~

Thanks GhoSt

1TONpete · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2013, 03:42:57 AM »

Nice work Matt. With everyone focused on Rf , basic mods like these need to be broken down first.

Modded Matt · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2013, 05:26:01 AM »

Everyone plays a roll, mine is documentation and instalation. The other guys need to figure out the rapid fire.

laxboy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2013, 01:09:01 PM »

Wow they really did not want people getting into the controllers. Time to get some LEDS and a xbox one......

RDC · « **Reply #5 on:** December 21, 2013, 04:23:10 PM »

The smaller Torx screws are T7.

The 0603 size LEDs will fit as well, so there's no need to get a new pile of 0805 for anyone that already has a pile of the 0603.

The Button/Power board can also be removed without having to desolder the Rumble motors and taking the MCU board out. Alternately one could just desolder the left or right side motors and then just swing the board out of the way.

The biggest hang up taking the Button/Power board out and then reinstalling it this way are the LB and RB Tacts. The board was designed to be installed straight down, then likewise removed straight up, so that angle and slide method here makes them hang up big time.

No disrespect to that method Matt, but it's really worth it to go the little bit longer way (which ends up being shorter since there's no issue removing/installing the Button/Power board) and remove the Bumpers first, unclip them at the bottom, then the top and they slide out. Then remove the center piece that's covering the Guide button, unclip it from the top while pressing the Guide button down and it will come right off. The only thing to watch is make sure you don't lose the small Sync button while the center piece is removed. It has a small grove in the plastic frame that it sits in, so it's just best to remove it after taking the center piece off and setting it to the side so it doesn't get lost. Then you'll have no issues removing and reinstalling the Button/Power board, and everything that was unclipped just snaps back together in the reverse order.

Rodent · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2013, 04:46:02 PM »

Thanks for the update RDC both will help members and also if members have both 0805 and 0603 they now know they can use both if needed

great tutorial also

Modded Matt · « **Reply #7 on:** December 21, 2013, 04:54:20 PM »

I was worried id break the bumpers prying them up.

RDC · « **Reply #8 on:** December 21, 2013, 04:57:48 PM »

They're pretty hefty and only need to move about 1.5mm to release from the plastic post. You'd have to keep prying on them past the point that it's necessary to release them to break them.

Modded Matt · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2013, 07:38:49 PM »

I pulled them off and lifted off the x button bezel this made installation of the button board much easier.

chevy2nova68 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 04, 2014, 01:37:43 PM »

@RDC So in my first attempt to mod and Xbox One controller, I think that i may have made a mistake while de-soldering my power LED. I either messed up the solder point or??? I have no idea. Is there a way to fix the solder point, or solder a small wire to another point for power? Everything functions on the controller EXCEPT for the power LED. It's not a big deal to me just a small annoyance that i would like to fix if it is possible. If needed I can include some pictures of the board if needed. Am I SOL?

Thanks for the help!

JYount · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2015, 11:18:38 AM »

Do you have any tips on adding LEDs to the ABXY buttons on the XB1?

RDC · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2015, 12:39:51 PM »

@checy2nova68 - Sorry I missed your post. Just trace back from the lifted pad and you'll come to a Via, pretty much right next to the pad, prep it and solder a wire there.

@JYount - Putting LEDs in the XB1 buttons is a bit of a pain. You'll have to tediously Dremel out the back of the button to remove the opaque black plastic and get to the clear plastic that the lettering is in, without hacking thru the entire thing at any spot or cutting up the lettering. Then depending on the look you're after, frosted leave it as is because it will be from the Dremel work, or more water clear make sure it's as clean as can be and use some kind of filler inside the button, clear coat, hot glue or epoxy. I'd also recommend not using 3mm LEDs, as they will get installed too far into the smaller buttons and you don't get as much light spread out on the inside of the button. Use some SMT LEDs as they will sit farther down in the button and you'll get more of the inside of the button lit up.

B and A with the black plastic removed, but A is filled (crappily) with hot glue. It would look a lot better if I'd taken more time on it to both clean it out better and fill it more evenly, but it shows the differences.

Note: LED pics look worse than they really are, as the 0603 is much more even looking in real life.

3mm LED

SMT 0603 LED

JYount · « **Reply #13 on:** March 03, 2015, 01:07:39 PM »

Awesome! Thanks for that great info. I originally planned on using 3mm LEDs, but I now agree the 0605's look much better. How do you think 0805's would look? I have a bunch of those ill try out later.

I originally wanted to do something like this one. This is by a seller off Ebay and I havn't quite figured out how to do the ABXY buttons this way.

Anyways, thanks for all that great info. Should help out when I start my build here shortly.

@checy2nova68 - I actually did the same thing with my first replacement. One thing to consider is to keep the wire to the via at a low profile. The first time I soldered the wire it was a little too large and caused issues with the button press.

RDC · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2015, 02:50:26 PM »

The 0805 would be fine as well. Any LED you can get mounted farther away from the lettering, so the light has a chance to spread out more will look better. The A, X and Y are really shallow for using a 3mm on, but the B button you could get away with one there, but if one is SMT they may as well all be.

Those could be custom buttons, as the Bumpers, Triggers and such are for sure. If they aren't, then they took a fair amount of time and only took the Dremel to the black behind the lettering.

Also, didn't mention it in the previous post, but use colored LEDs versus just all white ones. Using all white is on the one hand easier as they all need the same Resistor, but the difference between how they look versus using colored ones in there and figuring up the correct Resistor values is night and day better.

JYount · « **Reply #15 on:** March 03, 2015, 09:38:28 PM »

The 0805 should work fine for me. Soldering wires to those small led's are just a pain. I wired one up and was measuring a current draw of 0.35mA from the 0805 led. Does this sound about right?

RDC · « **Reply #16 on:** March 03, 2015, 09:54:59 PM »

Really depends on the LED, and Resistor used, so no way I could say that's an accurate rating for that LED or not. Some of those things only need 5mA to work.

Use masking tape to hold the little thing down. Turn it upside down and cover half of it with the tape, so that only one end sticks out, it will make tacking on your wires so easy you'll wonder why you haven't been doing that from the start.

Modded Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2015, 05:34:29 AM »

same controller is also here, but with ABXY chaser. https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,43242.0.html

AS RDC stated, I dremeled the buttons out and they are frosted. I also used a different LED color for each button with its own resistor.

Its also important to note that when you dremel out the buttons, leave a small ring from where the black filler is. This is so after you install your led and come time to fill the buttons back up, you know where to stop with your new filler. too much filler and it will hold the button down, too little filler and the buttons are sloppy.

JYount · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2015, 07:46:02 PM »

What gauge wire do you recommend? I'm having issues where my wires always break off the 0805 pads or pull the entire pad off completely.

RDC · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2015, 08:26:49 PM »

I'd use a 28awg or so.

Try not to use any solid wire, as it's going to be moving from the button being pressed over and over. Try and get a stranded type as it will hold up much longer there. Also leave some slack between the button and board with the wiring, so that the movement is across more than some tiny amount of the wiring for both more strain relief as well as helping the wire not act as a drag or bind on the buttons.

JYount · « **Reply #20 on:** March 28, 2015, 10:44:15 AM »

Hello, I have had much progress in my LED modifications. I have added the ABXY buttons, d-pad, thumbsticks, and I am working on the bumpers/triggers now. I will post some pictures when I get it all finished up. I'm sure I already know the answer to this, but am curious anyway. My abxy buttons are blue, green, yellow, red, so those I understand needing their own resistor. Since for the rest of my leds I am only using red, is there any way to not have so many resistors inside?

RDC · « **Reply #21 on:** March 28, 2015, 01:05:00 PM »

You can use a single Resistor on multiple LEDs, but only ones that are all from the same batch (so they are the same color and close enough ratings, even though they never are) but then the Watt rating of the Resistor may need to go up (so it's larger) as you'll have multiple LEDs on it.

It's not the best practice to do that as if there is any issue with 1 LED in the circuit it messes with all of the other ones. Just use smaller Resistors per LED, 1/8W or even SMT.

kriscash2007 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 27, 2015, 09:15:59 PM »

Hi, I'm trying to see if there is a way to get my LED on the home button to light. Everything works except the button.

RDC · « **Reply #23 on:** July 28, 2015, 12:32:20 AM »

Take a Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol and clean all the flux off it first, then get another pic so people can see what's really there, or not.

kriscash2007 · « **Reply #24 on:** July 28, 2015, 10:57:32 AM »

This is the board after I cleaned it. Is there anything I can do to get it going. I know for one that me soldering iron is way to hot but everything else works with the controller.

RDC · « **Reply #25 on:** July 28, 2015, 02:55:01 PM »

You've burnt the pad off there for the LED. You'll need to prep the via at the right of D19 and use it, or on the back of the board solder a small wire at the top spot of Q3 (side with only 1 lead) and run it to the front and connect it to the LED.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?/topic/512248-broken-trace/#entry3406983

kriscash2007 · « **Reply #26 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:08:06 PM »

Would a piece of speaker wire work for the q3 connection?

RDC · « **Reply #27 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:30:04 PM »

If your speaker wire is 28awg ~ 30awg then that's fine, anything larger and you're making more work for yourself and running the risk of causing more issues.

kriscash2007 · « **Reply #28 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:46:57 PM »

I got it working, thanks for your help man.

RDC · « **Reply #29 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:56:35 PM »

Welcome.

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Author Topic: Xbox One Controller Breakdown and LED Swap (Read 41044 times)