USB Toys and You: An in-depth look.

I was poking around on the forums today, and I saw a post where a guy linked to a Tut that featured a "homemade" AR mod for upping gamesaves to your xbox.

Here's the picture of "The finished article":

My God!! Somebody actually posted instructions on how TO MAKE THIS on the internet. I would be completely and utterly embarrassed to have that anywhere near one of my pieces of electronics. It's not that I'm a snob, it's that I know I can make a better adapter than this without any more work. And I'll show you how.

Here are a few of my adapters, and a quick explanation of how they work. I apologize right away for not having full pictures of the manufacturing process...I'm writing this after the fact, so the pictures I have I got by disassembling these guys again.

Oh, and when I say match the colors, I mean match the colors. It's simple...red-red, yellow-yellow, etc.

USB-Xbox Adapter V. 1

This was one of my most basic attempts at making an adapter for using flash drives, portable HDD's, or USB keyboards and mice with my xbox.

As you can see, the male end gets chopped off a xbox controller, and just spliced it to the device end of another USB cable, matching the colors.

(I then attached a 4-port hub I had lying around to the male end, giving the 4-port USB cable.)

Pretty simple. The wires are just spliced together by hand, and then the splice laid one-way along the cable so that it can be taped without any ends protruding.

USB-XBOX Connecter V.2

For this one, I was a little more particular about how I made the adapter. I wanted something that looked like it was factory-made, and I think I got pretty close.

To build, you'll need:

Male plug from an Xbox controller
Standard Female Plug for USB (long rectangular)

Soldering Iron
Desoldering Braid (not necessary, but it helps)
Solder
Small Regular Screwdriver (or anything else you can pry with)
Electrical Tape

Again, you cut the male end off of a regular controller, getting it as close to the plug as possible. There's no need to save any cable from the XBOX plug for this, because it's all going to be removed anyway.

Now, very carefully, use a small regular screwdriver to pry open the plastic casing around the ends. It's just snapped together, so once you get it started, it comes apart quite easily.



Now, the whole assembly should pull right out of the plug.

You then need to use your trusty screwdriver to ever-so-gently pry open the housing on the shielding that surrounds our plug. Loosen the two sides, and then lift the lid up and towards the wire.



The shielding is also connected to the wire via a little ring at the hinge-point. (Third picture, right beneath the first layer of electrical tape)

Go ahead and just hack that baby outta there...because again, the wire doesn't matter. You can also slide the rubber support piece off the wire, but save it for later.

Just don't hurt the shielding.

You then de-soldered the xbox cable from the 4 pins inside the plug housing. It really doesn't take much to get the connections off.




You then strip your new cable so that you've got about 1/8" of wire exposed on each piece.

MAKE SURE TO PUT THE RUBBER SUPPORT BACK ON BEFORE YOU SOLDER.

Once the support is on, Re-solder the points in the order shown above.

(For the input end, I used an extender cable that came with a Targus Wireless Mouse. You can basically use anything else you happen to find with a female USB end on it.)

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0534153&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dg c=SS&cid=28139&lid=644115

Before taping it all back together, re-attach the shielding piece, making sure it's good and tight.

For insulation, look at the pictures for a pretty good idea. Inside the housing, you use just enough electrical tape to support the wires, but not so much that you can't slide the rubber support back over it.

Once that's taped, you slide the support over, snap the whole thing back together, and then give one final wrap of tape around the end tight to the support, which ensures that it won't slide around, or stress the wires.

Final product:




And lastly...

AR device/Wireless reciever/controller hub for PC

REQUIRES NO SOLDERING


I designed this baby to be a kind of Jack-of-all trades device for the PC. It features 2 memory card ports, a Standard Male USB plug, and a female quick-connect end for hooking up a regular controller.

To build, you'll need:

(Wireless Reciever) - Logitech Xbox Cordless Precision Controller
Female Quickconnect
Std. Male USB plug (long rectangular)

Phillips screwdriver
Wire stripper
Electrical tape
Nail File

Action Replay Software:
http://uk.codejunkies.com/downloads/...Ssetup1_31.zip

Xbox-PC Controller Drivers:
http://www.redcl0ud.com/files/XBCDv103.exe

The body of the unit is from a Logitech Xbox Cordless Precision Controller, which sells for about $30 on Amazon.com. You can probably use other receivers, but this one has ample room inside, and is easy to disassemble.

For this, all you do is hack of the standard end that attaches the reciever to the Xbox. (the male plug)

You then open the bottom of the unit by removing the three screws.




Use a 1/8" drillbit to drill a second hole in the housing to the left of the main one. This is best accomplished by screwing the housing back together without the wires, PCB, or memcard holder in it.



(It's hard to tell here, but I used the GF's nail file to clean the burrs off the hole after I drilled it)

Strip off the ends of the three wires you've got. This means the one that's attached to the reciever, the USB cable, and the Quickconnect plug.

Being careful not to stress the point where the main wire connects to the PCB, splice the three together, again, matching the colors. When spliced and taped properly, everything should fit into the housing as such:






(Note the piece of tape over the PCB to keep the wires from pulling)

Once everything fits right, snap the cover back together, tighten the screws, and you've got yourself a cool new toy.


Again...sorry I couldn't give better pictures. Hopefully, what's here will be enough to give you the right idea.

[AzzidReign]

Freakin' awesome!! Good job!

[jomal206]

Yeah that looks pretty nice

I was looking for a tut like this back when I played my softmodded xbox a lot for an external USB to save games...

[AzzidReign]

Stickied.

[the_xfactor_9999]

I have a quick question: Have you tried to use your USB Xbox controller with your computer? If so, did it work?

[Insomniac190]

Originally Posted by the_xfactor_9999

I have a quick question: Have you tried to use your USB Xbox controller with your computer? If so, did it work?

It should work with the right drivers. I have not used an Xbox controller on PC in a long time but I used to use it to play the GTA:MP online mod for Vice City and it worked great.

[digitalhigh]

Originally Posted by the_xfactor_9999

I have a quick question: Have you tried to use your USB Xbox controller with your computer? If so, did it work?

XBox Controller Driver

Should work with the wireless adapter too.