Kyle'->GetThoughts();



Lan Party - Xbox Modding
21 March 2005 @ 07:26 PM MST
Current Music: Nadda - work
Current Mood: Not too shabby
So on Friday we had a LAN Party, it was pretty good. PC Club came and dropped off a bunch of Door Prizes. We had UT2K4 tournament, but my team wasn't very good, and we lost. I got pretty sick of First Person Shooters, and thoroughly enjoyed some WCIII later in the evening. Which reminds me, I still need to buy WCIII: Frozen Throne. I got a little bank of 3 Blue LEDs from the Door Prize selection.

I, of course, went straight to work with those things, first by breaking them out of their little housing. Then I took apart my Xbox and popped the jewel off the top (the little Xbox logo, that's in plastic and is green). This is accomplished by setting the top in the freezer for an hour or so and then using a flat-headed screwdriver to pry it off. Then I took the bus to Lowe's (this was all on Saturday) and bought a cordless Dremel rotary tool. After that charged up I sanded off all the green paint on the bottom of the jewel, and then polished it up a little bit, so it's fairly clear, with a little bit of diffusion in the plastic. Then I cut out a hole underneath where the jewel sits, so that it has a lip around the edge to support it.

I plugged the LEDs into the power from the harddrive (they had a pass-through MOLEX connector) and then ran them up into the space under the jewel hole. Oh yah, I also had to cut a hole through the aluminum heat dissapater that is part of the top cover. I took some cellophanish material (actually a fruit bag from the grocery store) and crumpled up part of it and placed it over the LEDs. Then I placed the Jewel back on top, and taped it down. I will eventually glue the jewel back on, but I'm waiting to get my hot glue gun from Erin's place. I also went and switched the leads on the power LED so that it glows red instead of green when you turn it on. You can see some pictures here, and here, and here

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