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[eternicode]

I'm new to the world of hardmodding, but I've read enough that says this should be working.

I've spliced an XBox male connector to a USB female connector.  I'm trying to use it with a 1GB SanDisk U3 Micro Cruzer, which is supposed to be compatible, but the light on the flash drive doesn't light up when I plug it into the XBox.  I've checked the +5V and ground cables, and they're connected fine, but still no power.  And the XBox isn't saying anything about it, either.

The USB cable I'm using has nonstandard colors (blue, brown, yellow, and red).  I found this page that talks about it, and hooked the cables up according to that: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=...amp;postcount=4

(IMG:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2565360132_1a482cbefd.jpg)
Bad picture, but you can see the color combos.

Am I doing something wrong, or is it simply beginner's bad luck?

This post has been edited by eternicode: Jun 9 2008, 07:37 PM

[obcd]

Hi,

maybe the wires aren't connected as they should be.

The 2 outer contacts of the USB connector are the 5V and GND wires. (They are longer than the other pin's to ensure they make contact first.

Be careful if you measure on them when the power is on. The shielding surrounding the connector is ground as well.

If you have a USB male to female cable (type A connector on both sides), you can plug it in a pc to see which side should be GND.

The two inner pins are the D+ and D- USB data wires. You can't break something if you connect this 2 the wrong way.

Your sandisk will only light up if it is recognised by the xbox. So, even when the power and ground are properly connected, it might not light up.

It is possible that you will need to remove the U3 software from the stick before the xbox will recognise it. It's annoying anyhow if you don't use it.

Some people say that 1.6 xboxes only recognise original memory devices. I have no idea if that is true or not.

regards.


This post has been edited by obcd: Jun 9 2008, 09:40 PM

[eternicode]

Thanks for the response.

According to http://www.xbox-linu..._Versions_HOWTO, I have a 1.0 XBox.

To the best of my knowledge, all the wires are properly connected.  I have the USB wires twisted inside the XBox wires.  I took off the tape to make sure they were all still connected.  Testing it now (without tape), it still doesn't work.  There are no shorts as far as I can tell.

I would doubt it, but would length have anything to do with it?  The dongle is about 6in long total.

Here in a little while, I'll see if I can test the power stream with a multimeter.

Also, the U3 software is long gone from this stick.

[eternicode]

OK, I just tested all the connections with a multimeter.

Turns out the brown USB wire was the GND, not the blue.  Blue was one of the data wires, not GND.  Swapped those, and now all 4 wires are showing throughput from the XBox end to the USB end, but the drive is still not recognized.

Are you sure mixing the data wires won't mess it up?  Because I think I also got those two switched :/

Edit: The MM also showed all 5V coming through.

This post has been edited by eternicode: Jun 10 2008, 12:22 AM

[eternicode]

Oooook....  that's not right...

Well, after "discovering" those "errors", I decided to go ahead and put the other half of the cable together (XBox female to USB male) using the same cable combos.  I plugged the whle thing together, plugged a controller into it, and tried it on the XBox.  No luck.  So I stuck the USB into a computer...and nothing happened.  So I hook it back up to my good breakaway cable, plug it into the XBox, and the thing starts vibrating (I'm in the dashboard atm).  I pick it up off the table to make the noise stop, and it smells burnt.  Like electronic burn.  The smell's coming from the memory card slots.  And the controller won't do anything but sit here vibrating while it's plugged in.

So...I guess I have the 5V and GND wires backward?  Would switching GND and a data wire cause this?

Any info would be great, considering I just fried a controller I'm gonna take the controller apart now and see what I can see...

Edit: The thing that burned was a little diode thingy with an "L2" by it.

[eternicode]

Ooooh crap.   I just did some googling for USB pin diagrams:


A lot of them say the same as this one: that the far-right pin is the 5V, and far left is GND.   Using the multimeter, I've found that the GND pin is connected to the red wire on the old USB, and the 5V pin to the brown wire.  This makes no sense, but I guess it would explain my fried controller, running power through it backwards.

I just checked my flash drive and, well... it didn't like the backwards power either looks like I totally fried my 1 gig.  

Edit: just switched the wiring so the proper GND and 5V connections were made, and it works now.  Meaning the flash drive lights up and the fried controller vibrates.  Still can't believe one little misinformation fried my hardware