Topic: Diy: Xenium External Led (Read 53 times)

moobar · « **on:** May 03, 2004, 10:59:00 AM »

README FIRST

Tired of waiting for the Xenium external LED kit that some websites are promissing? Well you can do it yourself for a few bucks maybe. Depends on what stuff you already have and need to complete it.

Sure, many of you will say you can see the light from the side so why bother. Well simply put, I was bored.., it looks cool.., and most importantly, because I can!

I finally got mines installed and it works great. Sure it wont use the "official" connector, but hell who knows when that will come out.

I purchased the Tri-Color LED from SuperBrightLEDS. They have 2 type, common anode and common cathode, you'll need to get the common anode LED, it runs about US$1.95 each.

The way installed my LED uses the 3.3v line, so with the LED running at around 2.0v to 3.5v we will just need to add some current limiting resistors. For the Blue and the Green I used 220ohm and the Red I used 2.2kohm as seen here.
PHOTO

The connector on the Xenium bunches together all 4 connections needed for the external LED, but heck I couldnt find any source for the connectors and I didnt even bother to ask OzXodus. So instead I decided to use 28awg wire, stripped from an old printer cable (oh the pretty colors). 28awg is just small enough to fit into the thru-holes on the Xenium. I spose you could use 30awg Kynar but my guess is that it would break sooner than later.

Here is the picture of where I connected to. The RGB connections marked near the on-board LED and the connector are the same points. They are after the transistor but before the resistors hence the need for the external resistors.
PHOTO

Here is a completed assembly ready for installing.
PHOTO

And it installed, you'll see the LED in the lower right corner, just above the power switch.
PHOTO

Im not sure if the pictures will show correctly, but give it a try. Its one of those free image hosting places.

Master-Chief · « **Reply #1 on:** May 03, 2004, 01:11:00 PM »

Pretty cool!

But I'd rather look at the side of the Xbox anyways!

wing456 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 06, 2004, 06:04:00 AM »

Nice...very neat work. I'm gonna have to try something like that. You should submit the tutorial so that it can be included in the Tutorials section.

nfs924 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2004, 01:46:00 AM »

thats cool, I'm going to try that...Thank!

moobar · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2004, 09:21:00 PM »

Thanks.

TIP: Find the right size of wire of wire first before doing anything else. This is key to using the PCB holes for soldering.
- Old printer cable usually has nice color selection
- Old mouse cable usually has small enough wire

I'll hunt down for where to submit it as a tutorial.

moobar · « **Reply #5 on:** June 03, 2004, 05:00:00 PM »

According to the videos released today it looks as though we may still get an 'official' external LED kit. Though Ive already done a dozen or so of these mods and am quite happy with the finished product.

Though the external PCB looks to hold more than just the LED, maybe an external connector for the LCD. That may have been the hold up with the kits release as the feature connector also houses the SPI ports.

But then again the PCB shown in the videos could just be a development tool.

EmperorPsiblade · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2004, 05:50:00 PM »

Excellent work!

Would a mod plz pin this!

moobar · « **Reply #7 on:** July 04, 2004, 03:41:00 PM »

For those of you wanting to try this method of an external Xenium LED there is one thing to note!

This method should only be used to install ONE external LED. The LED installed here shares the transistors that are onboard the Xenium, so adding more than one Tri-Color LED could and will most likely blow these transistors. I dont know the specifications of the onboard transistors, but with the Tri-Color LED listed above and the resistors used it seems to be pretty safe to power the extra LED.

So if you want to go crazy with Tri-Color LEDs like the recent Xorease video then I suggest you wait for the release of that product to do so. That produst uses seperate transistors to power each LED.

You have been warned...

markland556 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 21, 2004, 03:56:00 PM »

how would you do this if you wanted to add alot of the leds??

moobar · « **Reply #9 on:** July 21, 2004, 06:28:00 PM »

Safest way if you want to go gonzo is adding transistors to each LED you add, just like the official Xorease product.

But thats probably overkill. You may be able to get away with driving 5 or so Tri-LEDs with a set of general purpose transistors.

A reminder though, when designing your gonzo Tri-LED circuit remember that the output is active low, this is the reason for the use of common anode LEDs.

cap269 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 22, 2004, 01:33:00 AM »

You can now buy the X-S-or-Ease kit separately. Modwhiz.com shows them in stock for $10.95 each. That is for the LED module, interconnecting wire loom, and USB controller port adaptor.

bucko · « **Reply #11 on:** July 22, 2004, 08:03:00 AM »

Good guide there! bookmarked.

moobar · « **Reply #12 on:** July 22, 2004, 02:39:00 PM »

gamefreakgcb · « **Reply #13 on:** July 23, 2004, 11:39:00 PM »

appleguru · « **Reply #14 on:** November 05, 2004, 02:18:00 PM »

I hate to resurrect ancient threads, but this is just what I was looking for...

I have a bunch of RGB LEDs and would like to wire them into the Xenium... I know next to nothing about LEDs, but these are common Anode, with max forward voltages of 2.4 R, 3.9 G, and 3.9 B, typical voltages of 1.9 R, 3.3 G, and 3.3 B. They have max forward curents of 100, 80, and 80 mA, with continuous currents of 30, 20, and 20 mA.

Anyways, what sort of transistors and resistors would I need to wire several of these guys in, and how would I go about wiring it?

I already have the pinout for the SPI connector, and have outputs for GND, VCC, R, G and B.

Any help would be greatly appretiated!

Author Topic: Diy: Xenium External Led (Read 53 times)