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[$langer]

My buddy got an Xbox for xmas and it turned out to be a v1.6b when I was hoping it would be a v1.6 (his gf got it for him).  All my chips are the semi older Aladdin XTs with the A type SST chips and the CPLD code that is incompatible with v1.6b boxes.

I have done a couple of v1.6 installs with these XT chips no problem and I am fairly comfortable with them.  Now I must order a new chip and I find myself leaning towards the DuoX 2 (cromwell edition). The reason being that my buddy wants his box done soon and I can get these chips from www.modchipman.ca faster than I can get XTs from robotpig.com because modchip man is located in my province.

My only concern is that I have never installed a Duo before and I don't want anything to go wrong.  I am familiar with Aladdin and already have installed several.  I have a few questions I would like to clear up about the  DuoX 2 chip:

1 - The Duos  look like more effort to install because they don't appear to come with a female pin header attached, is this the case?  

2 - Is the BT point for the Duos the same point electrically as the BT point for the Aladdins and are there Alt points similar to the XT?

3 - Finally, these Duos appear to come with some odd hacked bioses with different colour X logos for each bios bank as seen here: http://www.brahm2.com/faq/controllerLEDs.jpg
What's the deal with that, am I free to change the bios on each bank to whatever I like? The DuoX 2 I would be ordering is the Cromwell edition seen here http://www.modchipman.ca/product_info.php?...60bfd4407e4dd21
so I assume I would have to flash it with a bios of my choice anyways?

If anyone could shed some light on these topics that would be great.  Maybe if all goes well I will stick to Duos rather than XTs  

[loofy1]

hi..... sorry i cant b much help here ,flashing bioses, cromwell ect. its all new 2 me.
but i can say installing the duo x2 chip is easy and soldering the female pin header aint that bad either ,personally i think there a good solid chip and work well with all xboxes , done plenty of 1.6b now and no probs yet.

[loofy1]

i'd like 2 add u should get both ends of the pin header when u get the chip.

[Arakon]

mounting the pin socket to the chip is a matter of 30 seconds. the duo x2 is IMO the better choice because it's cheap, but offers more space and is IMO more trouble free than the aladdins.

[Chancer]

The first link is nothing to do with odd bios at all??
The DuoX2 comes with Xecuter on one bank and Evox M8.16 on the other (latest ones have M8+.16 on this bank).
They also now do a cromwell version with Flash bios on.
Unless you are worried about reselling on with a legal bios , why buy the Cromwell ones??
The standard ones are ready to roll with no flash.
No weird different colours. Xecuter bank boots a Blue X logo and M8 bank boots the evox shield graphic.
The female header is easy to install, if you can't solder that in then you would not be able to solder the male into the Xbox.
The BT points are not the same electrically so don't try and use the aladdin BT points.

[$langer]

QUOTE(Chancer @ Dec 26 2004, 12:22 PM)

The first link is nothing to do with odd bios at all??
The DuoX2 comes with Xecuter on one bank and Evox M8.16 on the other (latest ones have M8+.16 on this bank).
They also now do a cromwell version with Flash bios on.
Unless you are worried about reselling on with a legal bios , why buy the Cromwell ones??
The standard ones are ready to roll with no flash.
No weird different colours. Xecuter bank boots a Blue X logo and M8 bank boots the evox shield graphic.
The female header is easy to install, if you can't solder that in then you would not be able to solder the male into the Xbox.
The BT points are not the same electrically so don't try and use the aladdin BT points.

Thanks for the info Chancer.  I wouldn't buy the Cromwell version if I had a choice but that is all that is the only kind I can get fast.  I guess I didn't mean that the pre-flashed bioses looked werid, they just looked ugly  

The Duos sound pretty easy to install then, I just emailed the supplier to make sure he has the latest version of Cromwell on the chips (to work with v1.6b) and that the chips include the female pin header.

Just to confirm, the DuoX 2s do not draw high current through LFRAME correct?

Thanks!

[Chancer]

Duo X2 pulses Lframe so is safe on the 1.6. I have double checked this myself.

[hippo]

QUOTE

Duo X2 pulses Lframe so is safe on the 1.6. I have double checked this myself.

How do you account for the fact the LFRAME is left at 1.1v after the pulsing? When I did my design I tristate the pin pulsing lframe and lframe resumes 3.3v when it's being left alone. I cant really explain what sort of pin state they are using to attain 1.1v.

Also I noticed your comments concerning cromwell bios but this new flashbios 3 is pretty nifty and allows you to browse from a dir of files on your hard drive and flash them from your browser via http. I don't think you would miss having them preflashed since I'm assuming you use a more custom bios for your installs? I always turn the led red when the bios is on so peeps know not to go on live. I actually had a fellow go on live within an hour after I modded his box and he not only logged on live with the mod chip on he was on the phone to MS LIVE customer support at the time.

[Chancer]

The voltage measured was 1.3v on mine with a meter but this is no way accurate of what actually is going on. It only gives a mean value when measuring a pulsed signal. If you calculate it with the scope what actually happens is the voltage is peaking at 3v3 and then troughs at 0v. It would seem the signal is constantly switched high and low but I don't know how the frequency stays fixed..
I checked an Aladdin and nothing just stays at ground constant.

I have not had one with the new flash bios but it certainly sounds more versatile than previous versions.
Its a shame the bios can't be modded to playthe theme tune from Mission Impossible to warn people the chip was active but even then some would still conect with the chip on.

[hippo]

When I looked at the doux on the scope the D0 line was pulsed for the blimk of an eye then held at 1.1 or 1.3 volts and it's not really pulsing anymore after the bios loads, it's held steady at 1.1 or what ever volts. Anyway it's not 1.x volts because it's not 1.x volts because it's a mean reading it's steady.

[Chancer]

Not when I scoped it. Its high frequency switched looks like a sync pulse from a line timebase but without the sandcastle element. A slight slope on the back porch as it falls.

[Unseen Shadow]

Leave it to the guy who joined today, to bring back a thread from last month....just to let you know...he has that chip installed and working already...but thanks for trying to help....i think....plz dont bringback dead threads