This post was published 3 years 5 months 10 days ago.
It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.

Finally it’s time for Day 2 of What to do with your old Xbox! Today I am going to work on the setup of the Physical Modifications (lights/new case).

To start, lets take a look at the new case. I received the case as a full kit (so you can make all of your Xbox Case clear), but I choose to only install the top piece (so the front, bottom, and back are still the standard case).

Installing the aftermarket case is very simple.

You will need a Torx 20 Screw Driver to remove the 6 screws on the bottom of the Xbox. The screws are located under the 4 feet and under 2 of the labels. You can see the screw locations circled in this picture:

Once you have the screws unscrewed and removed, flip the Xbox back over (so it is sitting as it normally would), then hold the two sides and pull up, the top cover should slide off fairly easily without much force. You can then slide the aftermarket case back on and screw in the 6 screws. The aftermarket cases do not come with the center jewel so I ended up picking one up off of eBay and hot gluing it into place on the case. Now the Xbox looks like this:

You could also choose to install the clear front (comes in the aftermarket case pack), but I choose to keep it with just the top clear as I liked the look a little better.

Now, you could just stop with a clear top, but I wanted to go a little bit further by lighting it up. I had ordered 12 5mm Green LEDs from SickMods.net and my plan is as follows:

8 Green LEDs facing out around the jewel to light up the X on top:

4 Green LEDs pointing down out of the front cover to give a nice under glow effect:

This is my first time working with LEDs for lighting and I took it as a learning experience. I found by research the easiest way to hook up the LEDs is to hook them up to the 5v and Ground that power the Hard Drive. It is a standard Molex adapter, so I used one of the Molex Y adapters I had (for computers) to split the wire into one part for the hard drive and one part for lighting my LEDs. Here is a graphical picture of what I did with the Y:

The next step when using LEDs is to figure out what Resistor you need. Sickmods has a resistor calculator that is very easy to use and works great when using their LEDs. I wanted to have the LEDs around the X (8) all on one resistor and then the ones (4) on the front of the Xbox on another. So I put in 8 and found I needed a 12ohms resistor and put in 4 to find I needed a 22ohm resistor.

For our wiring we will be wiring the LEDs in parrellel. This means that all the grounds are strung together and all the positives are strung together. The Resistor goes between the strung together positives and the 5v power source. Another thing to note when working in LEDs is that one of the leads (legs) is longer than the other. The shorter lead is the ground and the longer is the positive.

I now have the following Supplies to install the LEDs
-12x 5mm Green LEDs (from SickMods.net)
-1x 22ohm resistor (for the 4 LEDs on front) (from SickMods.net)
-1x 12ohm resistor (for the 8 LEDs under jewel) (from SickMods.net)
-5ft 30AWG Wire (from SickMods.net)
-5ft 26AWG Wire (from SickMods.net)
-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Hot Glue Gun
-Hot Glue
-Blue Painters Tape (Great for holding wires temporarily to plan out setup)
-Electrical Tape
-Molex Y Adapter
-Marker (great for marking Positive/Ground Wires)

(It may seem like a lot of supplies, but it really is not that much when you get it all together)

Before starting, I made the following diagram on how it was going to be all wired up:

My Little Supply Center (LEDs, Resistors, Soldering Iron, Solder, Glue Gun, Glue, Tape, Marker):

First take off the Xbox case top again:

LEDs mounted with hot glue with short leads facing up:

LEDs with leads clipped, making sure to clip the lead that was shorter again shorter. The shorter lead is the ground and the longer is the positive:

LEDs on cover all soldered up:

Now covered in hot glue to protect from shorts!:

Working on LEDs for front glow. For help on removing the front of the Xbox, take a look the guide here.Note that the one had to be angled weird like that as there was no way to point it straight down with the controller ports being in the way:

Resistors for the LEDs. I am mounting them in the front panel as it is out of sight and easy to wire up. The Larger resistor is for the lights on the cover under the jewel (it’s 12ohm) and the smaller is for the lights on the front of the Xbox (22ohm):

The final wiring into the 5v and ground of the Xbox. I soldered and Electrical Taped the 5v and Grounds for the LEDs:

Finally the completed product:

Next up will be the Software Side of things so make sure to check back soon to get the next update!

Day 1 can be seen here: http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/06/day_1_what_to_do_with_your_old_xbox.php

Chris Leckness (3560 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.