Customize Your Xbox 360 For CHEAP!

Step 11 Installing The LED's

For this step I would suggest using 5mm LEDs because they make instillation much easier.

First we will do the easy side and that would happen to be the left side. This is because there are already holes that are the perfect size.

1. Pick where you want to install your LEDs and slide them into the holes, make sure you push them in as far as they can go.
2. Next take the 2 wires coming off the LED's and pull them inside through a hole next to the LED.
3. Now take the LED's wires that you installed on the left side and solder all the negatives together
4. Now do the same thing with the positives just make sure the - and + aren't touching and make sure not to drip solder on the motherboard.

Time for the right side. This side is a little tricky because the hole on this side are way to small for our LED's. So you will have to drill out some holes and make sure they are the right size.

1. Mark the holes where you are going to drill for however many LEDs you want on that side.
2. Drill out the holes with a bit that is closest to the size of your LEDs. Make sure to clean out your metal shavings when you are done!!!
3. 3. Now take the LED's wires that you installed on the right side and solder all the negatives together
4. Now do the same thing with the positives just make sure the - and + aren't touching and make sure not to drip solder on the motherboard.

Now to wire them all up!

1. Now since the right side set of LEDs are wired we can attach about 1 foot or more of 3awg to both a + and a - on one of the LEDs (which led doesn't matter because they are all wired as one but I would recommend the LED closest to the back for easy wiring)
2. Run the newly installed wires to the left side set of LEDs as cleanly and hidden as possible.
3. Solder the right side set of LED's + to the left side set of LED's +
4. Now do the same thing for the -'s

Now all the LEDs are wired in a parallel and you will only have to install one resistor for all of them!

To figure out what resistor to install use this calculator and make sure you use the parallel calculator, also our input is 12v

Calculator= http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng

1. Once you find out what resistor to use wire it in on the positive lead of the LEDs.
2. Attach about 3-6" of 30awg to the other end of the resistor.
3. Solder about 3-6" of 30awg to the negative lead of the LEDs
4.Strip a good amount off of both + and - wires
5. Remove the 4 pin dual fan power connector
6. Look at my illustration on where to install the wires.
7. Replace 4 pin dual fan power connector once wires are installed

Now power on you xbox 360 to test you work and if you did everything correctly the LEDs should come to life!

Comments

[stevenn21]

This step is dangerous if your not an electrician and you wire this up wrong you could:
1. brick your console
2. burn your house down
3. electricute yourself
I suggest buying a ready made light unit from ebay called:
"Nexilux Smart LED Storm V2 for XBOX 360 Case Tunning".
It plugs into the disc drive socket on the main board with a splitter so you can plug your drive into the splitter.
Also there are a few useful features instead of just 1 colour thats comes on when you switch your console on and turns off when you turn the console off it has 7 diffrent colours to choose from with 3 diffrent settings on each colour.
You get a remote control with it too.
Also you can turn the lights off so you can game in the dark without led's glaring in your face.

[johnfernandez360]

I used 12v source near the power suply for my fans. I am also instaling led lights but I don't know where to find another power source. I NEED HELP!

[Wally_Z]

You could solder a wire to the USB output of the Xbox and do it that way, or plug a USB plug into the Xbox and run it into the system to have power.

[the_burrito_master]

you could always put a 9 volt battery in your case get a 9 volt plug thingy from an old alarm clock and glue it to the side and tape it up to prevent any shorts.

[ZeroXL91]

go to lamma, there's more than 1 power source

[xxni4ni]

wouldn't it be better to use a cold cathode?

[awz123]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Xbox-360-Cold-Cathode-Lighting/

[d1360]

how many led's can i have inside my 360??

[angryfacing]

Technically, you can have over 9000 LEDs in your 360 if it is all wired correctly. I would stick with about 6 since it would be pointless to have any more.

[messed_up_child2001]

If you are wiring into the fans power you can only have 5.4V worth of LED's. If you have any more they will dim as the fan speed drops to the lowest speed.
If you want more voltage you can wire into a constant 12V supply. There are many on the board. Reference here to find one <http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/tutorial/Xbox_360-HandC-V1_4.pdf>

[sniper243]

yeah I used an old 12 volt USB fan that went to the bottom of the 360 when the fan broke

[GameGuru]

Where can I find a better power source and how can I keep my resister cool? it gets pretty hot!

[angryfacing]

Get a resistor that doesnt have such a low Ohm amount.

[momsgonnafindme]

if you have your resister in the fan shroud it should keep it cool

[ryanbennett2010]

do u need a resister if ur puting LEDS in

[angryfacing]

Yes, if you do not put a resistor in the LED will blow. Usually a 470 ohm resistor should do the job.

[supaaben]

I bought 12v led strips for cars from this web site http://www.virtualvillage.com/72cm-red-led-flexible-neon-strip-light-for-car-or-van-002510-132.html but when i hook them up into the 12v near the power supply nothing happens. So i hooked them up into the dvd drive power supply. And again nothing! Anybody have any clue why? Also i know they work cuz i hav them hooked up all around my room with my sterio...

[10dclarke]

I went down to maplins today to look for leds and the sell 5cm strips of smd leds. you get 3 smd leds per 5cm that are all ready just to solder straight to the 12v out put from the xbox with out haveing to use resistor calculator.
And you can get the strips as long as you want the guy said up to 4 meters not the your will ever need that for this project.

So i went in and bourght a 20 cm strip so i got 12 leds on the board and soldered  it to the under side of the board where the power plug is with just two wire + and - and because the leds are on a board i just managed to glue them where i wanted

Here is a link to see what they look like and they come in blue, white, yellow, green and red 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218015

[xbh1h2]

What would happen if one of those LED legs touched the metal casing? Wouldn't it create a short?

[Archive555]

Yes. Which is why you don't let it touch the metal case.

[darksoldier5501]

Well i wouldnt connect it to the fans power like he did. just go under the 4 prong plug in and match up where the wires are soldered in. its very simple

[keonetics]

why does he say our input is 12v if its only 5v becuz when the fan is on it uses the other 7v and how would you get it under, and also I have a 3 pin fan where do i connect the positive and where do i connect the negative

[darksoldier5501]

5v is the limit on the leds. ok so if u wanna connect the positive and negative to YOUR motherboard go underneath and you see where youplug the xbox in? go underneath that on the flipside of the motherboard and just connect the two with your xbox on to 2 random points, if it dosent work, keep looking. :)

[mbx2814]

Is there a way you can explain in better detail how you did the wiring? I am a little confused how you got it into a power source. When you say through the holes you mean to say the "legs" of the leds are pointing out of the 360? and the wiring from the legs come from the "outside" of the metal and up over the top of the metal casing? (Sry for the n00b questions)

[keonetics]

im wondering the same

[slate.JUL]

OK so first of all......this is a sweetness Instructable....two problems though.... first of all I have no idea where to get some plexiglass.....and second where can i find some good LED's my radioshack didn't have what i want...and i wanna just order them online........

[keonetics]

Ok easy questions. First for the plexi glass You can get that at any local hardware store(OSH or Home Depot or Ace Hardware) The LED's you can find for dirt cheap on uniqueleds.com good luck im still trying to figure out how to solder and wire these before i do this

[keonetics]

actually i believe its unique-leds.com

[Dirtykson]

The best website to go for good LED lights (in my opinion) would be www.unique-leds.com/ I find that they have the biggest variety of colors, and the right sizes you need. They also sell the right size LEDS to replace the ones in your controller, and in your main ring. (for cheaper than llamma does!)

[bam4003]

Plexiglass=Lowes or Homedepot

[forgot131313]

what do you do when you have a 3 pin dual fan power connector the black - is connected with the blue one and red and brown are by themselves

[momsgonnafindme]

red and black or brown and black

[bam4003]

I would simply just use one of the few 12v supplies. (this will also be more solid light) there are many 12v points of interest there is one right in front of the power connector inside the xbox360. Best bet is to whip out you Multimeter and excavate a power source!

[voic3z]

i was wondering the same thing

[momsgonnafindme]

i dissagree with this led setup its better to soldier the wires where the power brick plugs into the mobo on the underside it requires a little more work but the leds will have a cleaner power supply

[therki]

hi m trin this leds arnt workin as i wanted!!!placed 6 leds but five glow!!!5 r of same typ leds bright white which spread light and one is also white but it dsnt spread light. its bit longer thn othr five leds! i dint get thiz whole setup u made!!i used 3 resistors n 6 leds!!!of which five glow: nd one glow much briter n othr four dimmer! how to make thm brighter?

[tank110]

what resistor did you use because i dont understand how to use the calculator

[bam4003]

when you buy the resistor and LED, the information is printed on the package. All you need to do is plug in the information and what you want like 4 or 5 LEDs in a series.

[bobthehobo22]

What watt resistor did u use because mine seems to be overheating pretty badly.... I'm using a 1/2 watt 47 ohm resistor.

[pilotpack]

I'm not quite sure on what one I used but to find out which one is best for you, please use the calculator that I mentioned in the wiring of the LEDs page. I say this because I don't know which one to tell you to use since I don't know what color, or how many you used. Hope this helps!, Pilotpack