This instructable sets out to light up the four A,B,X,Y buttons and jewel of an original Xbox Controller-S.
To complete this project, being comfortable with a soldering iron is recommended. Even if you are not experienced in soldering but would like to learn, read up on these guides and feel free to do this mod.
How to Solder
How to Wire LEDs
This guide teaches with words as well as pictures, almost all of which have comments to help clarify what is going on during the install.
This can be a tedious install, as tolerances inside of a Xbox controller are relatively tight, the pieces are small, and expect each controller to take anywhere from 2-3 hours depending on how skilled you are. In this guide I use slow-fading RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LEDs, though any combination of colors can be used for your lighting choice.
I hope you enjoy this instructable, and are able to modify your Xbox controller to light up many nights of gaming.
*** I am not liable for any personal damage or injury that occurs from following this tutorial. You will be working with electricity (Very low voltage) and hot tools (soldering iron & hot glue gun). If you destroy your controller you will just have to spend $10 on a new one ***
To complete this project, being comfortable with a soldering iron is recommended. Even if you are not experienced in soldering but would like to learn, read up on these guides and feel free to do this mod.
How to Solder
How to Wire LEDs
This guide teaches with words as well as pictures, almost all of which have comments to help clarify what is going on during the install.
This can be a tedious install, as tolerances inside of a Xbox controller are relatively tight, the pieces are small, and expect each controller to take anywhere from 2-3 hours depending on how skilled you are. In this guide I use slow-fading RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LEDs, though any combination of colors can be used for your lighting choice.
I hope you enjoy this instructable, and are able to modify your Xbox controller to light up many nights of gaming.
*** I am not liable for any personal damage or injury that occurs from following this tutorial. You will be working with electricity (Very low voltage) and hot tools (soldering iron & hot glue gun). If you destroy your controller you will just have to spend $10 on a new one ***
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Signing UpStep 1: Getting the Supplies
The tools needed are:
3mm LEDs - There are quite a few options for color selection. White for all four buttons. Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow: one color per button. All four a single solid color. Or in the case of this instructable: all RGB Slow Fade. The more colors you have, the more difficult it can become to manage the wires as each species of led can require its own voltage, and thus its own resistor. You will also want LEDs of at least 5,000mcd for this project, the brighter the better.
***Purchasing LEDs***
Buying LEDs from retail stores is very expensive with inferior light capacity and quality. Through the internet, namely eBay, you can purchase large amounts of high quality LEDs for extremely low prices. I bought 50x 3mm RGB LEDs for $15 including shipping and tax. Excellent sellers are hktaiyuen, jledhk, and LED HK. After completing this mod multiple times, I now recommend using either 4 white LEDs for the buttons, or if possible, four separate colors, one for each matching colored button (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow/Amber). The slow-fade RGBs become de-synced with time in their color switching, and end up looking ugly due to color opposites canceling out light (red light emitting and being absorbed by its opposite color in the green button for example).
Resistors (Cheap) - This project will require resistors. You will need to calculate the level of resistance needed (in Ohms) based upon how you wire your LEDs to the controller mainboard. As I have four identical LEDs, I have opted for parallel wiring which requires only one resistor. Use ledcalc to determine your solution.
Soldering Iron (15-30 watts, ~$15) - Any cheap heat based soldering iron will do.
Solder ($5) - I recommend silver solder with a rosin core, the silver helps create a strong joint while the rosin helps flow into a clean connection.
Needle nose Pliers ($8) - Used for bending the legs of LEDs and assisting in holding parts.
Wire Clippers ($6) - Used to cut the legs of LEDs, resistors, and lengths of wire.
Electrical Tape ($3) - Protects exposed wires from connecting to anything else in the controller.
Power Drill with Drill Bits - Necessary for creating holes in buttons for LED legs, and shaping the controller casing to fit the modified buttons.
Hot Glue Gun and Sticks ($10)- Used to electrically insulate connections and keep parts from moving around. Works great for small electronics as it doesn't conduct electricity.
Wire - This depends on preference. For this guide I used 30 AWG (extremely fine) wire purchased from the llamma store. Looking back now (Jan 2009), and having experience with using these controllers and the wires snapping, and having to reinstall them, I now recommend using 22-24 AWG wire. As a bonus, 24 AWG wire is easily found in the common ethernet cable. Since not much is needed for a single controller, you can simply cut off the sheathing of any CAT5e and take out the insides; the wires are far more durable than 30AWG.
3mm LEDs - There are quite a few options for color selection. White for all four buttons. Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow: one color per button. All four a single solid color. Or in the case of this instructable: all RGB Slow Fade. The more colors you have, the more difficult it can become to manage the wires as each species of led can require its own voltage, and thus its own resistor. You will also want LEDs of at least 5,000mcd for this project, the brighter the better.
***Purchasing LEDs***
Buying LEDs from retail stores is very expensive with inferior light capacity and quality. Through the internet, namely eBay, you can purchase large amounts of high quality LEDs for extremely low prices. I bought 50x 3mm RGB LEDs for $15 including shipping and tax. Excellent sellers are hktaiyuen, jledhk, and LED HK. After completing this mod multiple times, I now recommend using either 4 white LEDs for the buttons, or if possible, four separate colors, one for each matching colored button (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow/Amber). The slow-fade RGBs become de-synced with time in their color switching, and end up looking ugly due to color opposites canceling out light (red light emitting and being absorbed by its opposite color in the green button for example).
Resistors (Cheap) - This project will require resistors. You will need to calculate the level of resistance needed (in Ohms) based upon how you wire your LEDs to the controller mainboard. As I have four identical LEDs, I have opted for parallel wiring which requires only one resistor. Use ledcalc to determine your solution.
Soldering Iron (15-30 watts, ~$15) - Any cheap heat based soldering iron will do.
Solder ($5) - I recommend silver solder with a rosin core, the silver helps create a strong joint while the rosin helps flow into a clean connection.
Needle nose Pliers ($8) - Used for bending the legs of LEDs and assisting in holding parts.
Wire Clippers ($6) - Used to cut the legs of LEDs, resistors, and lengths of wire.
Electrical Tape ($3) - Protects exposed wires from connecting to anything else in the controller.
Power Drill with Drill Bits - Necessary for creating holes in buttons for LED legs, and shaping the controller casing to fit the modified buttons.
Hot Glue Gun and Sticks ($10)- Used to electrically insulate connections and keep parts from moving around. Works great for small electronics as it doesn't conduct electricity.
Wire - This depends on preference. For this guide I used 30 AWG (extremely fine) wire purchased from the llamma store. Looking back now (Jan 2009), and having experience with using these controllers and the wires snapping, and having to reinstall them, I now recommend using 22-24 AWG wire. As a bonus, 24 AWG wire is easily found in the common ethernet cable. Since not much is needed for a single controller, you can simply cut off the sheathing of any CAT5e and take out the insides; the wires are far more durable than 30AWG.
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Thanks,
TpR
Yes, you can access power from the 360 controller without using a rumble motor, in fact you should be taking your power from the mainboard. There are five or six solder pins going through the mainboard, they hold the power and you should solder directly to them.
I believe you would be interested in this guide: www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/xbox%20360%20Controller%20LED%20Mod.htm
The llamma guide at the bottom with the rumble activated LED is a completely separate step that is optional.
To access power pins on the wireless controller, you can tap into the play and charge kit/headset connector. Have the controller sitting normally on a table, with the sticks pointing in the air. Looking at the controller the direction you normally hold it, there are 4 pins and a center alignment hole on the base of the controller. Number the pins in your head with the one on the far left being pin 1 and all the way on the right being pin 4. Here are their specs:
Pin 1: Ground, Pin 2: Microphone Receive, Pin 3: Microphone Send, Pin 4: Power 3v.
So quite simply, you can solder your resistors to the 3v power pin, and the negative end of your LEDs to pin 1 (ground). I hope that is what you were wanting. You wouldn't want to tap power from the microphone pins, since they transmit data and can cause problems if you tap into them.
As far as your resistor, this is where LEDs are awesome. You can have your numbers wrong and they still work, just maybe not at the optimal brightness. Let's say you are using a blue LED, which is rated for 3.4v, yet we only have a 3.0v supply. Indeed, the LED will be underpowered and it's brightness reduced by about 30%. I think the minimum limit for a blue/green LED lighting up is around 2.4v or so (which would be extremely dim), so you're in the clear. LED specs always have a variable rating, something like ~3.2-3.4 volts, feel free to go over or under at your leisure.
If you use a red LED, which is rated for 1.9v, and overvolt it to 3.0v, it will be extremely bright, around 40% brighter. That extra brightness comes at a cost though, the LED will now last only about ~20,000 hours of constantly being on (which is still a ton) than the normal 80,000 hours. The reverse is true as well, undervolting an LED will add more life. Lots of pocket LED flashlights use this trick to the extreme, two 2032 button cell batteries in series (3v * 2 = 6v) for a 3.4v White LED. I personally swapped out the white LED for a red, with an extreme overvolt of 6 volts onto the 1.9v standard red. Granted, it's bad for the LED, but it's a cheap $1 flashlight.
To measure your resistor, go to ledcalc.com, put in your numbers, and find your result. Since we can't go higher than 3.0 volts, I put in 2.9v, and got a 5.6 Ohm 1/8 W resistor. Thats for a single blue/greem LED mind you, but you can figure it out with series or parellel.
I believe you used the default ledcalc.com Guru to calculate your resistor, which in most cases is fine. There are three other options, single, series, and parallel wiring. I recommend using parallel for this install, since only a single resistor is needed, which becomes very important inside of a cramped Xbox controller. Note that using parallel requires all your LEDs be the same type (white 2.9v draw for example). Using different colors like red,green,blue, and yellow would each require their own resistor. Note that green/blue/white LEDS are all 2.9v (minimum, at optimal they are 3.4v, but that isn't possible in this install due to the 3.0v source), and red/amber LEDs are both 1.9v, meaning these color pairs could be in parallel, making for a total of two resistors.
Calculating a 3.0v source, with 2.9 draw @ 20mA and four LEDs wired in parallel makes for a single 1.5 Ohm 1/8W resistor in the case of four blue/green/white.
Wattage rating is only a minimum, you could power a LED with a 5 W rated resistor, which would be excessively large. The wattage rating means how much electricity can be converted to heat before the resistor fails (read: melts). Just never go lower than the ohm rating require, and I don't think common resistors are made below 1/8W, so you're fine.
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/xbox%20360%20Controller%20LED%20Mod.htm
http://www.instructables.com/id/Xbox-360-Wireless-Controller-Ring-of-Light/
Do you know what I mean about the 4th player LED being used as a status indicator? For example, the IC will light up the 4th player LED when you turn the rapid-fire on. It will also flash at different intervals to show you what mode of rapid-fire you are in. I would just like to make a 3mm 3000mcd red LED do that instead of the default smd 0603 LED that is soldered to the controller board already. Will that work?
Modding my Xbox is one of the best things I've ever spent my money on, as I have all of my TV shows, movies, Xbox games (about 70 of them) and limitless other games all on one box.
Video Explanation
Text Beginners Explanation
http://www.aeonproject.com/index.html