Customize the four player indicators on your Xbox 360 wireless controller by removing the stock LEDs and replacing them with any color of your choosing. I've received a lot of requests for this guide, which will show how to dismantle and upgrade an official Microsoft controller.
***Disclaimer: I am not liable for any damage that may be caused to your property or self from following the instructions in this tutorial. Soldering irons can be very hot and cause burns, as well as possibly break your Xbox 360 controller. Opening your controller's shell will void its warranty. If you are unfamiliar with soldering I suggest you acquire some practice on blank boards before attempting this mod, as the LEDs are quite small. ***
***Disclaimer: I am not liable for any damage that may be caused to your property or self from following the instructions in this tutorial. Soldering irons can be very hot and cause burns, as well as possibly break your Xbox 360 controller. Opening your controller's shell will void its warranty. If you are unfamiliar with soldering I suggest you acquire some practice on blank boards before attempting this mod, as the LEDs are quite small. ***
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Signing UpStep 1: Supplies
The parts list for this project is small and fairly cheap.
Soldering Iron: Your generic 10-15 Watt Radioshack soldering iron, available for about $15. Though not necessary, for small projects like this I take a metal file and sharpen my soldering iron to a fine point. It will make the install much easier.
Silver Rosin Solder: Also available at Radioshack, silver solder more evenly distributes heat, and rosin creates a clean bond between two metals. Around $3.
Copper Desoldering Braid: This thin wire braid will absorb solder when placed inbetween the soldering iron and a terminal that needs to be cleaned. Necessary to create a flat base for the LED to sit on, makes the install much easier and can fix mistakes. $3.
Xbox 360 Wireless/Wired Controller: Microsoft controllers are available at any store that sells video game equipment. Retails for $50.
SMD 0603 LEDs: You can select whatever colors you wish for this mod, this instructable uses four blue 0603s. I would encourage you to purchase the brightest mcd rating you can find, the difference between a dim (120mcd) and a bright (400mcd) 0603 is around 10 cents per LED and worth the extra cost. Though you will only need four for this mod, purchase 8-10, these lights are so small you are going to lose some no matter how careful you are. Here are my recommendations from unique-leds.com
Red 500mcd, $0.33/LED (800mcd are available on eBay).
Yellow/Amber 130mcd, $0.22/LED (350mcd are available on eBay)
Blue 380mcd, $0.34/LED (800mcd are available on eBay).
Green 200mcd, $0.39/LED (1000mcd are available on eBay).
White 800mcd, $0.38/LED (2500mcd are available on eBay).
My favorite eBay sellers for LEDs are HKJE LED Lamp Center and Light of Victory Hi-Tech LED Store.
Security Torx T8H: Xbox 360 controllers have security screws, meaning there is a pin sticking out of the center of the screw that prevents a normal T8 Torx from fitting in. If you are cheap or don't want to wait, get an awl or a very small flathead screwdriver, and crack off the pin with a good whack from a hammer, letting you then use a normal Torx driver. I suggest purchasing your T8H screwdriver from Llamma.org. High Quality $7.99 and Low Quality $2.48
Tweezers: Absolutely necessary to hold the very small SMD 0603s. Try to purchase tweezers with the flattest edge you can find, round endings will cause the LED to shoot outward when you tighten around it. Around $3-5 at any local store like Walgreens.
Soldering Iron: Your generic 10-15 Watt Radioshack soldering iron, available for about $15. Though not necessary, for small projects like this I take a metal file and sharpen my soldering iron to a fine point. It will make the install much easier.
Silver Rosin Solder: Also available at Radioshack, silver solder more evenly distributes heat, and rosin creates a clean bond between two metals. Around $3.
Copper Desoldering Braid: This thin wire braid will absorb solder when placed inbetween the soldering iron and a terminal that needs to be cleaned. Necessary to create a flat base for the LED to sit on, makes the install much easier and can fix mistakes. $3.
Xbox 360 Wireless/Wired Controller: Microsoft controllers are available at any store that sells video game equipment. Retails for $50.
SMD 0603 LEDs: You can select whatever colors you wish for this mod, this instructable uses four blue 0603s. I would encourage you to purchase the brightest mcd rating you can find, the difference between a dim (120mcd) and a bright (400mcd) 0603 is around 10 cents per LED and worth the extra cost. Though you will only need four for this mod, purchase 8-10, these lights are so small you are going to lose some no matter how careful you are. Here are my recommendations from unique-leds.com
Red 500mcd, $0.33/LED (800mcd are available on eBay).
Yellow/Amber 130mcd, $0.22/LED (350mcd are available on eBay)
Blue 380mcd, $0.34/LED (800mcd are available on eBay).
Green 200mcd, $0.39/LED (1000mcd are available on eBay).
White 800mcd, $0.38/LED (2500mcd are available on eBay).
My favorite eBay sellers for LEDs are HKJE LED Lamp Center and Light of Victory Hi-Tech LED Store.
Security Torx T8H: Xbox 360 controllers have security screws, meaning there is a pin sticking out of the center of the screw that prevents a normal T8 Torx from fitting in. If you are cheap or don't want to wait, get an awl or a very small flathead screwdriver, and crack off the pin with a good whack from a hammer, letting you then use a normal Torx driver. I suggest purchasing your T8H screwdriver from Llamma.org. High Quality $7.99 and Low Quality $2.48
Tweezers: Absolutely necessary to hold the very small SMD 0603s. Try to purchase tweezers with the flattest edge you can find, round endings will cause the LED to shoot outward when you tighten around it. Around $3-5 at any local store like Walgreens.
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- The new 360 wireless controllers are more energy efficient. Basically, they have less power than the old controllers, and don't power green, white, blue, or UV LEDs as well.
- Soldering irons usually have three pins (grounded). If it's plugged into a two-plug socket or extension cord, electricity builds up in the iron.
- If the LEDs get too hot, the gap of the P-N junction (ultra tiny split inside the LED) sparks making a bunch of light and frying the LED. Don't use an iron any higher than 15W, and don't hold any iron to the LED more for than ~1.5-2 seconds.
I hope that clears things up a little.Blue/Green/White/UV run at 3.2v.
Reds can run with much less juice than other colors. Newer controllers output much less juice for longer battery life.
"Is it absolutely necessary to remove the rumble motors, or is it simply to make the mod process easier?"
BTW Portal case looks amazing.
You, rather kindly, have slightly overestimated how experienced I am in this field of modding.
I am incredibly new to this, and all I wanted to know was that if it was possible to reattach the rumble motors after you removed them during the process of changing the ring of light leds.
However thank you so much for your rapid reply, and for your links and preferences with regard to LED sellers, esp Hi-Tech LED Store.
Unfortunately uniqueLEDS' shipping cost was slightly too much, so I settled for these, BTW I live in the UK.
http://www.ebay.co.uk:80/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350361893227&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:1123
My picture was if you were trying to pulse the lights whenever you get rumble, my mistake.
Have fun!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Done/
See here.
This is pretty much how I did it, my LEDs were slightly bigger though so i had to drill out the button more. :D good luck with your modding
I'm not sure how bright the LEDs used on a stock Xbox 360 controller are. If I had to guess, I would say they are about 60-100mcd.
An 80mcd blue would be pretty dim, but would still function. A 150mcd blue would look much nicer. In general, my rule is to get as bright as possible, up to around 1000mcd, at which point your controller is glowing.
If they don't, just search 0603 on eBay (0603 SMD LED [model #, Surface Mount Device, LED]. In five seconds I found an assortment pack of six colors for $3+shipping.
If you want an amazing eBay seller, search for "Light Victory Hi-Tech Led Store" on google, they have some incredible SMDs (2,500 mcd white!) Dirt cheap too, and since they are based in China, they ship anywhere.
Thanks
http://cgi.ebay.com/50p-SMD-SMT-0603-Bright-RED-LED-Lamp-Light-550mcd-/370390422487?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563cfd53d7#ht_3820wt_905
I found a pack of 20 for $3 including shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.com/0603-Ultra-Bright-SMD-LED-RED-20pcs-/220620338351?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335dff34af
Shipping for the link I provided takes two weeks though.
Now just to wait until the prcel gets through though knowing my local post office from past parcels they will give me a 3rd conformation letter the first time they 'TRY' and deliver it and ill have to go pick it up before they throw it >:(
The terminals become separated from the board if you apply too much heat. They are held on with very thin adhesive, and most adhesives become gooey under high temperature. Once the terminals are gone, there is no way to put them back on.
The terminal is just a convenient, oversized location to take the electricity from, the power is transmitting through a very thin gold wire, called a trace. These traces are covered in a very thin (about 0.2mm) protective layer against heat and scratches. You can scrape off this layer, and I generally use an extendable exacto-knife, scraping sideways over the trace extremely carefuly (use many very light strokes to slowly wear away the coating).
Once the trace is exposed, you can apply solder in two ways. The best, would be to apply flux on top of the trace, then your solder will stick very easily. The second, is to apply an excessive amount of solder to you iron, and semi-quickly rub the molten ball over the trace, until some sticks and turns from gold to silver.
I generally make solder bridges to reconnect LEDs to traces. Solder does melt pretty easily, however the temperature is very localized in solder. It's possible to make a long chunk of solder stretch from the trace to the LED location, and connect the power. You can also try using very small wire, such as 26-30AWG wire. Basically, just connect the power to the traces, and it will turn on. It will be annoying, it will be difficult, but traces are long, and you can always go farther down the line if you screw up. Good luck.
btw., i read the other comment a few minutes after i posted. It would be helpfull if you could post a pic of a fixed one
I tried taking a picture for you, however my main camera (Panasonic TZ5) is across town, and all I have on me is my iPhone, meaning it's blurry. I tried making a diagram, it's better than nothing I suppose.
www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FSL/7DJI/G9HKE6GH/FSL7DJIG9HKE6GH.SMALL.jpg, change the word to LARGE and you'll get higher res.
As an even better trick, completely remove "small", (so in this case it ends in GH.jpg), and change the word "deriv" to "orig", that way you get my original res. So it would look like this
http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FSL/7DJI/G9HKE6GH/FSL7DJIG9HKE6GH.jpg
Not only are you paying $8 for 10x 0603 SMD LEDs (when you should be able to get a bag of about 25 for that price), those are incredibly dim (70mcd, which will be hard to see even at nighttime). Since you want reds, just use the link I listed on Part 1 from unique-leds.com Not only do you get them far cheaper, but in any amount you want, and at 500mcd brightness.