Introduction: Portable Xbox 360 Slim
Hello Everyone, this is my first instructable, and i will be showing you how i made a portable xbox 360. The final poduct will look kind of like a laptop with the power supply inside of the case. The screen that i used was salvaged from an old laptop. To use it with this project, i needed to buy its controller board, which i found on ebay for $30.
Materials:
1/4" thick board
wires
wood glue
black and green paint
hinges
salvaged lcd screen and its controller board (I got mine out of an old laptop)
4 50mm long bolts with nuts
Tools:
screw driver
dremel
jigsaw
Step 1: Removing the Case
First, we need begin by removing the outer casing. There will be a lot of prying, so make sure you have your screw driver. Begin by removing the side panels. One of the panels can be removed by by pressing the release button, the other one can be pried off by hand. The panel on the opposite side needs to be pulled off with the screw driver because there are tabs holding it in place. After the panels are removed, there is another panel underneath those panels, and those will need some more work to take them off. After that is off, the front panel needs to be take off. To do this, a flat head screw driver needs to be stuck in between the front panel and the top panels. Be careful because there is a thin cable that connects the power button to the circuit board. Once the front panel has been removed, the bottom panel can be pried off. The bottom panel is held in by the long black screws in the metal case. Finally, now that the panels have been removed, there will be easy access to the internal circuitry.
Step 2: Soldering Power Cables
In this step, we need to solder power cables to the actual board. First we need to remove the try for the external hard drive, do this by removing the cable with the screw, and pulling the trey out, Next you need to remove the optical dive, just unplug the cables and remove the drive. Then, you have to remove the fan. Look on the back of the case and remove the screws holding the fan down, and it should just come off. Next you have to remove all of the external pieces like the wireless card and the front pcb. Now you should be able to remove the actual board, so do that and flip it over. On the other side of the power connector you should see its solder tabs. You need to connect two wires to the 12v and ground that will power out lcd driver. In the picture above, the yellow tabs are the 12v connectors and the black tabs are the ground connectors. Once the wires are connected, put electrical tape under your solder to protect it from shorting. Finally, put the board and all of its components back into its metal casing and run the wires through a hole in the side of the casing.
Step 3: Put Everything Back Together
Ok, so now you need to put everything back together. Make sure that you keep the wires outside of the case
Step 4: Making the Case
Ok, so for the case you need 3 pieces that are 41cm x 32 cm, 2 pieces that are 41cm x 3xm, 2 pieces that are 32cm x 3cm, 2 pieces that are 41cm x 8cm, and 2 pieces that are 32cm x 8cm. The hole for the screen can be cut out using a dremel to get it started, then using a jigsaw to cut the rest out. 4 holes will need to be drilled with the dremel, 1.5cm from the corners. these holes will be used to connect both panels of the screen using the bolts. More holes need to be cut where the disk tray and the power button is on the xbox.
Step 5: Painting
In this step you will need to use the green and black spray paint. Paint the whole thing black and wait for it to dry. While it was drying, I printed off a decal and cut it out. I used this to put the xbox logo on the top of the box. This is not really necessary, but it looks cool. once you have everything painted, add your hinges and see how everything looks.
Step 6: Putting It All Together
First, Solder the wires from the xbox to the lcd driver, and glue the driver and lcd into the case. Run all of the cables down to the bottom half of the case and attach the front panel with the bolts. Once you have everything in the box, power up the xbox and test it out.