Pelican Case Xbox 360

pelicanxbox

[Ben Heck] has put the final touches on his Pelican case Xbox 360. This prototype was constructed for use by troops stationed overseas. When he announced the project in October, he already knew some of the hurdles he would face. An industrial Velcro style product is used for all component mounting so the air/water-tight seal of the case remains intact. He sanded the surface so that it would stick better. [Ben] mentions that he ended up using less Velcro than he planned on because it held so well. Not being able to cut the case meant the DVD drive had to be converted to top-loading. The tray movement limit switches have been relocated so they now respond to lid position. He regrets not being able to motorize the lid, but let it go since this is still just the first attempt. Extra copper was added to all of the heat sinks to improve cooling. This Xbox is for sale and he’d love to hear from anyone that wants to put it into production. The write-up has a ton of pictures and you can see a video of it below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CoZ8i3O3qs]

26 thoughts on “Pelican Case Xbox 360

  1. j you marvelous bastard – I haven’t laughed that hard in a while :)

    I wonder if epoxying screw standoffs to the case would have worked as well as velcro? And what, no headphone jack?

  2. Now that’s Patriotic!

    Maybe consider having a charger for controller batteries built in in later models, that would make it a little more compact! And lose the problem of getting batteries Overseas.

  3. I like it. You could use more ventilation however. Troops in hotter regions will obviously have a higher room temperature and that would quickly overheat the unit. I would also like to see a headphone jack as mentioned in an earlier post. Also how do you sync the controllers? Does it have built in wifi? Good for a proto.

  4. The one issue I see with this is that it doesn’t really protect against the really light dust/sand, the sort that manages to find its way into electronics and destroy them.

    At the least I think some sort of air filter would be a good idea. I think a protective cover over the LCD would also be a good idea, since dust can be really abrasive.

  5. I’ll bet some of the more hardcore gamers in the service will have to start to choose wether they want to have batteries for their night-vision or their controllers ;)

    I’d love to see a production model of that type of setup. Would be great even for the on-the-go enthusiast, since it would most likely take more of a beating, especially thru airports and so forth.

    @sven: i’d have a second pelican case made with lasercut foam to hold the controllers and possibly some games and other accessories

  6. hell yeah, make a trunk sized thing that two guys can lug around that includes a medium size lcd panel, a PS3, 360, Wii, and all the necessary everything all in one giant box with a single power cable.

  7. wow actually he is way behind on this one, and to be honest it seems like he is just trying to get it out for the publicity. many of us have family and friends over there and have had them over there for quite some time. these types of items have been shipped to and from many times over without “hey look at me and what i did” because it is for our family’s. sorry ben, to me this one appears to be done purely out of publicity scheme. many game systems and media players are over there in our family’s hands already but we aren’t out saying “hey look at what i did for our troops give me a pat on the back” you do not do that for that reason, you do it because it is the right thing to do.

  8. well in fairness to ben, he did have to convert the 360 to top loading. It had to be durable, and i’m sure there were some hurdles with heat issues.

    I disagree with h_2_o, sure lots of people are sending stuff to their loved ones in the army. What they are probably not doing is sending stuff that can take a heavy beating.

    I don’t really know what to think about sending videogames to warzones though. Something about being in a warzone, getting a break and playing a violent game (which most videogames are[most 360 games are shooters aswell]) doesn’t really sit well with me.

  9. Do I need to say how wrong I find that comment, “I’d have killed for something like this”..

    But well cool enough, and hay it’s not like hackaday has a limit on how many mods they can bring..

  10. rasz, you are an ignorant shithead. Have you ever been over here? Or are you just talking out of your ass? I’m willing to bet on the latter. Anyway, on to h_2_o and rick. I don’t see how Ben is behind on this one, I’m on my second tour and I’ve never even seen anything like this, let alone had one sent to me. And if it’s so easy, why don’t you do one that’s better? In fact, I doubt you’d be able to make one that works as good, if at all. I say good job to Ben on this one, if I had a desire to own an Xbox I’d seriously think of picking this one up, I use that same Pelican case to carry my laptop around in and I have to say I’ve been very impressed with it, it’s been through hell and has always completely protected my laptop, even when my truck rolled over into a shit ditch.

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