Like many Xbox 360s out there, [Aaron’s] console succumbed to the dreaded three red lights of death. Since it seemed to be unrepairable, there wasn’t a lot that could be done with it other than throw it out. Rather than be wasteful however, [Aaron] thought of a great way to reuse the console’s outer shell.
He’s a big fan of fighting games, and as everyone knows, this genre is best played with an arcade-style controller. The 360’s shell seemed to be just about the right size, so he gutted it and got busy constructing his own arcade controller. With the console cleared out, he installed all of his arcade bits, wiring them to a stripped third-party Xbox controller.
He installed a four port USB hub to the front of the console, enabling use of the 360’s USB ports, and rewired the power button to trigger the Xbox Guide button. A shiny coat of paint later, and he was ready to play.
Keep reading to see a short video of [Aaron’s] arcade stick in action, and check out the picture gallery he put together of the controller’s construction.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i8GIZNch-0&w=470]
And people thought the first XBox controller was huge…
Apparently not. This reminds of a tissue mod I saw back in the day
http://aleptu.com/xbox-360-mods-0519202.html
That one was an unusable, broken box too.
(calling it xbox would be a shame)
Probably a little late to mention this but i just fixed my xbox 360 when it had 3 red rings last night. I opened it up and removed the heatsinks/strange X clamps, removed all the caked on crappy thermal paste… threw a thin layer or arctic silver (Failed again), then i re-did it this time with more thermal paste. Disconnected the fan, turned it on until 3 lights became 2 lights. Shut it off, wait 10 mins, plug fans back in, turn it on. Now it works perfectly.
Now I want to completely throw away that ugly case, and build a good one out of aluminum, naked the xbox looks like an IBM aptiva desktop lol
Where does one buy these retro buttons for a project like this?
From what I can see you can get most of these parts from SparkFun electronics.
http://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=Arcade&what=products
It is actually a surprisingly ergonomically shaped as a controller.
I believe it. With the curved front, it probably fits in your lap nicely. Arcade controls like that are supposed to be big anyway.
Yep, sits pretty comfortably on the lap. Perhaps MS knew the ergonomics of their case and figured the console would make a nice project box once it failed prematurely :P
I’ve done one like this, need to add some weight to it.
gread idee to use a old 360 case
Not a to bad of an idea for a new one either.
Would have taken less time to fix the rrod himself than build that. But anyway still good build
Geezus! That thing is huge! But I like the idea of have a controller for a traditional Arcade game. Now all I need is a back-pack large enough for my arcade game.
Awesome to see something I built on Hackaday! Quite chuffed.
Very nice. Awesome.
Wow.
I have been thinking of building a mini-arcade with my original xbox and have been wondering how to integrate the xbox console into the arcade design. This may be a great way to do that.
Cool hack, great color scheme too.
Did you try to even fix the RROD I have fixed many xbox360’s that were plauged with the RROD and all were due to poor thermal design by MS. The crappy x clamps are the reason you get the RROD because after time they due not apply the right amount of pressure I simply opened the case swapped out the x clamps for actual screws and screwed the heat sink down I also removed the horrible thermal paste and used arctic silver 5. you have to unplug the fan turn on the console which will heat up the thermal paste and make a better contact once that is complete put everything back together fire up your console and you will never get another RROD.
Yes but it wasn’t to be. Ended up buying one of the new slim models and attempting to leave the world of RRoD behind me lol I’ve managed to get one to operate for another couple of months at best after repairing RRoD. I have a couple more RRoD consoles on my shelf as well that I’ll have to find a use for.
A friend bought a lot of 12 xbox360s all but one of them failing from RROD. We replaced the clamps on all of them with bolts and tried the thermal paste replacement and overheat via fan removal. We also tried cooking them in the oven as another method to reheat the solder. The longest we could get one to run for was about 3 months before it would fail again. After many continuous failures over time we decided that we couldn’t sell them as working and wouldn’t try any longer and sold them for parts. I’m actually curious to know if anyone else had better success than us for an extended period of time?
I have replaced in all 5 and all are still running. Mine has been running for 8 months since I replaced the x clamps. I used a Allen wrench with a flat socket screw to make sure the screws were super tight , which is tighter than a Phillips head screw.