The Homebrew XBox 360 And PS3 Portable

Cross

For the past few years now, [Downing] has been working on the dream of all console modders – a console made in the last ten years made portable. He’s spend a lot of time on the effort, and now thanks to a commission, he’s finally done it. Not just one console, either: this thing makes both the Xbox 360 and PS3 a handheld, battery-powered device thanks to some awesome wireless tech and a great deal of skill.

A few months ago, [Downing] and friends [Hailrazer] and [RDC] started a Kickstarter for the Cross Plane, a portable device that uses a wireless HDMI transmitter to offload the heavy and hot parts of running a game to a console, while the display and controls are kept portable. That Kickstarter didn’t see the success [Downing] was looking for, but that didn’t stop one enthusiastic supporter from commissioning a piece.

The display in the Cross Plane is a 7″ HD display, and the latency on the WHDMI transmitter is just about 1ms – basically unnoticeable. The controls on the front of the portable are wired to ‘controller packs’ that plug into the back, one for Xbox and one for PS3. The build quality is immaculate, and if you’ve ever wanted to know how to expertly finish a 3D printed part so it looks like it came off an assembly line, you should probably check out the build log.

Video walkthrough below.

23 thoughts on “The Homebrew XBox 360 And PS3 Portable

  1. so basically it’s just a monitor with a wireless display adapter plus a controller all in a fancy package. the “hack” is only the enclosure. the rest is just plug and play.

    1. Yes, lets see you put all that together in a neat package like this guy has done. To fit it all together and look so professional without using ‘hard to get hold of’ machinery (injection molding etc) is great. Just because a few bits were off the shelf parts doesn’t make this any less of a hack (theres PCBs, edge connectors, PS4/Xbox carts).. One thing i would have added was the HDMI pins on the cart connector, you could make an ‘raspberry pi’ cart and had an emulator on there so you could game without the need for a console (those are huge batteries so it would last a while!!!)

    1. That is exactly what i was thinking…

      Personally I wouldn’t call this portable, I would call this wireless as the console still has to be “close” by.

      The finished unit is very nice though

  2. I was going to trash this guy on calling it a “Xbox 360 and PS3 portable”, since it’s just a wireless display + controllers mashed into one… However… Mad props for that awesome 3D printed case, and the custom PCBs. This thing actually looks professional, which is more then I can say for most of the lookalikes where people are hacking PCBs in half and taping things together (that kind of crap always makes me cringe).

    I’d buy one if he was selling kits. Too bad he isn’t. Would almost make a nice KS project.

  3. ok given my bad eyes (nearsighted) i want one of these… i could actuily play some console games with this (i have a hard time refocusing on hud’s and txt on a larger display) wich is why i end up playing alot of android or an emulator on my psp …

    I do consider this a nice hack at it’s heart and a great refinement of an idea.

    now i’m curious what screen he’s using and if theres an afordible Wierless HDMI dongle out there.

    i love how he took the idea of the universal controler from a diffrent hack to make the controler work. i allways thought if that hack only had a screen built in it would rock.

    Well now it does :)

    i want to make one.

  4. Not trashing the build its great and well made. Problem being that most peoples first impression is completely portable system vs just wireless panel with controller and screen ala wiiu pad. Kinda implied it was the former and probably what most people thought at first.

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