NEW WIRELESS 360 CONTROLLER LED MOD

[precisewitem]

I've decided to redo my previous controller LED mod. This time I will be including a full tutorial. Here is a picture of what the fisnished product will look like. This time I will be using green LEDs replacing the yellow ones seen in this picture.




CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS MOD
1) Thinner 30 AWG solid hookup wire to replace the 26 guage rat shack wire I was previously using.

2) Brighter Green LEDs to match the controller case color.

3) Changes in the wiring pattern and running.

4) Shrink wrap and shrinkable tape will be used to protect the controller board from contact with any leads, wire, or solder joints.

5) Full tutorial with pictures and links to products included.

SUPPLIES BASICS
- Soldering Iron - 15W Can be purchased as a kit from rat shack
- 30 AWG Wire Strippers - Not necessary but will help out a lot
- Resin Core Solder - Comes in kit if you get it at rat shack
- 1/16 -> 1/8 shrinkwrap and shrinkable tape - Necessary
- LEDs - All same color or specifications. Up to 3V Forward voltage
- Resistor - Calculated based upon LEDs. Lookup Resistor Calculator
- Sponge - Not necessary but helpful
- T8 Torx Skrewdriver - sold with controller case
- 30 AWG hookup wire - 28 or 30 AWG is a must as the wire has to navigate the inside of the controller case.

ALSO
- See-Thru controller case
- Wireless xbox 360 controller
- 2 AA batteries

LINKS
Soldering Iron - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062758&cp=&sr=1&origkw=soldering+iron&kw=soldering+iron&parentPage=search

Wire Strippers - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062784&cp=&sr=1&origkw=wire+strippers&kw=wire+strippers&parentPage=search

Shrink Wrap / Tape - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104090&cp=&sr=1&origkw=shrink+tubing&kw=shrink+tubing&parentPage=search

LEDs - http://www.theledlight.com/5mmcoloredleds.html
http://www.superbrightleds.com/leds.htm

Resistors - http://www.action-electronics.com/resistor.htm

Hookup Wire - http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=45_70

Controller Case - http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/2,225.htm

MORE TO COME WAITING ON MY NEW LEDS

[precisewitem]

How to disassemble the controller:

1) Use the torx bit that comes with the smoke case you have purchased from decalgirl.com to remove the 7 torx skrews. Six surround the controller shell and one is located under a tiny barcode sticker at the base of where the battery pack plugs into the controller. Refer to the picture below to find the 7th hidden skrew. Removing the sticker that covers the skrew voids any warranty on the controller.



2) Press down on both trigger buttons as you separate the two sides of the controller, making sure the side with the buttons in it is facing down.

3) Gently remove the controller board and rumble motors without allowing them to hang on the wires connected to the board. Place the board and rumble motors on a clean / non conductive surface such as plastic / rubber.



4) now remove the rubber button padding that cover the xbox and abxy buttons. Also remove the padding for the dpad button. It is not necessary to remove the entire dpad button.

That's it. Controller disassembled. Still waiting on my LEDs.

[Nginuity]

[Alan]

Nice instructions and the pictures came out quite well. I don't have one of those consoles but I am sure it will help many get started in modding.

[precisewitem]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appretiate your input.


SOLDERING / MOD TIPS


There are a few things you need to know about soldering before you attempt to try it for the first time.


1) Before soldering with LED / Resistor leads you should practice on some spare wire. This will help you to learn the correct way to heat the wires / leads and solder. Your going to want to use the broad part of the tip to heat the wires not the, actual tip.

2) It is beneficial to clean the wire and leads with sand-paper before attempting to solder. This helps create a rough surface, creating a stronger solder joint.

3) It is also important to tin the object to be soldered and the tip of the iron before soldering. In order to tin the gun you simply heat the resin core solder on the tip of the gun. To tin the wire or leads you heat the object and let the solder flow to it.

4) To solder you first heat the objects you want to solder together and then flow the solder over the joint. Melting the solder over cool wires / leads will yeild you poor solder joints. A poor solder joint appears dull with a sort of black film surroundiing it.

5) It's considered good technique when soldering to make joints with the objects you wish to solder together. There are many types of solder joints and methods for doing this. The method that I use most often is to make loops with the wires and leads, connecting the loops and soldering them together. This creates a greater surface area for heating and soldering. It also strebgthens the joint and increases conductivity. Even making a single loop and running the wire / lead through the loop to solder them together is better than laying the objects next to / on top of each other. Avoid the next to / on top of method whenever possible.

6) Make sure when you purchase solder you get a resin core solder than contains flux. If the solder does not contain flux you will have to apply it to the joints before soldering to ensure a clean solid bond between the solder and the metal you are soldering to. Flux helps solder flow properly.

7) It's best to solder on a wooden surface in case the gun is to fall over. The solder will occasionally drip and fall on the surface you are working on. The possibility of the gun falling over is increased as it is attached to a plug in the wall.

8) It's considerably dangerous to solder without wearing gloves and eye protection, especially when wires are involved.

9) It is helpful to have a bench press or some heavy obect available when soldering. Since I do not have a press I usually use a can of veggetables, works great lol. This will hold one of the obects to be soldered, helping mostly during the heating phase as the objects will not shift positions.

10) Between joints you should use a sponge to quickly clean the tip of any solder / debri that remains.

11) Do not solder too close to the LEDs. Most manufacturers say between 3 and 5mm from where the leads enter the LED casing. Stay at least a quarter inch from the body of the LED to be safe.

12) Lay out all pieces before soldering the first joint. In other words, run the wire through the controller case to determine the length. Leave about a quarter inch of wire extra for the loops on both sides. I will include design layouts and a step by step tutorial, so you will see this process in the pictures.

13) Avoid bright colored wire as it will show up more underneath the case. Use alternating dark colors for power and ground.

14) The direction the resistor faces is not important. You must run the positive wire from where the pack coil is positive. The LEDs must be wired all positive leads together all ground together. This will be further illustrated. The ground wire is wire to where the pack coil is negative.


Just waiting on the resistor now, much more to come...

[precisewitem]

I will be posting the finished tutorial and pictures for the mod tomorrow night. The shipping is taking a long time on the resistors. Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long. Check back tomorrow night for the full tutorial.

[precisewitem]

I didn't recieve the LEDs yesterday morning as stated in the tracking information. They came this morning. I have completed the circuit and I have also taken all of pictures for the tutorial.

One of the LEDs I have wired into the circuit seems to be bad as it is much duller than the other two. I will be replacing this LED tonight or tomorrow and the turtorial / additional pics will follow. I do not have the energy to write it up tonight after mowing two lawns and doing the mod in the afternoon.

The total time it takes to complete the mod is between 3 1/2 to 4 hours including the initial setup and picture taking. Do not rush through it in an attempt to shorten the time it takes, plan ahead and have patients. Here's some pics for now, as I said I will be replacing the one dull LED on the right hand side.





Yeah I know you want one... lol

[Nginuity]

I like that a lot better than the yellow ones.
_________________
_ _ . . . . . . _ _

[precisewitem]

DETAILED TUTORIAL

Set up all of your equiptment. Here are some pictures of my setup for reference.
I've found an old table separater to use as a soldering surface.
Plug in your soldering iron now to give it time to heat up.





The first step is to remove the 7 torx skrews from the back of the controller. The six obvious skrews are located around the back of the controller. The seventh hidden skrew is located under a sticker and can be found in this picture:



Now remove the back of the case with the buttons facing down:





Now remove the board and the rumble motors. Place the motors on the board gently and lift the board out of the case. The joysticks must pass through the case as they are attached to the board.



Lastly remove the rubber padding for the xbox abxy and dpad buttons and the bottom and top pieces that are sandwhiched between the back and front of the case. The top bumper buttons and the bottom piece.





There's a bit of strategy that comes into play here as there's numerous ways to do this mod. I've found there are several locations to place the LEDs s well.

The way that I suggest you start is buy simply bending the LED leads, keeping track of the positive (longer), so that the LEDs will fit in the locations you wish to place them in. You will have to trim the leads accordingly. Here are some pictures of what I'm taking about:





After laying out and trimming LED leads, it's time to start soldering the circuit together.

Some key points to remember. Tin the gun before you solder by melting some solder on the tip and cleaning the tip with a sponge. Clean leads and wires with sandpaper before tinning. Tin leads and wires before soldering them together. Don't use an abundance of solder, just enough to do the job. Make loop joints.

Run the wires first and cut them for close to exact length. Make sure to shrink wrap or tape all leads and solder joints to avoid any misfunctioning of the controller due to contact with the board.

Use 30 AWG wire by the left thumbstick or the LB button may hit the wires. 28 guage works well for the rest of the mod as it adds support for the LED placement. It may take several attempts to get the LEDs right where you want them. Put the case together without the skrews and try the LEDs to see if they are in a good position. If not, take it apart and bend the wires / leads to get them in place and try again. Take your time.

Here is where you run the wires. You will connect all the positive leads of the LEDs to each other and then to a resistor. all the negative leads will also be connected. This routing pattern allows for easy access to the coils at the back of the pack:



Here's the finished circuit in the controller before final taping and wrapping. The resistor is wrapped and located at the middle right hand side of the picture next to the dpad:





Now you place the board back in and run the wires under the board, in the spaces outlined in this picture:



Put the back of the case on, running the wires through the hole in the back of the case, being careful to get the springs and the supports for the springs in the case correctly. When the case is together, trim the wires to a length that they can reach the oppossit spring and desheath the wire. Now push the wire into the opposite spring near the bottom of the coil. The positive goes in the terminal where the positive AA touches, the negative where the negative AA touches. Like this:





And here's what you get if you wired everything properly and none of the joints have broken upon installation:





























Sorry that it took me a few more days than I had projected to post this tutorial. It took me over an hour to take and upload all the pics / write this all out. Hope this helps everyone who's looking to do a simple LED mod for thier clear / smoke case. Overall difficulty I would say is a 3 or higher depending on your experiance with soldering / taking thinks apart.

Happy modding!

Rock on hackedgadgets.com

Christopher

[precisewitem]

Used my controller as an avatar

[precisewitem]

Hey thx Allen for posting this on the main site, I appretiate it as I put a lot of effort into writing up the tutorial. Thanks again,

Christopher

[Alan]

[anotherhackmember]

I have seen many instructions 1/2 as good sell for lots of money.

Quick, bundle this up and sell online for at least $5. Don't forget to erase these post and send me my finders fee

[precisewitem]

Thanks for the input anotherhackmember and everyone else who has been following this / my previous posts. Without the help and experiance of the members of this site it would have taken me a lot longer to complete this mod (if I would have tried to do it at all). I like the green ones better too. The yellow ones didn't gain much popularity on another site where I posted pics of the controller.

In the future I will be posting various auctions on ebay related to this mod. They will include different kits to do the mod and a kit that contains the finished circuit.

- The basic kit will include the LEDs, resistor, and instructions - for the more experianced customer. This way you can use your own iron, heat shrink, tape, wire, and solder if you already have these things. $10 - 15 (with shipping)

- The intermediate kit will come with everything from the basic kit along with a soldering iron kit. $20-25 (with shipping)

- The advanced kit will come with everything from the intermediate and beggining kits along with heat shrink, tape, wire, and additional wiring instructions and diagrams for rumble motor LEDs / adding a switch / wiring for the board relays so the LEDs will function as the ring of light LEDs do. $30-40 (with shipping).

- The last kit will contain a finsihed circuit with three leds already wired, fitted, and adjusted to fit your controller. It will come with options for installation and instructions on various installations. $50 (with shipping).

Colors are: green, red, blue, yellow, orange, warm white, and cool white.

Another thing I appretiate about this site is, even when people post a comment that says they don't like or would change something, the comment is constructive. The maturity level here is much higher than other forums on the internet.

[Mox Born Again]

I'm pretty new to this whole modding thing the most i currently do is make custom vinyl raps for controllers, but I am interested to find some answers regarding your controller mod.

1) can you relocate the LEDs? or do they have to be where you have them specified?

2) How many LEDs can you put in a controller? do you start seeing some dimer than others and if so would you only recommend only using 3?

3) this kind of goes along with the first question but I have to ask, is it possible to get an LED on the back side of the controller?

I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head that would combine your mod along with my mod. If it was to work I think I could come up with some really cool designs...

thanks for all your help
-Mox Born Again