WIP: Astra Xbox media center installation

[kNeo_gHau]

I've been saying i want an xbox 1 in my car for ages, and after finding a good deal on a centre console with a screen in and DC-AC power adapter i've decided to start work.

Reason i want one is due to xbox media center. Dump and play MP3s on the hard drive, videos, pictures. As a media center it's great and will be perfect for the car.

First i've had to take the xbox apart. Just putting it in whole would be far to easy, and it's so large it doesn't fit anyway After not being able to find any non-standard cases that'll shrink or at least alter the size of the console i've realised i'm going to have to go gut it and hope it fits in the glovebox.

So first things first, take xbox apart. This is the case and alot of the junk left behind.


The power and eject buttons aren't going to be as easily to hook up as i'd hoped, the buttons are attached to a circuit board


However the good news, the motherboard and PSU fits in the glovebox!


The tray in the middle of the glovebox will have the DVD drive and hard drive on it. I'm going to have to make some kind of false front for the glovebox, so that the power button, DVD drive eject button, DVD drive draw, and controller ports are fitted. Also so that the bare inners are hidden and protected somewhat.

I've still got a lot of work a head of me, screw motherboard down to glovebox, make a false front, fit center console (once it arrives) but i'm 99% sure it's possible and will work once i'm complete.

I'm also hoping this will work
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/ice-s...rols-xbox.html


Will have more pictures and updates soon, hoping to get everything screwed down and most everything setup before the screen arrives.

[show n shine]

looks good dude, im planning this aswell.
what bout ventilation for it ?

[kNeo_gHau]

The Xbox only has 1 fan in the back. I'm hoping that the extra space in the glovebox will provide enough cooling, it won't have the hard drive and dvd drive right above it for one thing. The media center reports what temperature the console is running at so once it's all setup in the glovebox i'll be able to power it up and see if it's going to be to hot or not.

The case fan is just a standard 3 pin case fan so if it is overheating all i'll need to do is drill a large hole and screw a fan to it to provide extra air.

[show n shine]

cool.

personally i would add the fan in anyway.

[l337 calibra]

I believe some of the older xboxes had chipset cooling, see if you can find spares or a broken one with the fans.

You chipping it? I reccomend Excecutor 2.6CE and EVOX 2.6 dash

[kNeo_gHau]

Originally Posted by l337 calibra

I believe some of the older xboxes had chipset cooling, see if you can find spares or a broken one with the fans.

You chipping it? I reccomend Excecutor 2.6CE and EVOX 2.6 dash

I twist and tape wires, not solder I would like to chip it but to much work and hassle. It's soft modded at the moment and you can do everything the same anyway, as long as you don't format your hard drive and lose the original backed up files it'll be fine.

I've just looked and it seems adding a USB cable to the xbox is a peace of piss, and then i can add a USB hard drive for easily transfer music/videos from computer to car, without first moving them on to laptop and then FTP on to xbox. Plus the standard hard drive is only like 6gb and it's a nightmare to upgrade it when the xbox is only softmodded (need to unlock and lock the drivers and crap). Would rather just use my old 60gb laptop hard drive in a USB caddy as it's more convient for me that way anyway

Quick question if anyone knows, can you get drivers/software for XBMC so that when the USB connection is there i can plug in my ipod touch and use that on the xbox? If so i'll be a happy man

[SteveM]

word of warning for xbmc, if your sticking a bigger hd in, you'll be better off getting a nas box and keeping it externally as there is not enough memory on the xbox for any kind of defrag utility, and if your always copying to and fro it'll grind to a halt after a while! (had it on a 500gb one, took about a minute to get into xbmc, and all the films on it were jumping frequently. In the end we had to copy everything off, reformat, and copy back on and it was sweet)

edit: just read that /\, it's not to hard to change the internal drive, and i'm not sure if you can use usb drives ? may need to be a networked drive, but it'll be super fast and work without falt

i thought about doing this before but decided in the end, your better off just using a cheapy pc motherboard and linux or a cut down xp.

ppss: another thing i just thought, you'll need to make sure the xbox is permanently live, or it's going to ask you to set the time/date every time you turn it on

ok, one more edit: i don't know of any ipod drivers, but you can install linux on the xbox, which would make getting drivers a lot simpler i should imagine

[DaveB]

I've got an Xbox 360; the posh one with the large internal HD> but i've got nothing on the HD becuase there is no easy way of getting stuff on there... or is there?

I cba copying films off a dvd onto the HD as that means first writing it to the disc! The xbox is on my network, so I can play mp3s through it etc that are stored on my PC.

(sorry for the slight hijack)

[Jack]

Looks a cool project. Chipping isn't difficult if you've got a steady hand, but you are limited as to what chip you can use by your xbox version. Mine's one of the latest of the early ones, and like 1337 recommended, I'm using an X2.6CE.

I've got the EvoX dash on mine too, and XBMC. Not bothered with a larger hard drive because I stream everything from an SMB share.

Personally I'd be very worried about cooling. It's going to get very stuffy very quickly in a glovebox. I know EvoX does, but I'm not sure if XBMC provides any way to display any temperatures?

[kNeo_gHau]

Originally Posted by SteveM

word of warning for xbmc, if your sticking a bigger hd in, you'll be better off getting a nas box and keeping it externally as there is not enough memory on the xbox for any kind of defrag utility, and if your always copying to and fro it'll grind to a halt after a while! (had it on a 500gb one, took about a minute to get into xbmc, and all the films on it were jumping frequently. In the end we had to copy everything off, reformat, and copy back on and it was sweet)

edit: just read that /\, it's not to hard to change the internal drive, and i'm not sure if you can use usb drives ? may need to be a networked drive, but it'll be super fast and work without falt

i thought about doing this before but decided in the end, your better off just using a cheapy pc motherboard and linux or a cut down xp.

ppss: another thing i just thought, you'll need to make sure the xbox is permanently live, or it's going to ask you to set the time/date every time you turn it on

ok, one more edit: i don't know of any ipod drivers, but you can install linux on the xbox, which would make getting drivers a lot simpler i should imagine

Someone on xbox scene said that the USB won't support larger than 4gb on hard drives apparently Probably just get a NAS drive/caddy instead

Originally Posted by DaveB

I've got an Xbox 360; the posh one with the large internal HD> but i've got nothing on the HD becuase there is no easy way of getting stuff on there... or is there?

I cba copying films off a dvd onto the HD as that means first writing it to the disc! The xbox is on my network, so I can play mp3s through it etc that are stored on my PC.

(sorry for the slight hijack)

It's an xbox 1 i'm doing, not a 360. The 360 is crap for media in comparision, plus i'd never leave it in such a confined space

Originally Posted by Jack

Looks a cool project. Chipping isn't difficult if you've got a steady hand, but you are limited as to what chip you can use by your xbox version. Mine's one of the latest of the early ones, and like 1337 recommended, I'm using an X2.6CE.

I've got the EvoX dash on mine too, and XBMC. Not bothered with a larger hard drive because I stream everything from an SMB share.

Personally I'd be very worried about cooling. It's going to get very stuffy very quickly in a glovebox. I know EvoX does, but I'm not sure if XBMC provides any way to display any temperatures?

it's a later console 1.6, although i've soldered and don't have equipment etc, softmod works almost just as well.

XBMC does report what temps the system is running at as well as giving you speed control over the fan I've got spare large computer fans lying round anyway if it does need some air flow. The reason i'm thinking it might be fine is the motherboard and everything is passively cooled, only 1 fan (the case fan) in the whole console, and the heat from dvd drive and hard drive being directly above the heatsinks will be restricting heat movement loads. In the glovebox there's a lot more space above the heatsink so it might be enough. If air movement is needed it won't be a problem anyway.

I'll know when it's setup properly anyway

[Jack]

Originally Posted by kNeo_gHau

XBMC does report what temps the system is running at as well as giving you speed control over the fan I've got spare large computer fans lying round anyway if it does need some air flow. The reason i'm thinking it might be fine is the motherboard and everything is passively cooled, only 1 fan (the case fan) in the whole console, and the heat from dvd drive and hard drive being directly above the heatsinks will be restricting heat movement loads. In the glovebox there's a lot more space above the heatsink so it might be enough. If air movement is needed it won't be a problem anyway.

Ah ha, you are absolutely right, I forgot about that.

In the normal case though, the assumption is made that the console is in a room full of cooler air. In a glovebox, there is nowhere for the air to go. It's all very well aiming a bigger fan at the processor, but the air in your glovebox isn't being replaced by any cooler air.

USB hard drives aren't limited to 4gb.

[JoeyB]

X2.6CE Over here too!! With EvoX dashboard. And a 250GB hard drive.

I have a 360 now though so I could also install my old Xbox into the Astra.

[kNeo_gHau]

Update, realised screwing the motherboard directly to the glovebox was a bad idea, and considering the elbow room in a glovebox was very limited was going to be very hard.

So got a bit of wood from the shed and bolted motherboard and PSU to that


Before hand i stopped in a local computer shop and asked if they had any of the screws you use to hold a motherboard above a case, they kindly gave me 7 for free.


When in the glovebox the heatsink JUST clears the glovebox rear slant part. I figure if i need a fan on the slant part would be the best place.

The DVD drive and hard drive don't have any real mounting points on them to bolt them to the middle tray, so i've been on ebay and bought some velcro strips. Will also use this to hold the wood down to the glovebox rather than have sharp screws poking through cutting me when i move it about.

Won an xbox controller on ebay as well, which i'll be dismantling and trying to hook up to the steering wheel controlls. Would prefer to get a steering wheel adapter and cut that up instead of the wiring loom but will have to wait and see, at £30 i might cut the loom

[SteveM]

Looking good keep the updates coming!

btw, what screen are you using ?

[kNeo_gHau]

Originally Posted by SteveM

Looking good keep the updates coming!

btw, what screen are you using ?

I've got a 5.6" or 6" LCD screen and a sat nav center console in the post (hopefully) from a guy off of AOC.

Drilled holes in the glovebox for the power and video cables, then went out so no real updates. On the plus side i've hooked the stuff up and it's working again, so i've managed to eject the DVD drive and get my sisters xfiles DVD out of the drive Always eject stuff before you pull it apart.

Should get the astra back tomorrow (turbo blew) so i can see if there's enough room to bolt a fan on to the back above the heatsinks and make sure it won't foul anything behind the glovebox

[JoeyB]

Can you not find a way of redirecting your aircon to the glovebox?

[Jack]

Originally Posted by JoeyB

Can you not find a way of redirecting your aircon to the glovebox?

Cavaliers and Calibras with air con had refrigerated glove boxes. Pimp!

[kNeo_gHau]

Originally Posted by JoeyB

Can you not find a way of redirecting your aircon to the glovebox?

Maybe, but then i'd only be able to turn it on in during hot summer days

Also forgot to say i took a USB cable and controller ports to work and got a mate to attach a USB cable to the controller cable which i've tested and works great. The wires are to small and fiddly for me to be able to do it and there's not enough spare wire to make a mistake. I don't have anything over 4gb with a USB connection at the moment so can't check if what the guy on xbox-scene told me is correct or not. Ebuyer have dispatched my USB caddy so i'll know one way or the other soon enough

[Dom]

If you're not already considering it, use a 2.5" hard drive for in car installs.

3.5" Drives do not have much shock resistance while the 2.5" drives are a lot more robust.

[kNeo_gHau]

Originally Posted by Dom

If you're not already considering it, use a 2.5" hard drive for in car installs.

3.5" Drives do not have much shock resistance while the 2.5" drives are a lot more robust.

Already am, only because i have a spare laptop hard drive sitting round though It's only 60gb but i might swap it back with the one i've installed in my laptop (160gb) which isn't getting used much at the moment. We'll see

[kNeo_gHau]

Well i having have a little play in my room and decided to take it out of the glovebox, which meant unplugging the power and video cables.

As i grabbed the power cable to pull it out a huge surge of electricity shot through me and power to half the house went out. Arms felt numb for a couple of minutes and my little finger still tingles a bit.

I'm sure i'll laugh about it tonight down the pub but i'm a bit shaken at the moment.

Stupid exposed PSU's

[SteveM]

safety first!

[Dom]

Originally Posted by kNeo_gHau

Stupid exposed hands

[kNeo_gHau]

Managed to get to the first few fights scenes of halo 2 before it overheated, so smart ass comments at the ready Should get my car back tomorrow so i can see where i can fit some fans to cool it down. Also noticed where i'd drilled a hole for the av cable to go through is to small, where the actual cable connects to the console pokes out the back and stops everything from fitting in smoothly, will have to get the drill back out tomorrow and make the hole bigger and mount a fan. Might drill some random holes as well to aid air flow a bit

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Jack

Personally I'd be very worried about cooling. It's going to get very stuffy very quickly in a glovebox.

Get some more photos up!