My XERC Xbox with over 200 LEDs

[bdan629]

I had been long awaiting the next version of the XERC CME SE to come out so that I could make another xbox packed full of LED's.  I decided this time that I wanted to use an XCM crystal clear case.  My final design incorporated over 200 LED's.  This caused minor issues as the xbox power supply could not handle all of those LED's and neither could the XERC CME SE.  To solve the power issue, I made an external enclosure and attached a second xbox power supply to my xbox using a 4 pin circular connector.  I wired up the external power supply to turn on whenever I turned my xbox on, and off when turned off.  I then used this external power supply to power all of my LED's.  As for the XERC CME SE not being able to handle 200 LED's,  I had to add two more ULN2003AN's and split the leds over the three chips.  If anyone wants to do something similar I can help you with the wiring.  Also I used the HDD led in the Xecuter 3 Pro Switch as the XERC status light.

Its a little hard to see from the pictures and the video, but the X in the top of the case is lit up Red......the side parts of the X are all lit up orange......the jewel is lit up orange......and on the front panel it alternates red and orange so that a red and an orange are always opposite eachother.

Anyway here is the result:

Video of it in action:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2192835365845578942&hl=en


Pictures:









this has my xbox360 in the background which has the blue X-cut case, which I installed the
PulseVU into.







this is the external power supply that I made.  It has a fan installed to keep it cool, it has a 4 pin circular connector to connect it to the xbox, also I installed a red status light to indicate when the power supply is on




This is the 4 pin circular connector that I installed into the back of the xbox.  The connector makes for a very clean install:











Now for install pictures (You can't see everything because there are lots and lots of wires but here they are)








These are the extra ULN2003AN's that I added....I soldered them to a circuitboard:




The brains of the LED's (The XERC CME SE)





This is it all apart.  The wires are long, but I like it that way so that I can easily take the lid off and things like that without detaching wires






Matching controller:



The controller has a switch and a pushbutton, one to turn the LED's in the controller on and off and the other to turn on and off the xbox:




Hope everyone likes it......thanks for looking

[SICKdimension]

Excellent work!! I really love your LED layout and how they are connected to the XERC. It creates such beautiful movements of light and shadow. Your wiring is also great. It shows you planned it out and took your time.

Great job!!

[mlwood37]

What can i say that is awesome job and well done.

Would love to see semantics on the whole set up.

impressed is a understatement  ..

[darkmike57]

Reminds me of the sun!

Looks really good dude. Good job!

[pablot]

As I said on AIM, very nice job man! I can't even begin to understand the patience that must have taken. Keep up the good work!

[sinister slipknot]

Thats so sweet. i was going to get this product for my 360 and i had a design in mind that (at last calculation) would use 338 leds. Does this mean that a) my 360 wont be able to power all of these and b) the XERC CME won't be able to control them without being modified? Also what is the total ammount of leds the XERC CME can control?

[SICKdimension]

You're correct. The 360 has very limited power. The CME can control up to around 1.2A by default, but as bdan showed, can be modified to support more. You would need an external power supply to power 338 LEDs.

[sinister slipknot]

Ok so if i used my old xbox power supply that should be fine, but how would i have to modify the XERC to control more than 338 leds?

[bdan629]

you would need to get a couple more uln2003an's.  then wire them like Pablot says here http://forums.sickmods.net/index.php?topic=322.0    make sure you get the uln2003an not the uln2003a.  You can put about 8 leds on each port of each uln2003an.

[sinister slipknot]

8?! Christ im going to need a lot of these then. And whats so different about the uln2003an and the uln2003a? I've found a place in the UK for the uln2003a but not the uln2003an yet 


EDIT: so these wouldn't be the right ones? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ULN2003A-7-NPN-Darlingtons-DIP-16-ST-Lot-of-50_W0QQitemZ330154501201QQihZ014QQcategoryZ36332QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[SICKdimension]

Ya, each chip can support about 1.2A in total. So, that would equal 60 20mA LEDs in parallel. We use the ULN2003AN, although I can't remember what the difference is on the A version. So, for that many LEDs you'd need 5 extra chips.

[pablot]

we'll soon start selling a small transistor board.. with that, you could use one for each Hx pin.. so seven of those.. they can handle around 4A each, so that would work out fine, problem is they'll take roughly 1½ until we have 'em in stock..

[sinister slipknot]

Would it be better to wire them in parallel or series? As when i buy leds on eBay i get an equal ammount of free resistors, and im not too good with calculating the right resistor to use to its always been easier to wire them in parallel.

[pablot]

well.. easiest is to wire 'em in parallel with a 5V source, but it is more efficient to wire them in sets of 3 in series on a 12V source.. but it all depends on what you are comfortable with

[sinister slipknot]

Ok, but theres no difference i.e. how many leds i can connect to each uln2003an chip?

[pablot]

well, if you use a 12V source and connect the LEDs in sets of three in series and then connect those sets in parallel, then you'll get three times more LEDs out of each ULN

[sinister slipknot]

Ok, so id add 1 resistor to each series of 3 leds so they wont blow as they require 3.3V, with a 3.5v max.

[pablot]

just use the resistor calculator to calculate the resistor you need for 3 leds in series on 12V. Then you se those three leds + resistor as a set. Then you can connect as many sets of those in parallel as you want.. (the cme will handle about 8 such sets on each Hx port, so that is 8*3=24 leds per Hx port => 168 LEDs in total.. use another uln and get twice, 336 LEDs, should be enough?)

/p

[sinister slipknot]

Ah i see, well the eBay auction i bought my leds from gave me a resistor for every led for working at 12v, could i just use one of those for 3 leds? I'd probably need 3 ulns, as the main design i want to do uses approx 338 leds, then i want to light the grills up with roughly 56 leds, the if i want to light up where it says xbox 360 that could take 40 more and if i did the top, bottom and the other side of the case (yeah im planning on putting 338 leds on one side of the case if it can handle them, they're 3mm so it should be fine) so its pushing 400 leds.

[SICKdimension]

The resistor they give you is for one LED. If you connect 3 to that LED, your LEDs will not be at their full brightness. It's best to just get the right resistors, since they only cost a few cents each. Those free 12V resistors they give out are usually useless, because for this type of work if we were using one resistor per LED, we'd use 5V as it's more efficient.

[sinister slipknot]

No, not connect 3 resistors to an led, what pablot said to was to wire 3 in series, then wire all the series in parallel. So i was asking that if i had 3 leds in series that i could just use 1 resistor for each set of 3 leds in series. And also pablot said to use 12v instead of 5v.

I also bought these from eBay hopefully they are the right ones 

Pablot, you said

Now, regarding the PSU. Just connect a ground wire (whichever) to a ground spot on the xbox mobo. That will create a common ground. The PS_ON location can be found here:
http://diy.sickmods.net/Tutorials/Xbox1/Power_Supply_Pinouts/

The ULNs are passive, they can't be programmed. So you don't need to worry about that.

Could you specify what you have to do with the PS_ON? And if its possible to wire an Xbox1 PSU to a 360 PSU, well the motherboard, and that so the Xbox1 PSU only turns on when the 360 does.

[stevewal]

Hi,
I just saw this mod and almost fell off my chair. That is the sickest lighting mod I've seen. The way you've riggged the lights ups to make those shapes and effects is amazing. wow.  . Oh and well done pablot and sickdimensoins. I did'nt realise how powerful the xerc is until i saw this. i'm gona watch the vid again, it's great entertainment lol.

[bdan629]

the xbox is still up and kicking....not a single led has burned out...and we use it all the time to stream movies and music.....its pretty fun to have around

[susan123]

ALL 000-815
painting credit goes to xxervio at www.precizionmodz.com
He did a wonderful job, took his 000-861
time even though he was busy, friendly staff and fast. What more could you ask for? I would defenitely order through them again.
Paint job was airbrushed using alsacorps paint including a 000-869
clearcoat. Looks awesome, then when you turn on the light it shines bright and really shows the nice midnight purplish color really beautiful in person.000-879
 As for the rest of the hardwire mods:

[goyourside]

Thanks for letting me read this great post, keep it up.