Add a VGA port to the back of your 360
From Wiki-Scene
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Disclaimer & Credit
This tutorial originally written by G0t M4xx 21 of xbox-scene, whom takes no responsibility for any damage you may cause to your equipment by attempting this.
Introduction
All right, with the new update improving the look of the picture on VGA, I thought I'd release my method of wiring up a VGA port to the back of the 360, so you can use a standard VGA cable to hook up the 360 to a monitor (saves you a $40 cable from M$).
The new method involves a way I discovered to have the 360 automatically switch between VGA mode and normal A/V mode depending on if there is a monitor hooked up to the 360 or not (uses pin 11: monitor_ID).
This tut also includes installing a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can also hook up your PC speakers. The audio output is active all the time, regardless of if you're using the VGA plug or a regualr A/V cable, though you could jsut as easily use another tutorial to wire up a coaxial/optical S/PDIF output instead.
Required Supplies
Xbox 360 Female 15 pin (VGA) port Female 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (I had some spares laying around from Samsung 616T dvd-rom mods) A buncha pieces of wire (about 24-26 gague works fine) Some coaxial audio cable (hacking up an old pair of headphones works great) Soldering iron Dremel or other tool to cut the metal shield and case so you can get to your new VGA port
The Mod
Part 1 : The Pinouts
We'll start by saying this: it looks difficult, but it's not really that hard. The solder points are fairly large, it's not like the Xbox 1 D0 point or anything.
The colors of the pins on the pictures of the Xbox360 motherboard and the audio/vga ports correspond, but I will also give pin numbers.
First, the VGA port (shown from the back side, the side you should be soldering to. Pin 1 is top left. Pins and their corresponding grounds are circled together (is important later)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0040.jpg
- Pin 1: (Red) - Red output
- Pin 2: (Green) - Green output
- Pin 3: (blue) - Blue output
- Pin 5: (black) - H-sync Ground
- Pins 6-8: (black) - Red, green, and blue grounds
- Pin 10: (black) - V-sync ground
- Pin 11: (Yellow) - Monitor_ID (sets video mode to VGA in xbox 360)
- Pin 13: (orange) - H-sync
- Pin 14: (purple) - V-sync
Begin by putting a ~ 6 inch piece of wire on each of the data pins, and a different color of wire for the grounds, so you don't get confused.
Now, there's a reason why each pair of wires on the picture is circled. To reduce interferance in the wires, you must twist each data pin (except Monitor_ID) around its corresponding ground, the ground wire will shield the data pin from interferance.
So, you will have 5 twisted pairs coming off the VGA port, plus Monitor_ID. (it helps to label them by sticking a small piece of tape to each pair and writing R,G,B,H, and V on them).
The audio jack (the top of the picture is the end that the plug goes in):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0041.jpg
- Top: (black) - Ground
- Middle: (red) - Right
- Bottom: (white) - Left
Take your piece of audio coax, strip back the shielding on it and twist it up and solder it to the ground pin on the jack.
Then, solder one of the center wires to the red, and the other to the black (if your piece of coax only has one center wire you need to use two pieces, but if you got the wire from an old pair of headphones it will usually have two condutcors inside, or it will be two pieces of coax already stuck together)
Part 2 : Motherboard Pinouts
You need to remove your motherboard from the metal shielding, we will be soldering to the bottom side of the board, under the audio/video plug.
Each pin is conviently numbered on the board (going across it goes 2, 6, 10, 14... then 4, 8, 12, 16, 20... then 1, 5, 9, 13, 17... then 3, 7, 11, 15...)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0039.jpg
Starting on top left, then moving across:
- Pins 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 1, 5, 9, 13, 27 (black) - Ground (they're all connected to each other so it does not matter which ground pin you use.
- Pin 4 (green) - Green output (VGA)
- Pin 8 (blue) - Blue output (VGA)
- Pin 12 (purple) - V-sync (VGA)
- Pin 16 (white) - Left (Audio)
- Pin 20 (yellow) - VGA Mode select (hook to VGA Pin 11, Monitor_ID)
- Pin 3 (Red) - Red (VGA)
- Pin 11 (orange) - H-sync (VGA)
- Pin 15 (Red) - Right (audio)
OK, solder up all your points (easier said than done, just take your time and triple check that all your connections are correct)
You should have something that looks like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0042.jpg
By this point all the wiring is done, so feel free to go test it (jsut don't test it for too long, cause chances are your cooling solution isn't up to spec since you prolly have your motherboard just sitting on the ground.)
With no monitor plugged in, you will jsut get the normal 4 red lights (no A/V cable connected), and the 360 will function normally with the normal A/V cables. But, plug in a monitor, and it pulls the Monitor_ID pin low, triggering VGA mode, and viola!
Part 3 : Mounting
So, lets get it finished
The best way to mount the VGA plug and headphone jack is to solder it to the top of the A/V port, allowing you to easily install/remove the motherboard, since everything is mounted to the motherboard itself. You're gonna need a pretty beefy soldering iron for this.
Just solder it up:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0043.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0046.jpg
For the headphone jack, I soldered the ground leg of the plug to the A/V plug shield, since it is also ground. Be caseful not to let any of the other pins touch the shield.
Then, mark and cut in the main chassis so that the VGA plug will fir through (leave a ~1mm gap around the plug so the outside of the VGA cable can go all the way in)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/g0t_m4xx_21/VGA/mini-IMG_0044.jpg
Now go do the same thing in your outside case.
Just trim off some plastic on the fan so it will clear the cables running to the underside of the mobo, and you're done!
Now congradulate yourself on saving some cash, and having a real VGA plug in your 360 like a PC!
Part 4 : Interference Issues
The key is twisting the ground wires around the signal wires, this reduces interferance greatly. Its a trick I use at work all the time (I'm a Lab Tech for a company that makes Class D audio amplifier chips, www.jam-tech.com ), for picking off data busses and still recovering clean waveforms (I2S, I2C, S/PDIF, etc.). Adding series resistors also helps when picking off data lines, but on the X360 they're already there (since it's already meant to be an output, not snooping a bus that's not supposed to have anything on it).
So yeah, some "homemade" VGA adapters give bad quality pictures due to improper shielding of the wires, but if you follow my tutorial exactly, it will turn out great.
--grim_d 17:24, 31 Jul 2006 (EDT)
