XBMC4Xbox

It's been a while since I built a modded machine so I thought I may build something with a big impact, literally..
We have a rear projector T.V. out of a Ghost Squad arcade machine sitting at work getting in the way waiting for me to take it to the local landfill site. I'm not a real fan of rear projectors with their grainy images and to me is a progression of CRT technology that shouldn't have happened, BUT, what if I take out the projector and throw in an LCD screen in this cool looking cab that I can wheel around and is all self contained?. If I take out the projector and install an LCD screen there is miles of room inside the cab and I could put in a top amp and good speakers. This cab would be the "special project" I've been waiting to use my one and only SickMods sound activated light driver board in. The problem is the case is light and could be very top heavy with just a screen and amp in it and would need something low in the case to make it a bit more stable. That got me thinking, what about I throw in a couple of car batteries in the base and an inverter, I've been running Xboxes and T.V.s powered off batteries and inverters for 2 years now down the farm and I know it works and is reliable, and then the machine is a compete standalone machine. Well until I need to charge up the batteries again via a wall plug. This machine would be ideal for wheeling out to the pool or the back patio on our hot summer nights out here I think and for once, the wife likes the idea. Here some pics of the T.V. I'm talking about..






Anyway, anyone have an thoughts?.

I have fond memories of playing Goldeneye 64 on a rear projection TV, grainy image as you say but in 1999 it was awesome
As for being top heavy wouldn't the amp and speakers in the bottom weigh more than the screen? I'm used to dealing with LCD monitors which are very light these days, are TVs lagging behind weight wise?

Sounds like another excellent xman project to me

Xman, I am interested to see how it turns out.

I have an old[ish] DLP TV that does 720p/1080i. It sits on a stand rather than being built on.

Not quite the same but it sure would be cool to see what you do with it. Worth a try at least before it goes to the dump.

Yer this existing screen is 4:3 meaning when I change it, I will gain probably 100mm in vacant front panel space and that would be ideal for an Xbox face i think..

I get your idea but my only concern would be finding a 4:3 lcd panel large enough that will fit the housing neatly and not look like an addon, if you are worried about weight you could use the space under the screen for the hardware so it has a low COG.

I think there would be no chance finding a 4:3 LCD myself. Tomorrow I'll grab the TV so I can actually see how good the existing rear projector screen is. I may actually be surprised how good it is. I'm not holding my breathe on that though. This machine has been on for 14 hours a day for the last 5 years playing a game so I would expect it to be near dead. It has 2 components as inputs that have never been used as the game was using the VGA input. I'm seeing heaps of these type of T.V.s being put out for council pickups or handed into the local Smith Family so if the idea of such a machine kicks off, I know where I can get more. The whole idea of this machine is to make a portable machine with a decent sized screen that can be wheeled around for parties mainly with a big enforces on a good sound. Being battery powered would make it more useful but I'll see how it goes mains powered first. One other issue with leaving in the existing setup is it is big. It is like having 3 CRTs in the base without the big CRT tube but still, the case is pretty full meaning not a great deal of space for an Xbox. It would need to be removed from the Xbox case i think. I'll take some pics when I get it home and you can see what I mean.

Please post a video of it running (if it does). Would be interesting to see

I'm curious about what kind of battery life you can get on the rig. You just chain car batteries together and trickle-charge when they run out of juice?

really interested to see how this project develops, some good stuff knocking about you can always get your hands on, slim pickings over in the uk especially northern ireland

What a cool project. Keep us updated!

asbo wrote: As for being top heavy wouldn't the amp and speakers in the bottom weigh more than the screen? I'm used to dealing with LCD monitors which are very light these days, are TVs lagging behind weight wise?

Sounds like another excellent xman project to me

An LCD screen would be a lot lighter. The amp I would like to use would be an auto amp mainly for it being able to run on 12v rather than mains.

bigkidoz wrote:I get your idea but my only concern would be finding a 4:3 lcd panel large enough that will fit the housing neatly and not look like an addon, if you are worried about weight you could use the space under the screen for the hardware so it has a low COG.

I wouldn't mind the space saved using a widescreen rather than a 4:3 to give me room for the Xbox ON OFF switch and other vital controls. I want to do something unusual for this ON OFF button. Putting then at the top of the machine would save having to bend down to operate too

BuZz wrote:Please post a video of it running (if it does). Would be interesting to see

.

I will when time permits. I'd like to do a vid of the screen before and after I adjust it. I have only worked on CRTs and LCD/ LEDs so I see this work as being good to increase my knowledge on TVs and monitors. The rear projector seems to be 3 CRTs, one for each colour, red, Green and blue, that shine the image onto a mirror in reverse and this combined image is shone forward onto the screen. The biggest bitch I have with DLPs is the convergence. The 3 colour gun images blending correctly at the correct location on the screen. I have not seen one I thought this was correct. If I cannot get this issue correct and the screen actually works, I'll bin it because this is most important to me.

fxmech wrote:I'm curious about what kind of battery life you can get on the rig. You just chain car batteries together and trickle-charge when they run out of juice?

I will link two car batteries together so they are in parallel thus doubling the amps but leaving the voltage at 12vDC. That should give 80-100amp/hours and this power would then need to go through an inverter to supply the required 220-240vAC. This power through an inverter I would expect the batteries to power it for around 4-6 hours but time will prove this "assumption" right or wrong. To charge the batteries I would use a 10 amp battery charger that will trickle charge once the batteries are charged.

Hmmm, not much room in there...

This is inside the top with the face opened. You can see the RGB guns and the mirror on the right and the screen on the left..

The lower front with the top half of the case removed shows the guns hanging down, the chassis behind and the speakers. The speakers are in wooden speaker boxes. I'll keep the speaker boxes idea, they are part of the T.V. case anyway, but the speakers will be upgraded. These ones are only 12watters and I intend on using something like 100 watters.

The gun carrier and the chassis removed from the lower case..

And finally, the gutted case with the top back on ready to start installing the upgraded equipment..

what was wrong with the projection tv ?

most problems i have fixed are the coolant in them goes slimy and milky and the picture goes bad and you just was them out with some alch and fillem back up with new juice

The picture wasn't good and the video I took to show BuZz was even worse. The convergence was a compromise between the middle of the screen and the left side. I lined the guns up perfect in the middle of the screen and then the left side colours were out by about 3mm each.



It looked real bad. Also if I kept it as a rear projector, the viewing angle was poor, you would need to be directly in front to view it. The box was full also meaning it sort of defeated the purpose of using the case in the first place. I bought some angle line yesterday to make an internal frame to mount an LCD mount to and hold the LCD in place at the right height, grabbed a mount and was ready to go however I don't have an LCD T.V. of the right size. I'll need to grab one of those from work. I have 1150mm wide LCDs and one at 95mm wide. The 95mm would easierly fit but would no look good. I need a 1050mm wide screen to fill the cavity correctly and that will leave a 20-30mm border around the screen, perfect for LEDs. I'll also grab some larger caster wheels because the ones on the case are not real strong units.

I have a question for this project. Is it possible to have a button on the remote hotkeyed to alter the front LED colour that will change the colour even though the Xbox is doing something else like playing a video etc?. It will become quite apparent why I want this feature as this machine is built.

i imagine so using a led fader like the vumeter as seen on sickmods

I would like to use the LED colour selector with the combination of the DVD tray, (that won't be used as a DVDrive), in and out to give me 6 combos of machine LED/ light patterns. I can use the 3 front panel LED colours as inputs to a multiplexer chip and add to this tray in or out and that will give me 6 outputs from the chip and therefore 6 different light patterns. That is the idea if I can easierly control the front LED colour and not need to go into the GUI settings to adjust it. If this isn't possible, it may need to be changed to just a manual switch, not remote controlled, to advance on a stepper chip to give the different machine light patterns.

I did a big more on this machine. Not being happy with the light duty wheels that were originally on the Case, I swapped then over for some arcade machine wheels. As you can see, one was already broken..



Next, I needed to make up a couple of brackets to bolt the LCD mount to that would hold the LCD T.V. in place. I had 4 bolt holes with tee nuts already in place that originally held the RGB gun assemblies in place so it was just a matter of making the brackets suit those existing mount points and bolt the brackets in place..


Next, work out where the mount needed to be height wise to give me an equal gap around the top and sides of the T.V. inside the case...


Bolt the LCD mounts to the back of the LCD T.V..



Lift it in place and hope to hell I got all the measurements right..




Looks pretty good with the spacing equal and the screen flush with the case. The gap around the screen will be filled as will the gap under the screen.

hey, that looks nice!

this could be kept outside with maybe some acrylic or a tarp. keep it next to the grill. have you thought about making it water resistant for weather changes? =p

it would be cool for camping or hauling outdoors. pavilions @ the park...

going outside and playing video games at the same time.