XBMC4Xbox

This might be a silly question, but...I've got a v1.6 XBOX (softmodded, 160gb drive, XBMC, etc.) I have a TrendNet TEW-647GA Wireless N Gaming Adapter connected for ftp, streaming, etc. The power supply for the wireless adapter is 12 vdc at 0.5 amps (6 watts). But because it plugs into the wall behind my entertainment center, it's "ON" all the time, even when my XBOX is off. After being on for several days, if I start up my XBOX, I can't get connected to wifi without unplugging the power to the adapter and plugging it back in, which can be a pain. Long story short, I was wondering if I could just cut the 110 vac wall plug off of the adapters power cord and splice the wires into the XBOX's power supply 12 vdc wires. That way, turning off the XBOX would turn off the wireless adapter and cycling the XBOX's power would cycle the power to the adapter as well. What do you think?

Yep, that will work perfectly. Just get the polarity correct or you'll smoke it.

I had a 5 way power board behind my tv that has a master socket on it and when the main device (in my case TV) went to sleep or stand by all the other sockets automatically turned off.

it worked of current draw from the main socket enabling the slave sockets if the main socket exceeded a set current rating.

It could be another solution to overcome your problem?

Do you think that power board current detecting circuit will be able to differentiate between the TV on with the Xbox on and the TV on with the Xbox off though. Just bare in mind I have never seen one of these power boards and are actually interested myself. More to the point trying to work out how it actually detects the current draw and uses that as it's trigger to turn off the whole power board. The TV would be using around 150-350 watts, depending on size, to operate and the Xbox uses around 275 watts. I'm thinking maybe the Xbox alone may be drawing enough on it's own to do as the TV does and keep the power board switched on, maybe?. I really don't know that is why I'm asking.

Cool, I'll give it a shot, ( I need to open up my box and put some new thermal paste on the chips anyway). Then I would just need to find a super short ethernet cable, maybe 3"-4" and glue/afix the adapter to the back of the xbox and I'll basically have an xbox with wifi.

Oh, also, what are the voltage = color codes for the molex wiring? Is yellow 12vdc or is it red? Is there any difference in the 2 black wires or are they both just grounds?

Yellow is 12V and red is 5V. Both black are ground.

So yellow is + 12v, any black is -, correct. You could also use the metal shielding as the - or ground as it is all common ground on an Xbox. To get your small net cable, you could slide back the end cover off one end of an existing net cable and pull the cables out through the slots in the side of the connector one at a time. Just make sure you get out all the old wire material for each of the slots if necessary using something like a pin. Once you cut the net cable to the length you want, strip back the net cable coating, separate the wires and push them back in each of the terminals in the correct order. The tool for this is called a punch down tool but a butter knife works just as well as long as you do one cable at a time instead of all cables at once like the dedicated punch down tool does. Slide the cover back over the connector and you now have a custom length net cable using parts from a cable that was to long and a butter knife as your tool.

What I used for getting my Ethernet out of the box & plugged in.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191722518953

I just ground away some of the case above the Ethernet port using a nail clipper file, just enough so the wire fits snug & slid the Ethernet cable through & then put the motherboard back in.

I had a similar idea for a case swap project from a few years ago. I took a Belkin wireless-G router and installed DD-WRT on it and then configured it as a wireless bridge. It only need 5v DC so I connected wires to the DC input solder points on the bottom of the router's PCB and powered it using the Xbox's power supply. It worked out pretty well with decent speeds and as an added bonus other devices could be plugged into it because it had 5 ethernet ports on it.




^(test fit. it was later mounted properly)