Making the Xbox run off cigarette lighter(without inverter)

nextreme · Post by **nextreme** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 7:45 am

Hey there,

I was thinking of modding an XBox to run in my car (well minivan

) for games and movies for the kids. I was thinking of taking one of those cheap aftermarket center consoles that fits between the front seats and placing the components of the XBox in it and a flip up LCD on top.

I was wondering though, is there a power supply I could use to replace the internal one? Why use an inverter to convert from 12V to 120V to 12V?

So I guess I would need a DC to DC power supply, that could supply the needed voltages (whatever they may be, 12V and 5V?).

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Scott

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:07 am

Well an I(A)TX power supply would be the most likely choice.

Also the Xbox uses 12, 5, 3 volts and 2 gorunds. If you look on Doomportables.org they have it described.

Good luck.

nextreme · Post by **nextreme** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:38 am

Thanks but I cannot find that info on Doomportables

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:26 am

Go into systems, you'll see in the center of the screen theres "Motherboards".
Or here - http://www.doomportables.org/mobos.html

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:06 am

I should mention that those voltages are those from a standard ATX power supply, which gannon and I agreed on likely being the voltages it uses. Neither of us really tested it, though.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:25 am

If thats the case then I'll tell you what the PSU says on it. I'll get back with that later today.

stereth · Post by **stereth** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:58 pm

Look into mini-itx power supplies. You'll need a steady 12V supply and a DC-DC converter to get the different voltages you need. Depending on how much power the Xbox needs, it'll cost you $80-100. It should fit in the space of the current power supply, though you'll have to wire it to the board.

http://www.mini-itx.com (high shipping to US, but lots of info)
http://www.mini-box.com (not a distributor)
http://store.ituner.com/ituner (recommended. Got my mini-itx stuff from them.)

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:07 pm

Well from what I can tell on the Xbox PSU - The Orange and brown wires are 3.3v (4 total), all the red are 5v (5 total), the black are ground (5 total) and the two yellow are 12v. I have no clue as to what the white and blue are but their over by the 3.3v wires so they maybe 3.3v aswell. If you get an I(A)TX power supply you'll have to mod it as you can tell the Xbox's PSU has 18 power wires total.

I'll also see about sending in some pics to Gannon or Spongebuell later this week of the Xbox, Dreamcast and another system you dont have a pic for at Doomportables.org