Tutorial written by : eXentric

Intro

Anyone that has installed a mod chip knows D0. You may not know it by name, but you'll recall that pesky little point that caused your first Xecuter install to appear correct, yet function like it was missing entirely. For you Xodus owners, you'll recall this lovely point as the one that makes your chip flash red. Regardless of your install, this document aims to help capture the elusive D0 for good. A bit of a warning though: this does require a steady hand and most likely a magnifying glass. Don't attempt to follow this article if you are lacking either ;) Oh, and by the way: this is for educational purposes only. Please don't come looking for me if your ruin your son (or husbands) new Christmas present...
What (else) you will need

(Click on any picture throughout this article for a larger version)

	A Dremel with a grinding wheel, or other rotational grinding device.
	Cutters with a very low profile. The clipper in the picture was found in a grooming kit.
	Small sanding stone. The one pictured came with my Dremel package. You could probably even get by with a small rock if you can't find anything else.

Getting Started

If you looked at D0 under a magnifying glass, this is essentially what you should see:

However, my point was much less clean. In fact, the board surface coat for my second mod covered D0 almost entirely. Since this was a Matrix install, it wreaked havoc on the pogo pin alignment. What we are going to do to compensate for this, is to solder right to D0.

You will begin by making sure that you can see the connection ring on the point. If your board masks D0 as mine did, you will want to take a sharp (but small) pin and try to etch away at the board surface until the ring is clearly visible. THIS TAKES TIME. Be careful! You don't want to bust the track or the ring. Once the ring is clear, wipe the board free of any debris caused by your etching.

The Nitty Gritty

The next thing you will most likely notice is that D0 is far smaller then any wire you might have laying around. In fact, the smallest wire I could get my hands on was some CAT-5. This is where your rotational grinding bit comes into play. Clamp your Dremel to the table and start it up at its lowest setting. Strip the shielding away from your wire and slowly twist the wire back and forth over the grinding wheel. Be sure that the wheel is turning away from you. Otherwise you'll just keep breaking the wire. Only sand the wire down until its sharp enough to fit down into D0.

Now it's time to fire up your soldering iron. Pre-coat your wire with some solder. It's okay if a little solder globs up at the tip of the wire. What you have now should somewhat resemble the following:

Align the wire with the board and heat it just long enough for the solder to start to flow.

Now use your cutters to snip off the wire as close to the base as you can get. USE AS LITTLE FORCE AS POSSIBLE. It is far better to take your time and repeatedly use the clippers to wear away at the wire. Otherwise you might find out how easy it is to pop that tip back out of its new home.

Lastly, use your sanding stone to gently file away the bur on top left by the cutters. This ensures a better contact with the pogo pin. When you are done, your board should look something like this:

example on xbox v1.0/v1.1 board

If you are installing a wire or surface mod, you can opt to create a cross-connect joint. This is accomplished by cutting the wire at a higher point and then soldering a wire crossways like so:

In real life, a cross-connect might be used like this:

example on xbox v1.0/v1.1 board

Hope that helps. I do not have an e-mail address on xbox-scene, but I am on the usual channels from time-to-time if you would like to as questions or make suggestions.

Good luck, and happy modding.