Tutorial written by : Superfro

Das Signals!

Ok, the diagram shows 4 signals, W, X, Y, and Z. Lets start the hunt.

The W Signal, this is way easy, just look near the switch on the DVD-Rom, the side the has power is our W Signal. You can test it with your volt meter, should get 3.5-5 volts on it.

This signal is going to be needed to open and close our DVD-Rom, you should find it up front near the little pushbutton to open and close the DVD-Rom.

BTW make sure when you start to solder you make your wires LONG! We’re going to try to run these wires out the back of this thing, so like 12 inches atleast… Wire is cheap.

This is what the bottom of our switch looks like

You should find the power side of the switch about right there…

The Z Signal, The Z Signal tells the XBOX when a disc is in the drive. I hunted and I hunted points, putting in CD’s, and checking points, and checking points and checking points. I finally found a pin I could use. Here is what it needs to do.

When there is NO CD in the drive, it should read between 3.5 and 5v (this is logic 1)

When there IS a CD in the drive, it should read 0 volts (logic 0).

Well I said I found a pin I could use, I didn’t say it was exactly what we needed, lets refer back to our schematic.

We notice that our Z pin is connected to pin 6, and that we connect pin 5 to straight 5 volts. This is how we are going to invert our results.

Oh yeah, here is our Z Signal.

Here is a top view so you know what part we are at. It’s pin 1 of that ribbon going from front to back.

Back to TTL Logic, This is how these gates work.

Well its simple then right? We connect power to pin 5 all the time, now, if we have power on pin 6, then pin 4 turns to 0, and when pin 6 is 0, pin 4 is 1. We basically just negated our Z signal, now we have a qualifying signal.

Before the gate:

NO CD = 0 volts,

CD = 3.5 volts.

After the gate:

NO CD = 5 v,

CD = 0 v.

X and Y signals… Well according to our German tutorial (which if you havn’t read you should go read that one first/after, it may be much more clear to you, plus I ramble off subject too much so…)

This is what we need from our X and Y.

Drive is closed: X must be 0v / Y must be 5V

Drive is open: X must be 5v / y must be 0v

Basically opposites of eachother.

Ok fair enough, lets hunt for some qualifying signals.

Found a X Signal right here… near the W Signal. But to my dismay I couldn’t find a qualifying Y Signal. But what do we got, we got more gates left in that quad gate chip. What did we do with the Z Signal? We inversed it… Well that’s basically what the Y signal is, a opposite X…. Ok so lets wire up another gate with pin 13 5v and pin 12 a splice of the X signal.

Now pin 11 has a Y Signal for us.

We got our signals now lets start soldering some wires up.

Cut cut, snip snip, solder solder…

Might be a good idea to start labeling your wires.