Subtle Front Panel Under Glow using LEDs

written by: $langer
date: August 20, 2004

Introduction:
When I wanted to add under glow to my xbox, I was surprised to find no tutorials on this fairly simple process. After a bit of planning, I came up with a method that worked quite well. My main focus was to ensure that this mod was not too intense on the eyes and hidden from view. Lots of under glow mods use 10 or more LEDs, causing them to become way too bright and have white spots on the ground where the LEDs focus. What I wanted was to have a xbox that appeared stock when turned off, but once turned on, a nice subtle under glow would illuminate. Even when looking at the front panel from the bottom, I wanted the under glow mod to be undetectable when turned off. The following tutorial explains how I achieved this.

Procedure:
This tutorial requires access to the front panel. If you are unsure how to remove the front panel refer to this tutorial here. After removing the front panel, it should look something like this, without the LEDs and wires of course :P

front panel with leds and wires

In this picture you can get an idea of how things are wired and where the LEDs will be placed. Both sides of the panel have a set of 2 LEDs facing in opposite directions. These sets of LEDs have their common leads joined together so only two wires are required to connect them to the voltage source. Sets of 4 LEDs possibly could be used instead, but this would be harder to wire and is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

For this project I used 5mm LEDs because that's what I had available; 3mm LEDs would also work and may be easier to install. I chose to wire the LEDs the following way in order to reduce the amount of wire required and keep them out of sight. To create an LED set, use a glue gun to glue two LEDs together as shown. Ensure that both positive leads are either on the top or bottom, and vice versa for the negative leads. Refer to the picture below.

Two LEDs hot glued together

Next, bend one of the positive leads around the outside of the LED until it reaches the positive lead of the other LED, and then twist them together. Do the same for the negative lead. Follow the pictures below.

Lead is wrapped around

Lead is twisted with similar lead on other LED

Repeat for the other two leads

The next step involves soldering wires to your LEDs. It is best to have two different colours of wire, each at least 10 inches long; I used red wire for the positive leads and white wire for the negatives. You now must decide whether to solder the wires and the leads all at once, or solder the leads first and then solder the wire after. While the first method is probably easiest, I opted for the second because I wanted to align my wires a specific way. When soldering the wires separately, tin the tips and align them 90 degrees and outwards from the soldered LED leads. Simply touch the soldering iron to the wire and it should quickly fuse to the LED leads. Try to solder the wires as close to the base of the LED as possible. Doing so will minimize any visible wires when looking through the bottom holes of the front panel, keeping your mod well hidden. Use wire cutters to cut off the excess leads as close to the wire as possible. See pictures below.

Leads were soldered first, then wires were soldered after

Snip off extra leads

Once the wires have been soldered, the LEDs must then be secured to the front panel using hot glue. Refer to the following picture for their placement and ensure the LEDs are centered so there will be no visible overhang. Route the wires as shown, using small dabs of hot glue to secure them in place. Create a second set of LEDs for the other side of the front panel following the previous steps. You should now cover the LED's connections in a bit of hot glue to provide some electrical insulation. Refer to picture below.

LEDs before insulating hot glue is applied

Wires are secured and routed through power/eject hole

Next you must calculate the appropriate resistor value to limit the current delivered to the LEDs. For this tutorial, the 4 LEDs have been wired in parallel. Use this calculator, with your LED specs and a 5V supply voltage in order to determine the correct resistor to use. My LEDs had a Vf = 3.5V, If = 20mA and Vs = 5V so I wound up using a 20 ohm resistor (two 10 ohms in series). Your results will vary, use the calculator!

Once you have calculated your resistor value, twist the two wires coming from the positive leads of the LEDs together (in my case red) and solder them to the resistor (it does not matter which lead of the resistor you choose). Twist the two wires from the negative leads together (in my case white) and leave them for now. You will now need to connect 5V from the molex adaptor to the resistor. My adaptor was for a 12V fan and did not have a spare red 5V to use. As can be seen below, I had to remove some insulation from the red 5V wire in order to connect a separate wire. The adaptor I used had a spare 12V (yellow) wire so I cut it and soldered it to the exposed red 5V wire. The spare black ground wire was left intact. I then used my newly created spare 5V wire and soldered it to the resistor. The spare black ground wire was then soldered to the twisted white wires from the ground leads. Make sure to tape up all connections after you finish. This molex adaptor then plugs into your hard drive and the xbox power cable connects to the adaptor. View the pictures below for more details:

Molex adaptor voltage and wiring diagram

All soldered and taped up

Resistor connected to 5V, negative LEDs connected to ground

Molex adaptor connected to hard drive

You may want to try testing the mod to ensure it works before you go and reassemble everything. If you are an individual of little patience by all means take the "I have faith" approach, which involves slapping everything together and immediately pressing the power button. When choosing this method, it is recommenced to clear the room of all children due to the cursing that often ensues ;)

If all goes well (and I hope it does) you should have something looking like this…

Reflective surface

Can you see any wires?

A nice, subtle under glow...

Any questions? E-mail me: slanger686 [at] hotmail.com