Thread: hey everyone im new here with a 91 240sx

If its JUST mp3's, a xbox with a huge hard drive could do the trick. Its all pretty cost effective, an xbox, hard drive, composite LCD display, and the tools you need to install the UXE softmod onto it would only total to about $250 or less. Power it all off of an inverter. And hey, it will play DVD's and video games as well, and with a linux instalation it could do alot more.

Xbox media center looks beautiful and could navigate your music well. All you would need to do is take apart an xbox controler and connect buttons near your screen to the controler button connections in order to run the xbox interface.

Check out these screenshots:

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_screens.htm

If you choose to go this way, ill help you out with what you need to softmod an xbox (no hardware modifications or mod chipping required), upgrade the HD, and load XBMC onto it. However, I should mention I only made my xbox partitions as large as 120 GB. I hear you can go higher (I read a guy who did a 300 GB xbox mod), but I just haven't done it personally. Doesn't sound too hard.

Also check out:

http://www.xboxscene.com

The making a drive larger than 127 GB guide (LBA48):

http://www.xboxscene.com/articles/lba48-phoenix.php

interesting proposition, i don't know anything about the xbox aside from the fact that people have written custom stuff for it in the past and that it's modable (didn't know it was soft modable)

Can you tell me more?

How would I transfer files and so on. I hope I wouldn't have to open up the xbox change hard drive, etc... heh. For instance if I got new mp3s, and wanted to transfer them or something.

I'm not sure, this is interesting so I wish to hear more

What would it run? VGA screen? Composite?

Can more than one hard drive be hooked up? Two 500GB drives? I don't know hehe, im curious.

I have no idea... I'm venturing into something completely new here...

It could only do 1 hard drive. Your methods to transfer files to it would be via DVD-Rs, FTP via wifi, music CD rips, or ethernet. (to do wifi you would need to buy a wireless ethernet to wireless G bridge).

It would only need a composite screen, and those are really cheap.

You wouldn't really be able to swap out the hard drive once it is installed, the hard drive will be formatted and "locked" to your specific xbox and it would take some work to make it work with windows again.

Once again, this solution works well, the only reason people don't do it is because it isn't as flexible as a full carputer. It lacks GPS and touchscreen support. But for half the price, it is definatly worth the money.

As far as the process behind modding goes, I'll give you a quick summary:

To get the xbox to run unsigned code (custom apps and copied games) you will need to get the UXE exploit loaded on. The way to do this is either 1. plug the hard drive into your computer while the hard drive is still on and load your files that way, or 2. Get a saved game for mechassult (not the game of the year edition, the origional) that sets up an ftp server to your xbox so you can send files that way (I have the saved game on my memory card, if you mailed me a memory card I could copy it onto it and mail it back).

Once you have control, its simply a matter of backing up your hard drive and copying the UXE package onto the xbox's C drive, and blam you have a modded xbox that can do everything a chipped xbox could do. All you have to do is set xbox media center as your dashboard of choice, make it go straight to your music when you start, and the rest is up to you.

To do the hard drive upgrade, you use your modded xbox interface to run software to find the "unlock" key for your xbox's hard drive. You plug the hard drive into your computer, unlock it, back it up, then write the xbox hard drive image to a new larger hard drive. You use the software to generate a new "lock" key for your new hard drive, lock it, put it in the xbox, and boom you have a larger hard drive working in your xbox. All that is left is to execute the command to format the remaining space (the first 8 gig will be used by the xbox OS) and you can load it with whatever you want (games, music, netendo 64 roms, whatever).

You can use the old 8 gig hard drive as a paperweight, put it in your grandmas computer, or whatever else you want; it is a normal ATA hard drive after it is unlocked.

Takes maybe 2 hours to do it all. Its definatly a fun experience.

Edit: I should note that a newer xbox with an updated xbox live dashboard is going to refuse to run that saved game for mechassult. In this case, you have to hotswap the harddrive into your computer or another modified xbox in order to load files onto it. However, any xbox can be modified regardless of when it was made or what updates it has, it is only a question of how difficult it will be to load files into it.

hmm that sounds not bad, but I'd want to use more than 200GB heh.. my mp3s alone are 220GB+ lol...

hmm, none the less... I'm really impressed by this solution... never would have ran across my mind that people did this for a car! You are very clever hehe.

Hmm I guess since I'm already building such a large unit I might as well do a computer right? An xbox is a limited box with computer-like abilities... yet still.. I don't know where to begin with all this...

I swear this forum is so humangous, i can not grasp the amount of information on it...

Originally Posted by a_ahmed

An xbox is a limited box with computer-like abilities...

You've got it.

What are you willing to spend to get this thing working? I think you are looking at about $500 to get a respectable carputer setup going (less if you already have parts like a hard drive)

Yeah I have some parts already laying around. I got two 3.5" 160GB drives laying around, and one 2.5" 100GB drive (where most of the music resides -- its in a portable USB casing).

Well there are a few ways of doing the softmod on the Xbox. There is some old game, that allowed you to use a flash drive to load extras. Someone saw this as a weak spot, and allowed a file that would kill the xbox, and boot it to linux. I think.

Ok, this is how sorta, step by step:
Buy/Rent the game MechAssault. Make sure it is the original copy. Microsoft fixed the newer copies so the exploit couldn't be used. The news say, "Platinum Game", or "Platinum Hit" or "Game of the Year". So your copy must have the Product ID or Part Number X08-82261, X08-82262, or X08-82264. Make sure to check the disc too, because sometimes they put different discs in different cases. I also read that the inner ring of the disc should be lasered MS02301L, and NOT MS02308L. You can also use Splinter Cell, or Agent Under Fire, but are not suggested due to lack of reliability.

Get an xbox "Action Replay". It is about $20 to $30. Looks like this:

You will also need 3 downloads. mIRC, FlashFXP, and of course WinRAR. Who doesn't have WinRAR?!?!?

Then actually mod it! Download Krayzie's NDURE exploit. You can find it on many torrent sites. It is about 36Mb zipped. Also download Xbox Media Center also called XBMC.

Now put them on your XBOX! Install Action Replay on your PC. You should see three columns in the Action Replay window. Drag-and-drop the ZIP file labeled udata.zip, located at "\Krayzie Ndure Pack\MA\MA save" from the downloaded Krayzie file into the center column labeled "PC database". Now scroll down the list until you see "MechAssault" and a child item labeled "Run Linux". "Run Linux" is the title of the game save that you will load up within MechAssault. Drag and drop this file from the "PC Database" column to the "Memory Card" column on the left. This process can take several minutes as the memory card is written. A dialog should tell you when it is complete.

Before you actually start putting the modded memory card into the XBOX, delete all the saved games and xbox live game saves for MechAssualt.

Put your copy of MechAssault into your Xbox and it should load up. From the main menu in Mech Assault select the option labeled "campaign". Now, you should see the familiar gamesave title "Run Linux". Load this gamesave by highlight it and pressing "A".

First, select the option to back up your EEPROM (you might have to select it again in a subsequent menu), then install the softmod. The installer will guide you through the install procedure and keep you updated on its progress. Once the mod is complete you will be prompted to reset your Xbox and remove the game. The installer will then make a shadow copy of your C drive. After reboot, you will now have a modded Xbox!

Powering on your Xbox without a game loaded should now bring you to the EvolutionX dashboard.

It is now possible to install other software and files because you now have access to your Xbox's hard drive through FTP access over your network. Cool, eh?

If you haven't already, you need to connect your Xbox to your network (or at least your PC) so that you can get FTP access. If you have a typical home network with a router, then your Xbox should be accessible by an IP address assigned by DHCP on your router. (Read this if you don't have a home network and will have to connect your Xbox to your PC using a crossover cable).

Determine your Xbox's IP Address by going into the "settings" section in EvolutionX where it should be listed. You can check to see if your Xbox is available on your network by "pinging" this IP address from the command prompt on your PC.

Go to the location on your PC where you download your copy of the XBMC .RAR file. Using WinRAR, extract the files to your PC.
Start FlashFXP and navigate locally to the location where you extracted XBMC on your PC. Now, open a new FTP connection to your Xbox. Enter in the IP address from step 7.1 and username: xbox with password: xbox. You should now be able to get access to the Xbox's directory structure.

Navigate to /E/Dashboard/ on your Xbox. This is where EvolutionX is installed, so to have XBMC replace EvolutionX, you simply have to copy the XBMC files to this location, overwriting the existing files. Now select all of the files from XBMC that are located on your PC and transfer them to the /E/Dashboard/ directory on your Xbox. This will take several minutes, so please be patient.

Once this is complete and you power cycle your Xbox, Xbox Media Center should start up.
You can configure Xbox Media Center from within the dashboard itself or the setting can be modified directly in the XboxMediaCenter.xml file located in the root of the application directory on the Xbox.

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Use the FTP program to copy all your files and such over too!

**Please note that I wrote some of this and found other parts scattered throughout the web, and in txt files I have collected (don't ask!). Not all original work here!

I see someone beet me to the punch with the short and sweet way! Damn...

Originally Posted by a_ahmed

Hmm I guess since I'm already building such a large unit I might as well do a computer right? An xbox is a limited box with computer-like abilities... yet still.. I don't know where to begin with all this...

Not necessarily. The XBOX is a full computer, but it is hard to bring it out of hiding.

Also, if you only want music, and maybe dvd sometimes, then an XBOX is a lot cheaper at $100 then another computer for like $400-$2000 and higher. Once you get the linux shell put on there, you can load it into a full computer. Meaning everything. Even navigation if you want. If you just want something cheap then it seems like the way to go. You don't really seem to want all the bells and whistles (wonder what that's like, I've got to have them!!!), so why get them?!

Good luck though.

ok let me ask this.

Would it be possible to build something that would control the climate control (heat/cooling -- i don't have AC) in the car? You see the cheap knobs and whatnot?

I am thinking... why cheap out... I think if I really want this done right I should spend about 1000$ (not immediately I wish to research and plan this first).

Take the center console out, remove all the stuff and build a custom panel with one LCD.

If that is possible I think i would do this... as those old school climate control knobs do look ugly anyways. I think that would be pretty cool then. Then along the way I could do GPS and whatnot too and give the car a slight modern look.

This was bought as an AS IS car and well since I'm investing so much in it, might as well do this right too...

Can it be done? I know from experience that whenver I cheap out... I pay for it later and regret it...

In the case of the body repair and repaint, I paid some cheap guy to do it and the paint is *** and I'm ****ed until I can get more money to repaint again... so in this case I might as well start right and do it right... not cheap out...

Browsing through the forum I came across some guy who made a custom face for his civic and inserted an LCD that looked really beatiful (although he didn't have the issue like I do with my car and those silly controls up top)