Chip to completely replace the controller brain

[Krier023]

Hey guys, Id like to start off by saying im not the most tech savvy, haha, but I was over at the team xecuter forums and was wondering if something like this could be incorporated to a controller mod.

As many of you may know, the new liteon drives in slims(0225 and up) have write protection, so you cannot write new firmware for them to play backups. To fix this they completely replaced the mt chip and added a circuitry on/off switch to enable/disable wp(write protection).

Would it be possible to do this sort of deal with the xbox controller brain, and make it writable?

It would be a fairly difficult install, because the controllers chip has upwards of 100 or 200 pins, but does anyone think a mod like this could work?

I also imagine it would be an expensive chip, expensive to research and program, and the price may be impractical, but would it even be possible?

I dont really want to get flamed here if it is "dumb", but with the idea of how it works on the new liteons, I was interested in if it could be incorporated into a controller. With write control over the brain, you could even set and cancel buttons, make everything completely programmable.

 

[odingalt]

The CPU in the CG1 and CG2 style XBOX 360 wireless controllers has 100 pins. However, the CPU in the controller does not have any sort of ability to hack into the console. It's just sending button presses. As far as I know there's not even the ability for the console to update the firmware in the CPU on the controller.

The Viking macro mod chip itself is a "solderless" modchip that clips onto the controller's CPU. Basically the same as the PS3 Intensafire clip. Except our clip connects to over 40 pins on the CPU. The PS3 Intensafire clips onto a lot less pins. The new CPU in the Matrix 2 controller is positioned in such a way that even if you designed a clip-on, you'd also have to re-design the back controller shell to accomodate your clip-on.

 

[Xx Binno xX]

Well have you even thought about making a prototype for the new style board? or is it to costly?

 

[odingalt]

In short, yes - it would be too costly. And too complicated. While we could save $20 in parts, by redesigning it for Matrix 2 without using the "solderless clip" that we use on the CG2 boards, the labor cost would be equal or even go up. The install is labor intensive.

Even with the solderless clip we use now on the CG2 circuit board, the staff installs 17 wires. It's not really a "solderless" install. 12 wires for the tac switch, 2 wires for the USB programming function, 2 wires for the multi-color LED function, 1 jumper for the left stick press (couldn't get it with the solderless clip). I feel like I'm forgetting one at the moment, I don't have one in front of me to check. In any case, the solderless clip does make some connections, but the staff installs a lot of other wires to activate all the functions that make the Viking Macro awesome.

On Matrix 2, the amount of wires needed for a macro install would be around 30-40 wires inside the controller. You have to start with the 17 wires of the CG2 install, plus add all the wires it would take to make up for the solderless clip being gone. There's no way we could offer any customizations like XCM shells because our staff would be spending several hours building and testing each install due to the mass of wires. So that $20 we just saved re-designing the modchip for Matrix 2, we just lost in labor. We'd be right back where we started.

Macro was an awesome idea. I hope to revive the macro project some day when all the right things happen. For now I think the broadest appeal would be for a simpler chip, lower price, still have USB and a few functions the competition doesn't have, but then offer a lot more customization.