xbox placement

[draft]

So as most of you know, drew is doing some fiberglass work for me and putting a 7" up in top and relocating the hu. With all of this comes putting in my xbox to play dvds and games. I have a 98 sport, and to be honest, I'm just really lost as to where to put it.. I wish I knew I was doing this before I built my box...

Anyways, here's some pictures of the setup I did awhile ago.. should be of some use, most of you people who have sports know what kind of space i'm playing with here ;\

left side

right side

the back itself and clearance of seats

basically, under the seats on both front and rear are a no go...

i don't mind putting something together to house this somewhere, but i also don't want this sitting out just waiting for someone to jack (as bad as it is already).

like i said, those of you with sports know what i'm dealing with (as far as space goes). remember, the xbox is quite larger than the ps2, and it has to llie flat (again, unlike the ps2, bleh).

thanks in advance. i'm just stumbled big time on this.

 

[SKyjacker_44]

If it was me i would put it on top of the box and make it look real near and stuff. but i understand about peopel wanting to steal it. so i don't know whaty to tell you

 

[boominXplorer]

Originally posted by SKyjacker_44
If it was me i would put it on top of the box and make it look real near and stuff. but i understand about peopel wanting to steal it. so i don't know whaty to tell you

Yeah but would it skip though?

 

[draft]

Not sure about the skipping, but even just harnessing it down (and like you said), the stealing factor is probably the big issue. drew had suggested I just build a small mdf enclosure for it on the floor and so something nice with it.. but I realize my options are real limited here, and hardly do I have people sitting in the back, usually just me and my gf or a friend.

Worse comes to worse.. I just harness is down behind the driver seat and be done with it.. just would be cool to find a sneaky place for it..

 

[Fhantazm]

The only other thing I can come up with is to remove the glove compartment completely, and build some sort of fiberglass mount/shelf. The XBOX is pretty deep, so im sure it would stick out a little, but I cannot think of anything else. I, too, have a sport (with a 5 speed) so im well aware of the space restrictions.

 

[hydroxy]

put it behind the rear quarter panel on the passenger's side. There should be plenty of room. Even on a sport. I have an Amp and power inverter mounted back there w/ a couple inches to spare.

 

[Fhantazm]

You cant mount it in any position other than it lying flat like it was meant to. There 's none of those disc holders on the tray and the DVD/game would fall into the unit.

 

[hydroxy]

That is when you disassemble the xbox and mount the dvd reader horizontal through the rear quarter panel. Be creative =P Open it up, you'll see this.

unmount the drive and position the xbox so that the ribbon can reach the quarter panel where you have the actual drive installed.

Edit: Hell, you live an hour and a half from Tech - stop by and I'll help you... although it would have to be in 2 weeks since next week is spring break...

 

[draft]

Holy crap, that's a brilliant idea.

Only other thing that came to mind, disassembling the the power button/sensor? Or maybe we could just simply relay to power inside the box with a switch up front... Also, the DVD player thing on it (needs to stick out due to stupid little thing that goes in controller, otherwise wouldn't need them out), I can pretty much assume if I/we put the time into it, this is definately possible..

I'm gonna open up the unit today and see how much that's removable with enough to slack to reach that quarter panel.

 

[X~FACTOR]

I went through all this dilema last summer. I never found a suitable place for it so I decided to get a Game Cube. Its much much smaller as you know. Some people do not buy Game Cube because they think its for kids only but they got some nice adult games too.

Btw- I never did install it inside the truck... I got lazy. Eh...

 

[hydroxy]

whatever happened w/ this? I'm curious

 

[draft]

as you know, i just got all the tv deal situated.

once i get the wiring/relays/inverter/modulator in the mail, i plan to do something with this. i did end up opening the unit itself, and the slack isn't really much on the cables, but i'm contempting to either get longer/extensions to do this flush. if not, i plan to just bolt it down in the back row floor for the time being. time has me pretty worked as of late, so i only get so much time for working on the truck.

i'm just still not quite sure, but either way, it's going to be in the truck... somewhere

 

[mhn3773]

this is just an idea..but think about it..if u are watching a movie or something do u really want to run ur ass around to the back of the truck open the gate and pop in a new disc?? i mean its doable totaly..but not sleek at all

now i know how big the x-box is but i am not going to go tear mine down so if this makes no sense sorry..i also do not own an explorer so this is all from memory of the ones i drove

now isnt there some sort of storage bin under the pass side front seat? or an open space? if no then this probably wont work

what id do is totaly disasemble the x-box take everything out..technicly doesnt NEED to be in that shell for anything all the components should come out easily

what id do is id find a way to put all the guts under the front pass seat and get a longer ribbin cable to run to the glove box and hide the reader in there....or if theres enough space in the dash u can put all the guts in there and the reader in the same place

i know it can be done because i have seen it done i a couple of show cars...they had all the guts in the dash behind the glove box and had glassed the reader into the radio bezel or into where the air bag would be on the pass side

if u think of the x-box like a computer it is easy...it doesnt need a case just dont let any metal touch it and keep it cool

if that didnt make any sense sorry..

 

[hydroxy]

Originally posted by draft
as you know, i just got all the tv deal situated.

once i get the wiring/relays/inverter/modulator in the mail, i plan to do something with this. i did end up opening the unit itself, and the slack isn't really much on the cables, but i'm contempting to either get longer/extensions to do this flush. if not, i plan to just bolt it down in the back row floor for the time being. time has me pretty worked as of late, so i only get so much time for working on the truck.

i'm just still not quite sure, but either way, it's going to be in the truck... somewhere

You could try a longer ribbon cable. It might not work, but worth a try.

 

[Offramp]

You could try a longer ribbon cable. It might not work, but worth a try.

It's just standard IDE cable. The Xbox cable is ATA33 cable. You could always buy a longer ATA100 cable (which would give you an improvement in load times as well). Just make sure you buy an *uncut* IDE cable. Some cables are cut in one of the sections. The Xbox needs all 80 wires.

 

[expo5.0]

you will most likely have problems with static from doing this too.

i guess i REALLY don't see the advantage. Just put it somewhere until you can build it into your truck inside its case where it belongs. or buy a smaller case and try to stuff it in there.

 

[Fhantazm]

The inside of a computer is certainly not static free, and the hard drives/cd rom drives are generally unaffected. Plus there is a grounding wire on the ribbon cable which will route any static to ground. On on old test machine/mail server, I ran an internal hard drive on the outside of a case for a year with no problems. The only problem, I see in doing it this way is there is a limit on the length of the ribbon cable.

 

[Offramp]

IIRC, the biggest IDE cable I've seen is around 38 inches, although I'm sure a resourceful individual could rig something longer that may work.

 

[Glowin97x]

what about building a little MDF cover for it and carpeting it and woodgluing it to the top of the box. Nobody could even see it was an xbox. Hell if you wanted you could even make a little flap for it and have it swing open to use it or something

 

[draft]

what about building a little MDF cover for it and carpeting it and woodgluing it to the top of the box. Nobody could even see it was an xbox. Hell if you wanted you could even make a little flap for it and have it swing open to use it or something

That was my other option. Right now, I just have no time to do anything with it other than it sitting under the passanger seat for the time being. If I knew I was doing this (and I keep repeating this, not good), I would've incorporated this into the box somehow. Time is just so precious these days. :\