WD VelociRaptor for xBox 360 Phat (Falcon) Mod Show and Tell Pseudo-Guide

Hey guys, just wanted to give y’all an update on a VelociRaptor to xbox 360 mod I’ve been working on in anticipation for Battlefield Hardline in March. I was hesitant about opening up my xbox for the mere advantage of a 12 volt line because I’m awful at soldering which makes it even easier to bock up my xbox.

This whole project started the very moment I found out that my 300gb 10k RPM WD VelociRaptor was supported by HDDhackr. I bought the hard drive in 2009 after contemplating between an expensive 120GB Intel SSD and this drive. I concluded that more than double the space for about half the price was a bargain and I still do considering that the drive has outstanding reliability (it’s an enterprise drive) and I get to use it again!

After scouring the webs for a couples days during my night shifts (I’m a Marine TAD to a security force, Rah), I came upon FastTech’s “Enhanced Power Saver Transfer Adapter for Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor,” priced at an amazing $6.90. This would be the piece allowing me to avoid opening any of my xbox in order to get a 12 volt line to power the VelociRaptor. I’m still waiting for it to arrive in the mail and I do plan on opening it up and changing the 5 Volt USB into a 12 Volt USB.


The next thing I needed to purchase was an hdd caddy. I found an empty shell (with the proprietary sata cable) for 7.95 shipped and a Sata/Power extension cable for $1.09. The sata/Power cable allows for me to rotate the direction of the HDD 180 degrees and feed 12 volts into the yellow wire, without opening up the proprietary cable.

After browsing Lowe’s I purchased a couple cheap hobby parts, spacers and 6 x 3/4 in and 4 x 1 in sized screws (with included nuts) in order to fabricate a caddy mod in order to fit the 3.5 in VelociRaptor’s “IcePack” (aka Heat-sink) without removing the actual 2.5 in drive. I know how hot this drive gets and I feel that unless I have the drive in some sort of turbine I shouldn’t remove the heat-sink. I’m going for the least amount of “warranty breaking” here.



After making measurements (I eyeballed with the hard drive and caddy in hand and marked all of this), I Dremel-drilled some holes with a drill bit and then carved out additional space with a cheap diamond bit for the screw to “sink” or “mesh” into the plastic. They still stick out somewhat, but after attaching the caddy to the xbox, 1 mm doesn’t make any latching incompatibilities.

To reinforce the sata connector (instead of 4 screws in rectangular format and some snap on pieces holding down the connector, as opposed to 2 screws linearly), I drilled an additional 2 holes filled with the size 4 x 1 in screws, one of which go straight through the Sata connector (the placement is obvious via the tiny hole on the bottom of the caddy).

The smaller size of the screw (4 instead of 6) allows for reuse of the plastic fortification which has already been holed out, but needs to be slightly widened with a drill bit (had to be careful with melting because of drill heat!). With all 4 screws in one area this guarantees that the ejecting mechanism will not pop out and the proprietary connector can disconnect with minimal risk of breaking the caddy.


The hard drive fits perfectly and looks very clean when connected to the xbox.


Now I’m ready to hook up a 12 volt line but I nominate the help of electrical advisors here..

I’m worried that using grounds from the Microsoft SATA connector for the 5 volt line and adding a lone 12 volt line from external of the DC plug will be unhealthy for the drive. Should I at least snip the 2nd ground wire adjacent to the 12 volt wire and match that ground with where the 12 volt line comes from? Would even these two different ground points be unhealthy for the drive? Or should I run both 12 and 5 volt from the connector? (again, I’m trying to avoid minimal amounts of soldering, and 1-2 wire soldering is much easier than 2+ wire soldering because of possible butchering of previous soldered points because of nearby heat).

Additionally what would be the the most user friendly application of the 12 volt line to the caddy? Should I put a 2.2mm DC barrel jack? Or should I leave it permanently connected? Any ideas?

Thank you for your time to read this and I’m looking forward to playing you on hardline!

Sincerely, Alan

 

Can anyone explain me if I did something like this if it would be harmful to the drive?
The ac-dc converter is 120 to 12 volts dc, 1 amp. but In this case i would only be connecting it to the positive wire of this cable.

Obviously I would implement a permanent solution with solder and a switch.
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