Extending range of XBox 360 Wireless Controller

someone mentioned a while back that you could get the USB wireless gaming receiver (made for using 360 periph's on pc) and use that to extend your controller connections.

dont know how valid the statement was or if it'll actually work, as i havent tried it myself.

I think that person was rather confused.

The only way I can really think of to extend the wireless range of the 360 controller is to move the antenna physicly outside of the 360. Sounds like a pretty serious mod to me.

Hmm... maybe there is a way to amp the transmitter of the controller?

Wired controller with 10 extensions.

the only way i know of would be to use a wired contoller with a USB Male A to Female A extension cord. go on ebay and do a search for item number 320163460230 and you will find a 30 foot USB extension cord...

i wouldn't see why it wouldn't work, but i'm sure you would get some serious controller lag, considering the length of the cable...

I think amplifying the signal strength of the wireless controller would be a bad idea.

Besides it being an FCC violation (blah blah) who knows what else operates on that frequency. Garage door openers, car alarm remotes, there's no open bandwidth any more, so it's going to end up interfering with something.

Good question. I would have thought that this problem would have been solved before as well. Is there any chance that you could "hide" the 360 somewhere closer to your seating position and then make your A/V run from it's position to your equipment rack?

Cary

Has anyone actually tried the PC wireless connector? That would be pretty cool if they could just code the box to shut down its normal wireless if it sees it is plugged in and use that instead. It would solve lots of remote equipment problems.

interesting that no one's thought to ask WHY this guy needs his controller to have a range beyond 30 feet. just how big is your screen? are you planning on playing in a multiplex theater in the top row or something?

Well, he explained his equipment is in a closet away from his veiwing area.

Yeah, good think he already answered your question in his opening post, dabilee.

I have been lucky enough to be in range for my living and gameroom are within distance to control it. I would think that if you have a network connection that you could use a wired controller and then use a usb-cat5 adapters. It would keep the cables from having to run from room to room. I did this with a wireless and it seemed to work fine for charging, but I do not have a wired controller. Actually, come to think of it, I will see if I can use it with my wired guitar on rockband, that should prove that it would work... I will check this weekend when I have some time to play.

Dustoff

out of curiosity, do you know this for a fact or are you just speculating?

I do not know it as a fact. The device was not designed for such a purpose though, and with the 360's in-built wireless reciever, it would make no sense from MS's view to write drivers for the Windows dongle and embed them in the very space constrained dashboard software.

Is there any update on this? I have the exact same problem, my xbox is in my equipment rack, and I want to be able to play it in multiple rooms (Theater room on the 3rd floor, family room downstairs, and office on the 2nd floor).

Does the usb-cat5 solution work?

it's not that simple, first you'd have to plug a WIRED controller, because the wireless would just charge.

and depending on the length, you probably wont get usb signal, or you'll get some controller lag.

I have been using this exact set up for a few weeks and it works well with one caution.

My setup

XBOX 360 located in the basement with component video run up to my bedroom and family room. I have a component switch that allows me to use the 360 from either room.

I use a Harmony remote with IRTRANS IR over IP units to transmit IR commands to the basement and switch everything automatically.

Wireless controllers work in the family room since family room is right over the AV closet in the basement.

I used a USB CAT 5 extender using 80 ft of Cat 5e cable up to the bedroom.

With the single USB port I can play Guitar Hero or use a single MS wired controller to play games.

(CAUTION) I tried to use a 4 port non-powered USB adapter to use 2 controllers but that causes the controllers to "Disconnect" from the 360.

I used a second USB extender to fix that, but then I found a DLINK 4 port "Powered" USB hub and that was the trick. I can now use 2 wired MS controller's using a single CAT 5e cable with USB extender.

BTW , the first USB extender I bought was $99. For the second one I searched the web for the cheapest model and paid $44. They both work the same.

I am still determined to get the wireless controllers working in the bedroom. I plan to open the case and find the antenna and see if I can't adapt it with an external one, or run some low loss cable up to the bedroom and attach an antenna there.

Hope that helps to clarify.


PS.. for those of you wondering if it is a pain to switch games in the basement.... I make my kids do it! :0)

You know... this topic has me thinking. When are we going to get to the days, where we can use 1 video game system on 4 different TV's in the house, without moving the game system. For example, let's say you had 1 Xbox 360, 1 Playstation 3, 1 Direct TV HDTV Tivo box, etc, etc. Why can't you have all those items connected to a single location in your home, and then be able to enjoy any of them in any of the rooms with the TV's?

I actually have three Xbox 360 systems right now, and two PS3 systems because of this very reason. I have a 360 and PS3 in my theater room, I have a 360 and PS3 in my living room, and a 360 in my home office/computer room. I have 3 total HDTV's, and a 360 is hooked up to every one of them. I don't use the systems at the same time, I just have seperate systems in each room to make it easy and simple. Before, I would have a component cable and power brick in each room, and just move the 360 from room to room to room, but that get's kinda old real quick. Especially trying to move a PS3 from room to room (heavy). I was able to get some extra 360's off Craigslist real cheap, and scored a second PS3 on a really good deal. (I'm not even close to being wealthy)

A big part of the reason I have two PS3's, is just because they are the cheapest Blu Ray player, and I really need to have a Blu Ray player in each of those rooms.

That is the reason that mine is in the basement. I use a component switcher to use it on 2 TV's in the house.

I also have my Cable HD-PVR in the basement so that my wife and kids can watch recorded shows in multiple rooms.

in short YES you can do this

all you would have to do is extend the antenna in the controller and maybe the 360 also

I have done this for a older PS2 wireless controller from Logitech, there usto be a tut on how to do this but I cant find it anywhere

but if you understand how it works you can do it

hell you could even take one of those antennas from a WRT54G router that comes off and wire that up to the controller, it would look wierd but should work since it is just a unpowered 2.4GHz antenna and I am pretty sure thats what the 360 broadcasts over

shammie_hands-
I have a similar situation, I have the XBOX in the TV room connected to a plasma. This is where I want to use the XBOX most of the time. I use a HDMI splitter and a HDMI/CAT5 device to send the signal to my Home Theater where we like to use the XBOX as well. Its only 30' away, with a wall in-between, but the controllers disconnect often, which of course totally sucks.

Have you made any progress with extending the antennae out of the XBOX so that you can get a signal in your bedroom.

My setup is ideal for me in everyway except this controller disconnect issue, which by the way seems to happen mostly when I have all 4 controllers going, which is usually when I want to use the Theater. When using just one controller in the distant room I have never had a disconnect.

http://www.xbox360forum.com/forum/xb...ontroller.html

Check out post #4 here, guys.

this seems like an interesting Idea, but to get to the internal antennas you have tocrack open the xbox and remove the warranty sticker to get to it. Its more than just removing the faceplate...

I am < 20' away so I dont think distance is a problem.

Last night I experimented by turning off my HTPC Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse and that may have solved the problem (creating a new one of course .

thx

Hi crussell1492,

I have bought the external antenna and cable, but I haven't had the chance to try a mod of the box.

I want to order the internal wireless board off eBay before I crack the box to see what can be done with it first.

For now I have been using the USB over Cat5e extender successfully to play Guitar Hero.

Well I have a tv about 32 feet from my xbox and I get a signal about 80% of the time.

Not about to remove the warranty sticker on my unit but I'd also like to figure out how to extend the range of my unit just slightly.

Any new ideas yet?

I am also about 30' away. What's odd is that 3 controllers work fine, the forth seems to cause others and itself to disconnect, I replaced that controller with a new one, same issue. i don't know if I am having bad luck with getting broken controllers or what. If I have 2 controllers connected at this distance its fine 100% of the time.
I tried to follow the directions and extending the antenna but like you did not want to go past the step of removing the sticker and voiding warranty.

What I'd like to do is hack a controller instead of the actual xbox (On my third unit so I'm NOT about to void the warranty) so that I can add a 5 or 10 foot piece of wire to act as sort of an antenna. I could just run that wire along the bed so that it is within the 30 foot range and have it attached to the receiver of the controller.

"so that I can add a 5 or 10 foot piece of wire to act as sort of an antenna"

If you are going to add a cable to the controller, then why not just use wired controllers?