Extending range of XBox 360 Wireless Controller - Page 2

Reviving an old thread.
I don't mind opening up my xbox 360. I have a video distribution system that I would like to connect the 360 too. I plan on locating the xbox in the equipment closet. How long would the antenna need to be and which direction would I run it? I guess what I am saying is would simply getting an antenna out of the xbox add another 10' of range?

I look forward to reading about your results. It's something I have to tackle sooner than later if I want to play the 360 upstairs. I'm not quite as confident as you though in taking it apart

Has anyone made any progress with extending the wireless range of the 360?

I am in the same boat as most here. I have a large video switch in the house and I would like to route the 360's video and audio and play it in all rooms of my house.

I am willing to crack open the 360 but I am unsure how to attach the external ant to the internal one. I do know the internal ant is located behind the power button / ring of green color on the front of the unit.

Chris

there is a solution...if you know enough about electronics. It can be extended by 15-22 feet by using a scorpion power amplifying IC chip, a 10k ohm resistor, and an antenna from the linksys USB WRT54GS. Open the controller for use in steps ahead. solder on a wire to the antenna to lengthen it. I used 30 gauge since the plug and charge slot is right where the wire has fit and still allow the controller to close. Basically either just run the antenna and solder it to long metal bar just above charge spot, that's the RF receiver/transmitter. Once thats done hot glue the antenna somewhere on the back under side of the controller for convenience. If you still need longer range. Get the chip and solder the resistor to the far left bottom hole in the board. It's where there's 3 gold rings. Far left is DIRECT power supply hence needing the resistor at that point, as it turns the scorpion chip from 10V to 3V there by allowing enough juice to boost, but without expending your battery in like 2 hours. Run positive from board...gold ring...to pin 1 on the chip, so it gets positive polarity...and then run the negative wire from the board to the antenna. Then add another wire from where you soldered the negative to the antenna and it goes to pin 4 and 8. Circuit is complete and adding 3V more boost without DIRECTLY Overboosting the PCB board and frying your controller. BTW negative is reversed on matrix style boards...but those are almost completely impossible to get a hold of because they're not made anymore as they were the first PCB design by microsoft at launch time. Wiring is same for all other wireless controllers PCB types. Hope this helps. Extended my range 37 feet. BTW, you're welcome.

Hey I had an Idea that I don't think would break any regulations. Find someone who could program something that would send the signals of that wireless controller was sending to a PC back to a Xbox 360 Over LAN network connections. The xbox 360 if connected does have an IP address. I would strongly suggest you find out whether it would break any rules or laws but I think It would be more feasible than some solutions.

Build a "cantenna" ..

Thanks for the tip on extending range.
I was looking at the first method. Is all that needs to be done is solder a 30 gauge wire to the long metal plate and solder the other end to the linksys antenna?

Did this extend the range by 15-20 meaning up to 45 50 feet of range?

THANKS!

Solder to the top of the rf crystal then run the wire out?

Sorry for the delay...my internet is horrible...towers are so overloaded it keeps shutting down and rebooting to keep from frying.....probably 30 years old, lol....anyways...yes you can solder an external 2.4 ghz antenna to the rf crystal which is risky...cause it can go out unless you hotglue all solders you make to it...or you can simply solder to the log flat wire if you use a self battery powered amplifier. I will try ONCE my internet is fixed to make a step by step on how to build this kit, and yes...I meant you will depending on which way you decide to go...can bost the range from 33 ft to 70 feet MAX..70 being max because after that much boosted signal hits the xbox 360 antenna...it's so powerful it percieves it as interference so it disregards it. So my advice is don't max out the range a good 1V - 1.5v booster will give you 25-30 extra feet. 2v 35-50 feet. Don't go over 2v. I will also try to hook a 2v boosted antenna directly to the rf crystal and remove the built in antenna and tell you the results, as soon as possible. TY for your patience. Oh and all you people buying rapid fire controllers for like 150 dollars, keep this in mind...controller 50 bucks...2 resistors... 45 cents...2 buttons...1.15...one 8 pin PICaxe IC chip...5.00...rapid fire code...free...NOWHERE near 150... I.E you got ripped off. shouldn't be more then 80 or less, I know i've built several different kind for my own amusement in single player on games.

An extra 20 ft. would be perfect for what I need. I'm not concerned with a huge amount of distance, but I am concerned with frying my controller. You said "Basically either just run the antenna and solder it to long metal bar just above charge spot, that's the RF receiver/transmitter". Is the RF receiver/transmitter the RF crystal? I'm not too good with electronic terminology.

Yes, if you notice it has a solid bar coming out of the center of it. The "Long metal bar" above the charge slot is where the positive and ground connections converge. Hence the 2 legs on the long metal bar. If you run a self powered/boosted Antenna from the long flat part of the bar that's just above charge slot depending on antenna hertz and on power of antenna. You should at least get 20 extra feet at minimum. Provided it's not trying to go through like a wall AND an entire floor. But as stated before mine is running a 2v linksys usb wrt54gs antenna and I can be standing about 75 feet from my console and still talk even through 3 walls. If you're afraid of fryinng the RF amplifier crystal, then just solder to the flat bar. If soldering to the flat bar, the antenna used needs to be a single wire antenna as there is no negative to the antenna at that spot.

All you need for that to work is the 99.00 usb adapter, and modified software to recognize the controllers signal, and you could program it to use your routers wireless, sorta like an adhoc system. For those who don't know an adhoc system is simply using multiple routers conncted to each other wirelessly
for huge massive devices over a great distance to connect to the net using the same ip. For instance like a software company adhocing all the pc's and buying like say 2 ds truck connections to support all the pc's online. Ds connections are 1 gig per second connections that cost roughly 7500 a month. They are owned by private internet companies and NEVER lag. I REALLY wished I could get one where i'm at, as money for me is no object. But anyway back to topic. I could buy an adapter and try rewritting or making my own software for windows xp pro to work on my linksys wireless and then send it straight to the xbox via the wireless on my router. You can't have it send the signal over ethernet cable as xbox can't interpret controller inputs over ethernet cable, only wirelessly. Because of the way the master chip on the controller is hardcoded. Hardcoded meaning ROM. Read Only Memory. As opposed to RAM, Random Access Memory. I will try above mentioned and let everyone know the results. BTW, Happy NEW YEAR
to all!

Are you still going to post detailed instructions? I have a wrt54g with the 2 antennas on it which I can use. I just need more specific instructions.

The solution by the_devils_bane sounds simple enough in principal, but although the XBOX 360 controllers use 2.4Ghz, it's not WIFI and therefore the "software modification" is not trivial, to say the least. Also, the XBOX 360 authenticates the controllers, so the adapter near the XBOX 360 would have to appear to the XBOX 360 as a genuine wireless controller. So, to put it bluntly, this may be possible (nothing is impossible, right?) but extremely unlikely without some serious modding/hacking work, if at all. Would love to be proved wrong, but that is my understanding

I know this is an old post, but this can easily be done. I have a 360, Wii, DVD player, and 2 DirecTV boxes feeding 4 flat panels in my house. I use an Extron Crosspoint 8x4 matrix switch and have it and all my equipment in a closet. Problem solved. I can watch or play anything on any TV at the same time.

Do you have problems with controller range though? I don't understand the instructions enough to tackle soldering my controller.

bump

No problems with range. The controllers will work up to 30 ft. away from the game systems. My equipment closet is in a central part of my house. None of the displays are more than 30 ft. from this closet.

Did you even read the thread? I am glad that range is not an issue for you. My equipment closet is in a central location of a 4,000 sq ft house where range is an issue. I'm not sure what you were trying to add to the discussion.

Nevermind. I see you were replying to a specific post.

Yeah, smart ass. I was replying to YOUR specific post and trying to help. Since you posted about range right under my next to last post, and didn't bother to quote anyone or ask anyone in particular, I figured you were talking to me. Good luck with your problem.

How exactly does your post help?
The point of the entire thread is to help people who have distribution set up but need more range, not people who are trying distribution for the 1st time. You reply added nothing to the topic "extending range of Xbox360 controller".

The douchebaggery in this world never ceases to amaze me. No good deed goes unpunished, even when one is genuinely trying to help. Have fun, kids.

I should have expected another insult since you can't explain how your post describing your setup helps anyone in this thread. You are inside of the 30' range, others are not. Thanks for the insight.
I won't reply again unless it's back on topic.

Any luck?

well back on topic.

I just repaired one of my 1st gen 360's with the xclamp and I noticed that the ring of light is removable and has the controller antenna on it. The solder points are fairly large so if you got a pair of ethernet cables you could extend it (9 wires). My bet would be it's some varient of usb with some additional lines for the buttons and lights. That would limit you to about an extra 15 feet of extension.

Hey guys in order to distribute the signal from my xbox as well as my dvd player and Tivo throughout the house. I first run everything through an Onkyo receiver, I then take the output of that and run it to a CE LABS AV901. The AV901 allows me to run the signal to tv's in my Family room, kitchen, office master bedroom and our loft. Controller wise the cat5 cable solution works well and there is no noticeable lag time as long as you don't go longer than 100' of cable.

This does require a TON of RG6 cable but if you want a nice clean install that produces a great picture this is the way to go.

How do you get the xbox controller to work over 35ft away?

I think he used my idea of the ethernet cables