Extending range of XBox 360 Wireless Controller - Page 3

I am in the process of fixing my X-box and think I found a solution for you

I have to make three posts to post a URL because of #$** spammers!

tou will need flat speaker wire some solder and about an hour of free time

3 posts yay!!! I am posting links to 2 things that will help you fix your "problem" (realise that this will void you Microsoft warranty tho)

Opening the Xbox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaxIB...eature=related

Mdoification of the antenna for extended range
http://www.xbox360forum.com/forum/xb...ontroller.html

Let me know how this worked for you. I am off to fix my 3 rings of death my X-box has.

Yeah. I found that link along time ago, but it did not work for me. Are you going to try it?

Yeah, I'm adding it to the list since i have the 360 apart anyway. it'd be nice to play the xbox 3 floors away. You're the first i've heard not getting better results from that modification.

this doesn't work. I've tried it.

i have also tried this and it did work for me.

As an RF engineer and wireless antenna designer, I'd strongly recommend against modifying your XBOX's antenna circuit unless you know what you're doing.

RF transmission lines and antennas have carefully constructed dimensions in order to allow RF signals to propagate. If you solder some random length of wire on to the traces, you may end up with something that acts as an antenna, but you're more likely to end up with something that performs worse than the carefully designed antenna circuit.

If you're really dedicated to extending the XBox 360's wireless length, here's what you would have to do:

(Warning: If any of this sounds unfamiliar to you, this mod is not for you)

1. Find the copper trace on the 360 motherboard that connects the wireless radio to the antenna. It's either going to be microstrip (thin copper line with nothing around it) or coplanar waveguide (thin copper line with narrow gaps on either side, surrounded by more copper filled with a lot of drilled holes).
2. Use a knife to cut the microstrip or the center conductor of the coplanar waveguide.
3. Carefully strip some small coax (RG174 or 0.141in semi-rigid is what I typically use for these jobs) with an SMA connector on the other end and solder the center conductor to the microstrip or coplanar waveguide center conductor. Ensure that you do not short the center conductor to ground anywhere!
4. Carefully solder the jacket of the coax to a ground point somewhere VERY close to the initial solder point. The goal is to provide as smooth of a transition between the microstrip and the coax, so you want to keep things as small and as close together as possible. Again, make sure nothing gets shorted.
5. Run the other end out of the XBox. I'd mount the SMA connector end in the wall of the XBox somewhere by drilling a 1/4" hole.
6. Connect a 2.4GHz panel antenna (any 802.11b/g antenna will work) to the connector, and aim the antenna where you will be sitting.

Anything less than this is doomed to fail, unless you're 1-in-100 lucky. Also note that this (and any other antenna solution) will only focus the existing energy into a narrower beam. As a result, controller performance will improve significantly in the narrow beam, but decrease significantly behind the antenna, above the antenna, etc.

interesting thread. But it all seems overkill. It would make more sense to me to get a longer component cable and move the xbox closer. $40 at monoprice for a 100' component cable, $15 for 20 feet.

that only works if you are going to play your xbox in the same room. I want to play my xbox in my office 50% of the time, and then in the theater room 25% of the time, and our living room (with kids) the other 25% of the time. i don't want to have to move the xbox from location to location (that would require running A/V wires back to the equipment closet as well).

I tried the one solution with adding the antenna to the xbox and it did not work for me.

I've just come across this thread. Having a centrally located Xbox connected to multiple TV's is exactly what I would like to do as well. I think it is ridiculous in this day and age that you can not accomplish this in an elegant way because of a 30ft wireless controller range.

I have thought of another idea for my house but again this is not the "ideal" solution.
I would purchase a secondary XBOX, house one in the basement. That would be close enough to 2 of my 4 tv's (within the 30 ft range). Strategically place the second Xbox on the 2nd level. This would service the 3rd and 4th TV's in my house.
The 1st Xbox would be contained in my AV closet (the one I plan to build soon enough with other distributed components such as PC, DVR, Bluray, etc). The video matrix switch would also be located in this closet and distribute out to my 4 HDTV's. The second XBOX would have to "homerun" either HDMI over CAT 5/6 or a long component cable back to my AV closet so it too could be a source on the video switch.
The obvious downside to this is that you use up an extra source input on the video switch and you also have another input to choose from on the display side that may be a little confusing for others to use (like your kids and their buddies). You also need to run the cable from 2nd level back to the basement. I'm not afraid of this but it is a bit time consuming and some drywall repair would be entailed.

It's sort of a mesh network type solution I guess, not ideal, but covers my entire house (60ft or so of controller coverage). I may do this soon if I don't find a better solution posted here that really doesnt entail frying your Xbox because of poor soldering skills (which I definitely have).

Anyway, I would like to propose that any solutions that HAVE worked for readers be posted here in a specfic manner and possibly links to external posts or videos that have helped. And those solutions that HAVE NOT worked for readers also be posted so that members don't waste their time with solutions that others have disproved. I am still interested in extending the range of the Xbox through the USB solution but there didn't seem to be much in the way of direction there...

you could always try usb over ethernet and run your controllers wired, but you're probably going to run into an issue of power drop/sag

I got slightly better wireless controller range by turning the 360 so the power button points in the direction of the room where the controllers are used. My unit is also standing up on its side.

I know this is an old thread but wondering if there are any non-soldering fixes yet? As posted by original user, I have a 8 room video distribution system with xBox 360 as one of the sources to 8 TV's. Distance ranges from 30' to 80' away & I do not want to purchase 8 360's + 8 versions of every game. Thx in advance to anyone who can answer the riddle.

Cheers

Help!!!

I have bought a new XBox and have installed it about 20Ft (1st floor) away from my tv (ground floor) The controllers keep disconnecting from the XBox the signal is only going through 1 block wall which has a double door in it, the floor is joiced I thought the signal could travel up to 30ft. Any idea what I can do?

"Up to" is the key word. Try spinning the 360 in place, trying the controllers out while the 360 is at different angles to the room. Or get closer.

I've found that going between floors seems to be more of an impediment than distance on a single floor. For example, I have two 360s in my basement, located very close together. I can go to the far side of my basement without losing connection to one of the 360s. But if I go upstairs, I can only go about half as far across the house before the connection to the other 360drops. Yes, there is some additional distance associated with the height difference. But in my case, I think it's obstacles (e.g. the metal ductwork between the basement and ground floor) that really causes problems.

couldn't you put a mini transformer in the controller and put in a bigger antenna. seems like it would work to me.

-Branson

I would love for somebody to come up with some sort of amplifier or wireless repeater. Its the only part of my matrix system that doesn't work on all the tvs.

OK, how 'bout this Hybrid wireless/usb/extender solution? Basically it would use the 'USB over RJ45' solution already covered in this thread, but would let you use your wireless controller instead of forcing you to use a wired controller.

Microsoft makes a 'wireless to USB' adapter so that you can use the XBOX360's wireless controller on PC's. So setup the USB over RJ45 solution, but in the remote room plug this 'wireless to USB' adapter into the extender.

The adapter simply converts a wireless controller to a usb controller so that it can be used on a PC. Well, the XBOX will recognize the USB controller as well. So in your remote room you'll have your wireless controller hitting the 'wireless to USB' converter which is plugged into the 'USB to RJ45' converter which runs to the home theater and plugs into the XBOX360's USB connector.

I realize I'm late to the party, but Sansom was on to something before this thread died. If one of these extenders worked in the way he described (connected to a 360 and over a usb cat5 balun), then the next test would be to have a powered usb hub connecting multiple extenders (over cat5 where applicable) to create a house-wide, wireless controller network. Can anyone test this approach?

Are we positive that the xbox itself will recognize the usb device?
I can test this out. I have two 16' active usb cables from sewell already that I can use to extend the usb device out away from the xbox itself and test to see if it works.

I put xbox360 on top of rack getting out of the metal
cage consisting of the rack. Height and metal interference
seemed to reduce the strength of the signal. So try to keep
device out of rack and as high in house as possible.

B G M.

Anyone try this?

I tried plugging in the USB receiver for PC into the xbox and I am not able to pair the controller with it (it does light up, of course). So I tried pairing it with a W7 PC and it had a similar behavior of lighting up but not pairing. I need to try it on an XP machine to be sure it is still good and working.

So from what I can tell so far is that I think it needs to have its driver installed and be recognized as a device before it will let a controller pair with it. So the 360 and W7 machine don't seem to have their drivers installed and working correctly. I have tried several suggestions from posts regarding W7 installtion and I still don't think it is being fully installed, so no pairing. I have to assume thats the same problem with xbox 360, no driver. I can't be sure that it doesn't work yet though. The wired usb version of the controller is supposed to work on PC or the xbox, so you'd think that the receiver would work on both too (I would hope, but then again MIcrosoft doesn't make installation easy with their own part and OS).

Has anyone else had any luck or any solution for extending the controller signal?

Ok Guys

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but it appears there is still no answer for this problem.

I too want to centrally locate the console and have the ability to play the games at a number of TV's.

Would this solution work.

Use a USB extender over cat 5 to the remote room and then connect one of the USB gaming receivers to the "extended" USB port.

These gaming receivers are to allow you to use the XBOX360 wireless controller with you PC, but will it work with the XBOX360.

If so then its just a case of having these extenders located behind the TV's in question and then moving the controller from room to room.

example one here
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-Win7-New-PC-Wireless-USB-Gaming-Receiver-Adapter-For-Xbox-360-Controller-/221149959221?pt=AU_Video_Game_Accessories&hash=item337d909435

Mick

I don't think this would work as this is designed to connect an xbox controller to a windows computer. USB over cat5 to a hub with wired controllers plugged into the hub should work but ... wired controllers.

I suppose the XBOX360 would need the drivers built in for it to work.

I wonder if the MS one would work? http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver-Windows/dp/B000HZFCT2

If lucky it is exactly the same thing built into the 360.

AFAIK the MS Receiver they sell to connect wireless xbox 360 controllers to a PC will not work on the xbox. It would be great if Microsoft added drivers for it on the 360 as it would solve everybody's problem. Maybe we could start a petition for that feature, but by the time they get around to it the next xbox will be out, so.... This is odd since there are youtube videos of people hooking up the MS wiress receiver to their Android phones without any drivers so it must show up as a HID (Human Interface Device) and give limited functionality without drivers. MS must have a reason for not allowing it on the 360, maybe to sell more xboxes since you'd need one in front of each TV rather than share one between all TV's. This still doesn't make sense since they would want xbox 360's to be installed in home theatre's and this is one of the major stumbling blocks.

Currently the only ways would be to use wired controllers over USB extensions, or to remove and extend the receiver from within the xbox to somewhere closer to the gaming action (there are limits to how far this could be extended). Possibly you could build a sort of Cantennae or dish to mount to or around the xbox's antennae and aim it toward the gaming action for better reception. The standard 2.4Ghz signal goes pretty far with fresh batteries, so it might advantagous to look for things that maybe interfering, blocking, or stepping on the signal too. There are probably still a lot of 2.4Ghz devices in people's homes.