- Apr 13, 2012
- 149
- 23
This isn't the exact place to put this, but neither is the case modding section. I figure I would put it here because I know this sections gets great support.
What I am looking to do is basically an ultimate example of laziness, but at the same time it is still a great project. At first I thought, hmm I think I am gonna buy a DemoN even though I have a retail just for convenience so I have my RGH and retail in one. Then I thought why not take it further and integrate both the retail and RGH hard drive so they are both internal (yes I could just keep swapping hard drives but that ruins the project AND its a pain in the ass for me because my RGH hard drive is an early 2.5" 1TB drive so its height is higher than 9mm so it doesn't fit into one of the slim hard drive shells). Basically what I imagine is stripping the SATA power cables, grouping the grounds, and then wiring up the remaining 3 power wires (since there are two hard drives a total of 6) to some switch system that would have those 18 wires as "OUT" and the "IN" would be the SATA port on the Xbox. Now obviously that is a lot of wires, so I don't know if cutting just one of the lines cuts the operation, for the whole drive (I think that just cutting one of the lines would hurt the drive since it would still be getting some power), OR I could use a SATA to MOLEX adapter to reduce the cables to 2 per line.
Problem is that I don't know of any switches that would be cable of doing this and like I said I don't know if there is some trick where I can just cut one line and have the drive power down. Basically I just want to have a switch that toggles between the power of both drives so I can select which one is one with the throw of that switch.
Any one have any ideas on how to make this work?
EDIT:
I have seen on the net people talking about only cutting the main +12V source and +5V soruce (ignoring the 3.3V source because apparently most devices these days dont even use it) in which cause I could use a DPDT switch to have both wires change over, though I still don't know if cutting just those is safe. Though it is possible that makes sense because on a molex cable there is only +12V and +5V lines and I am guessing the SATA power to MOLEX converter works by just Ditching the 3.3V line. So it seems to be if I used a SATA to MOLEX converter I could use a DPDT switch on the red and yellow lines to toggle the power on and off. Also, if the converter does work the way I stated, I can simply group the +12V and +5V sources and then use a DPDT switch on them without even using the converter (essentially manual conversion).
EDIT2:
Ok it seems that the 3.3V line is not used by modern 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs because manufactures knew people would want to use MOLEX to SATA connectors so they configure drives to only need the 12V and 5V sources, and then generate the 3.3V off of the 5V line if they need it for what ever reason. So it seems that a DPDT switch to switch between each hard drives 5V and 12V lines would do the trick. I would still love others thoughts though.
What I am looking to do is basically an ultimate example of laziness, but at the same time it is still a great project. At first I thought, hmm I think I am gonna buy a DemoN even though I have a retail just for convenience so I have my RGH and retail in one. Then I thought why not take it further and integrate both the retail and RGH hard drive so they are both internal (yes I could just keep swapping hard drives but that ruins the project AND its a pain in the ass for me because my RGH hard drive is an early 2.5" 1TB drive so its height is higher than 9mm so it doesn't fit into one of the slim hard drive shells). Basically what I imagine is stripping the SATA power cables, grouping the grounds, and then wiring up the remaining 3 power wires (since there are two hard drives a total of 6) to some switch system that would have those 18 wires as "OUT" and the "IN" would be the SATA port on the Xbox. Now obviously that is a lot of wires, so I don't know if cutting just one of the lines cuts the operation, for the whole drive (I think that just cutting one of the lines would hurt the drive since it would still be getting some power), OR I could use a SATA to MOLEX adapter to reduce the cables to 2 per line.
Problem is that I don't know of any switches that would be cable of doing this and like I said I don't know if there is some trick where I can just cut one line and have the drive power down. Basically I just want to have a switch that toggles between the power of both drives so I can select which one is one with the throw of that switch.
Any one have any ideas on how to make this work?
EDIT:
I have seen on the net people talking about only cutting the main +12V source and +5V soruce (ignoring the 3.3V source because apparently most devices these days dont even use it) in which cause I could use a DPDT switch to have both wires change over, though I still don't know if cutting just those is safe. Though it is possible that makes sense because on a molex cable there is only +12V and +5V lines and I am guessing the SATA power to MOLEX converter works by just Ditching the 3.3V line. So it seems to be if I used a SATA to MOLEX converter I could use a DPDT switch on the red and yellow lines to toggle the power on and off. Also, if the converter does work the way I stated, I can simply group the +12V and +5V sources and then use a DPDT switch on them without even using the converter (essentially manual conversion).
EDIT2:
Ok it seems that the 3.3V line is not used by modern 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs because manufactures knew people would want to use MOLEX to SATA connectors so they configure drives to only need the 12V and 5V sources, and then generate the 3.3V off of the 5V line if they need it for what ever reason. So it seems that a DPDT switch to switch between each hard drives 5V and 12V lines would do the trick. I would still love others thoughts though.
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