xLCD Review

X-Addon's xLCD Review
Written by Brakken
Feburary 2006 Introduction

Welcome to my review of xaddon’s xLCD screens for the Microsoft XBOX video gaming console. Xaddon’s provides a variety of modifications for getting the most out of your console including universal solderless adapters and of course their xLCD screens. The xLCD’s themselves are compatible with modchips that feature LCD output. The modchips I used for this review are SmartXX’s SmartXX v2, LT-OPX and v3 chips.

There are two main components to the xLCD which are the LCD itself and the LCD-CON. The LCD-CON is a connector for the xLCD which features its own contrast and backlight controls. Additionally, each xLCD comes with a transistor which is used if you are not going to install it with the LCD-CON. Depending on how you are going to install the screens you may or may not need to use the LCD-CON.

What’s the point in having an LCD in your XBOX? There are a few reasons; one of them being able to control your console without the need of a TV. This could be very useful if you were to use it as a music player in a home theatre or car setup. You see – various applications support outputting to the LCD screen. Some of these applications are the SmartXX BIOS, the XBOX Media Center (XBMC) and patched games.

Contents

xLCD
Resistor
LCD-CON*
SmartXX Wire Adapter*

These components are optional and are ordered separately.

Installation

Boy, I sure had a heck of time doing this review. For starters I had never used a dremmel before and I think I did a decent job at cutting the slots for the LCD screens. Before I installed the green and blue xLCD screens I had to get a few things to get the job done. I already mentioned a dremmel, which I picked up for around $70.00, but I also needed some wire (22-30 gauge will do just fine), soldering iron, potentiometer and a hot glue gun.

All of the SmartXX line of modchips I used in this review came with the necessary points for soldering the xLCD onto. Depending on which chip you use the points that you’ll connect onto either the LCD-CON or xLCD will vary.

SmartXX v2.0 - Install


The SmartXX v2.0 is the oldest of the three modchips and is compatible with the LCD-CON. The LCD-CON is a PCB board with two sockets that the xLCD plugs into along with the contrast and backlight potentiometer’s built into it. It also has a wire connector that will get soldered onto the SmartXX v2 modchip. You can either use the LCD-CON when installing it or opt to use your own potentiometer, but for this install I chose to use the LCD-CON. So basically you solder an adapter onto the SmartXX v2, plug the adapter into the LCD-CON and plug the LCD-CON into the xLCD.

The installation is pretty much straight forward. Eleven of the wires get soldered onto the chip and the twelfth wire gets soldered directly onto a 5v source. Once this is done your mount the LCD into the front panel of your XBOX which you have dremmeled out and power your console on.

The xLCD will power up, but will not display anything until you launch an appropriate application and configure it to output the LCD. This is easily done in XBMC by going to the setup screen. Once you have told the application to output it will do so. The nice part about XBMC is that you can tell it to output the menus to the xLCD and then you can control your XBOX without the need of a television.

SmartXX LT-OPX - Install


As before you will need to solder twelve points, but this time around they are directly soldered onto the xLCD module. The resistor that is included with the xLCD comes into play here as you will connect it between the 5v output from the LT-OPX to the xLCD.


You will also have to solder some more stuff to get the LT-OPX up and running. One of the points from the LT-OPX will need to be soldered directly onto a 5v output in your XBOX and then three of the points will need to be soldered onto a 2k-10k potentiometer. Yeah, that last part sounds a bit scary, but you can pickup a potentiometer for a few bucks and it’s really easy to solder on and use. Once it’s soldered on all you do is rotate it with a flat head screwdriver until the screen’s backlight is where you want it to be.

Lastly, the SmartXX LT-OPX has two optional connectors which can be soldered directly onto a 3.3v LED which will light up when there is activity on the xLCD. Luckily, the SmartXX LT-OPX has a built in resistor for the LED so all you need to do is solder the sucker on and you’re good to go.

SmartXX v3 - Install

This is the easiest install out of all three. The SmartXX v3 only requires the twelve wires and all of them are soldered directly onto the chip. There is no need for the LCD-CON or an external potentiometer as both the backlight and contrast controls are built into the SmartXX v3 and can be adjusted using its BIOS. This is by far the best way to go as the chip is one of the most advanced ones on the market and the soldering job is simple. One thing I was disappointed about was the lack of solder points for an activity LED, but that’s not really a big deal.

As I was one of the first people to obtain the SmartXX v3 chip I had to discover how to hook up the xLCD and thanks to help from Labmaster an administrator on SmartXX’s forums I was able to create my own diagram and successfully install the xLCD without a hitch.



Conclusion

When all is said and done, the xLCD screens work great and add a stylish effect to your console. Although it takes a bit of manual labor these screens are reasonably priced and when compared to other solutions you can’t beat it. If you’re in the market for adding an LCD to your XBOX and have a little skill and some patience these screens could be right for you.

Positives LCD Output! Stylish Look

Negatives Moderate Install Required Tools

Links

X-Addons Webpage


-=[ Review Discussion Thread ]=-

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