Xbox 360 USB-C Conversion

This all started with my annoyance when i kept running over the super long original xbox 360 wired controller cable with my chair, and decided to try making a usb-c mod, some people had already done this using a usb-c breakout board, but i found those hard to solder, and there was no real good way of keeping them in place once installed without covering the entire thing in hot glue, so i decided to design a custom pcb that replaces the stock connector without any extra modification required, this is the result.

Step 1: Designing and Testing the First Few Versions of the Pcb

To start off with i went with a simple design that was just a super simple pcb that connected straight to the usb-c receptacle, while this worked and let me have a reversible USB-C connector on my controller, it did not line up with the 3d printed bracket and it was slightly off center, this first version also lacked the resistors you can see in the pictures, without these resistors the adapters would not allow for usb-c to usb-c connections.

Step 2: Designing the Final Version of the Pcb

after deciding the original straight pcb was not good enough (since it did not line up) i started working on a version with a better fit, above you can see the printed template for testing purposes, after testing a few different designs i stuck with this one, first i removed one pin from the pcb making it less wide, the 5th pin was only for mounting and is not connected, this new curved design allowed for a better fit and it had resistors that enabled usb-c to usb-c connections, and after installing the board and confirming it works i could stop worrying about ruining the cable with my chair.

Step 3: Finishing Up

Overall this was a pretty fun project that turned out better than expected, being able to quickly connect and disconnect the controller and use any usb-c cable is pretty great, i would have liked to post more pictures of the design process, but i didn't take any early on, as this was just intended as a small side project.

This project is open source and can be found on github.