How-to: Make an iPod dock for your Xbox 360 (part II)

For last week's How-to we set out to mount our trusty iPod into our new Xbox 360 before that new console smell even wore off. We moved the Xbox 360's hard drive to a location inside the console and cleared the way for this week's How-to: building the dock for the iPod. Follow along and we'll show you how we constructed a dock that fits with the console's lines and can be replaced easily if we want to return the Xbox to its stock appearance.

We want our new dock to be contained within the area shown in the following photo which is normally occupied by the hard drive.

Our first step was to cut out a cardboard pattern for our filler panel. The easiest way to do this is to trace around the bottom plate of the disassembled hard drive enclosure. Once our pattern was complete we secured it with double-stick tape to a 1/4 inch thick piece of rigid black plastic and cut it out with a Dremel. The pattern in the picture is laying on top of an empty 360 shell since we built the dock concurrently with the hard drive mod.

Here is the result of the initial rough cut. Note the safety glasses in the photo. Cutting disks love to disintegrate at inopportune moments; just because it's Christmas doesn't mean you have to lose an eye Ralphie.

Next you'll need to trace around the iPod so you know where to cut the opening it will be nestled in. We are installing the iPod face down for a couple reason: it protects the screen, the display doesn't show anything useful while plugged in, and the polished body will be a nice accent.

Here is what it looks like once the window is cut.

We used a normal iPod USB cable for our dock connector. The cable has locking tabs built in, but since the iPod is going to be held in the dock by friction we won't need them. If you slide a razor under the front edge of the plastic housing and pry up, the glue joints will pop. This will leave you with a low profile connector and allyou have to do is grind off the points on the locking tabs to keep them from interfering.

We expoxied the connector into a slot that was level with the ipod's dock port. Then we cut out the slot for the hard drive connector. The hard drive cable has very little slack in it, so be gentle in your movements or you'll risk unplugging it inside the box.

Our plastic was pretty scratched up when we started working with it, so we decided to dress up our dock in some fabric to hide the blemishes. We peeled off our cardboard pattern and sprayed on a coat of Krylon spray adhesive. The plate was then wrapped tightly in a thin black satin like material. Once the piece had dried a little we used a hobby knife to open the two holes and finish the swaddling process.

The final addition to the dock was a piece of black ribbon to assist in removing the iPod from its nook.

The dock is now fully assembled and can be placed in the hard drive bay.

In the last picture the Xbox is sitting on top of a Foxconn ATX motherboard box. During the course of this project we discovered that the 360 fit perfectly inside the box. This is an interesting coincidence since Foxconn manufactures the Xbox 360's internal metal shell.

There you have it: a convenient, practical, and stylish iPod dock for your Xbox 360. There are many ways this project could be modified. We took an approach that would let us return the box almost to stock condition if needed, but a more permanent mod could be soldering the hard drive connection on the inside of the case instead of using the external connector. With the outside connector gone you could route the dock's USB cable inside the case. We still need to cut down our three foot dock cable since it only has to be three inches long to reach the port on the back of the box.

Feel free to take our initial idea and run with it. Hopefully with a little foresight you've already got something appropriate engraved on your iPod.

[Abdul @ Dec 27th 2005 2:54PM]

Going to have to try this!

Thank you.

[Jim @ Dec 27th 2005 3:16PM]

Impressive... but just buy a cheap Windows MCE PC and stream all your music to your xbox or xbox 360. You get the album cover and everything.

Schweet. MS is finally getting it...

[mrgrumpy @ Dec 27th 2005 3:21PM]

Why would you do such a thing? Actually it does look pretty sweet. I would probably break both my xbox and ipod though, still a bit unsure: does it work as a write-able hard drive, or just for streaming media to the xbox? thanks guys

[mrgrumpy @ Dec 27th 2005 3:24PM]

i think i would feel a little safer streaming from my media center pc though. Im unimpressed with media centre, its identical to xp except with one program that has the same functionality as windows media player with tv. WinTV works just as wel. Stupid compatibilty, but im not complaining

[Jon @ Dec 27th 2005 3:41PM]

I LOVE the engraving... now only if I had either of these gadgets.. I would be in business!

[Schmoli @ Dec 27th 2005 3:47PM]

This is pretty neat. While I stream from my media center PC when I just want to listen to music, I plug the ipod in when I want to listen to music while playing a game with a horrible built-in soundtrack (NFS:Most Wanted, I'm talking about you).

[J @ Dec 27th 2005 4:00PM]

Why on earth would you go thru all this trouble just to attach your iPod to the 360? Just plug it in and place the iPod on a nearby table. Or the floor. Complete waste of time.

[Tyler Silcox @ Dec 27th 2005 5:12PM]

Nifty, but if you really want to impress me: hack it up so that the Xbox 360 uses a 60GB Ipod as it's default hard-drive.

[Handsome Jon @ Dec 27th 2005 5:48PM]

Now you need to hack the video ipod to show the engadget logo when docked in the xbox, and flip it around!

[Travis @ Dec 27th 2005 9:05PM]

Cool idea...but I think that if you just bought the Apple iPod Dock and set it up next to your tv or something, it would be much easier and more attractive.

[apettythief @ Dec 27th 2005 10:23PM]

(reads above)...well, i'm impressed...



...no real reason for it, but you can do it, so...

[Ijin_yamazaru @ Dec 27th 2005 10:52PM]

It's great but I really wouldn't want to purposely void my warranty. It would be just my luck if it broke right after I did this. Ya'll should try making a PSP dock now.

[alex @ Dec 28th 2005 12:06AM]

looks pretty cool i would try it if i still had one of my i pod's

[eclipse14 @ Dec 28th 2005 1:16AM]

cau you do this with the mini or nano

[Chuck @ Dec 28th 2005 1:39AM]

Awesome! Now make a dock for a controller. It makes about as much sense! Why is this better than just plugging the thing in? So a theif can get both with one hand??

[Leonardo @ Dec 28th 2005 7:07AM]

What a grotesque idea........ why someone would waste time, money, to do this ? Sorry guys.... better just find a way to connect a real iPod dock into the Xbox and use it......

[chuck hazard @ Dec 28th 2005 9:03AM]

Yes I see the safety glasses, I am confident that table is at no risk of putting it's eye out!

[Eric @ Dec 28th 2005 1:35PM]

I think a lot of you are missing the point... while this in no way adds to the functionality of either device, it keeps your $300 iPod much safer than setting in on a table. In direct response:



To Handsome Jon: You can change the images the iPod displays easily. It's a program called iPodWizard. All you'd have to do to see the display is turn it over.



To eclipse14: You could use any iPod with USB compatibility, just modify the size of your holes.



To Leonardo: You can connect a real iPod dock the exact same way- run the USB cable from the dock to the XBox.

[brian @ Dec 28th 2005 1:35PM]

Hmmmm ... I have a feeling that having the HDD on the inside creates a new danger to the system--heat. Maybe not though.



Also, what additional features does one get with your method? Is it just a handy way to put your ipod on it?

[ethan @ Dec 29th 2005 6:32AM]

Looks like a great idea! I'm impressed!

[Alex @ Dec 29th 2005 10:25PM]

ARE you serious? why is everyone complaining about why you'd do this? Because it was there. Sheesh... hack a little, have some imagination, live a little!

[corey garnett @ Jan 3rd 2006 3:30PM]

now if only you could get the 360 to charge the ipod! horrible "support" for the iPod by MS, it streams the music by using the iPod as a hard drive. This causes intense drain on the battery, and whoops it doesn't charge it while using it (at least it doesnt with my 3G iPod using the apple usb/fw combo cable). I've never been able to get more than about an hour of use before the iPod needs to be plugged into a PC/Mac and charged.

[Tyme @ Jan 8th 2006 2:29PM]

well the 3g can't charge off usb... so that could be ur problem there...