JTAG an Xbox 360: Wiring the JTAG mod [Part 4]

In the previous tutorial, we read our NAND image and determined if it was exploitable by our CB version. If you have an exploitable CB, congrats - we're almost done! What we've do so far has not affected the way our console runs... it should still run like normal. The next step will cause the JTAG hack to change the way the console operates.

In order to trigger the JTAG hack, we will need to bridge 3 points on the motherboard with some wire and solder. The points bridged depends on the Xbox motherboard version. Find your motherboard version and wire according to the appropriate schematic.

XENON motherboard:

FALCON, ZEPHYR, OPUS & JASPER motherboards:

My motherboard is a XENON, so I will be wiring it according to the first image. This is where we're going to be using the switching diodes that we purchased in step 1.

Take 2 switching diodes out of the packaging. Cut all but a small piece off of the side with no black tip.

Get a thin piece of wire - I used extra wires from inside a CAT5 cable, the same one we used before for the NAND cable. Solder to the cut end of the switching diode as shown below.

Look at your schematic. See the black line the arrows are pointing at? This indicated which direction you place your diode in. The black line on the image corresponds to the black tip on the diode. Place the long end of the diode through the appropriate hole on the motherboard.

Make sure it's bent close to a 90 degree angle as shown above. Turn the board over and clips the wire short as shown below.

Use a small amount of solder to secure the switching diode to the motherboard.

Now flip the board back over and measure the length of wire you need to reach the 2nd point for the wire. Clip the wire (a little on the long side) and strip the end. NOTE: the NAND cable is still attached, just like in the picture - what we're looking at is the green wire standing up.

Solder the stripped end of the wire into the appropriate point using the same method we used to solder the NAND cable to the board.

Solder your next wire using the exact same method. I'm relatively new to soldering, so I melted the wire casing a little - no big deal unless metal touch metal!

If you look at the XENON picture, it shows the next wire doesn't use a switching diode. For this connection we will just be using a small bit of wire that's stripped on each end.

Solder one end into the board.

Then solder the other point. Lay all of your wires flat and make sure no metal is touching metal!

That's the last of the hardware modification for the JTAG hack! In the next tutorial, we will retrieve the CPU key and create the final JTAG image!

Until next time...