10/28/2022 0 Comments Clone hero modsThe daughterboard with the RJ11 port is a single-sided PCB approximately 34 by 22 mm in size, held in place with two M2.4-8 plastic-cutting screws with flange-heads 6 mm in diameter. The RJ11 circuit board to be replaced is on the right. (And easily repeatable on other guitars, to boot.) The guitar’s unmodified internals. #CLONE HERO MODS MOD#Reusing the existing cutouts and mounting points will make the mod significantly stronger and cleaner. It’s the perfect target for replacement as the port is unused, has a pre-made cutout in the guitar body, and already includes molded mounting points. This was originally made for an external “effects pedal” concept but was never implemented. The target for this mod is the RJ11 “phone jack” port on the edge of the guitar. This restores the status quo but with one big upgrade: it allows the cable to be swapped out! Whether this mod works or not it will still be possible to revert to the original setup with the attached cable. Instead, I soldered a plain 0.1″ right angle male header to the contacts and then crimped on a mating connector to the original USB cable. The pads on the board are 0.1″ (2.54 mm) apart, and the header’s proximity to the edge of the PCB means it’s not a good candidate for a full-size connector housing that incorporates positive locking (such as a Molex SL 70553). Thankfully the half of the pad connected to the trace is intact so the header is still functional. Because I was filming for YouTube at the time I wasn’t paying as close of attention as I should have and accidentally lifted half of the pad of the D- pin. I then removed the plastic connector holding the pins together and desoldered each pin in turn. The replacement right-angle header soldered to the main circuit boardĪfter triple-checking the pin assignments and their order I used a pair of flush-cut pliers to cut the USB cable as close as I could to the crimped pins. This was a little frustrating to discover because it means this mod won’t just be a plug and play swap, but that’s nothing we can’t work around. The wire colors and header pinout follow the standard USB 2.0 convention as used on computer motherboards: FunctionĪlthough at first glance it looks like there is a female header on the board, these pins are in fact soldered directly to the main board with the plastic housing just holding them together (a “board-in” connector). Inside the guitar, the cable is split into a 5 pin connector with crimped right angle pins soldered to the main circuit board. This molded boot has a rectangular notch that mates with the body of the guitar so that cable strain is transferred to the housing and not the electrical connections within. It includes a breakaway connector (proprietary Xbox 360 to USB-A) so the guitar won’t pull the console off of its shelf, a ferrite choke, and a right angle strain relief boot molded directly into the cable. The guitar uses a purpose-built, proprietary USB cable. No cable connections exist between the two shell halves, and thankfully there’s no adhesive or plastic clips keeping everything together. These come out easily with a few turns of a screwdriver, and then the back of the guitar lifts off with no resistance. Nine of these around the perimeter are 10 mm long, while the two inline with the neck are 14 mm. These all have Torx T10 heads and thankfully unlike the official Xbox 360 controller are not security screws. The main body is held together with 11 M3 plastic-cutting screws, accessible from the back. The first step in this process is to take the guitar apart and see what we have to work with. To solve this problem, I’m going to remove the cumbersome USB cable and replace it with a sleek and modern USB-C jack. USB cable that is great for playing from the couch, but is long and unwieldy when sitting at a desk. It comes with a permanently attached 10 ft. Modeled after a Gibson Explorer, the X-Plorer was released with Guitar Hero 2 and is still a popular choice today for Guitar Hero and Clone Hero players. One such controller is the Guitar Hero X-Plorer, an Xbox 360 rhythm controller made by RedOctane. Similarly, many 3rd party controller manufacturers were hesitant to switch to the new wireless systems and only offered their controllers with bulky, permanently attached cables. Both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 came with wireless controllers but offered wired options for gamers still reluctant to move on from the bulky tethers of yore. When the sixth generation of video games consoles were released in the mid 2000s, console manufacturers began the process of transitioning from wired to wireless controllers.
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