Cygnos360 V2 User manual

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Manual
www.cygnos360.com
V
E RSI O N
1
.
0
.
-
O
K T O B E R
,
2009

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
ii
Contents:
1.
What yo need......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1.
Tools ........................................................................................................................................ 2
2.
Preparation .............................................................................................................................. 3
2.1.
Preparing the solder points....................................................................................................... 3
3.
Installing in yo r Xbox360......................................................................................................... 4
3.1.
Installing the main PCB ............................................................................................................. 4
3.2.
Installing the USB board ...........................................................................................................8
4.
Software installation................................................................................................................. 9
5.
Cygnos Toolbox ...................................................................................................................... 11
6.
Tro bleshooting ..................................................................................................................... 15


Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
2
1. What you need
1.1. Tools
Cygnos360 V2 has been designed to req ire as little as possible skills to install and se. However, to ens re a good
and clean installation some tools may come very handy to yo . We ass me yo know how to open yo r Xbox360.
If not, there are good t torials on the net. What yo need is:
1) a Cygnos360 V2
2) 4 x 330 Ohm resistors
3) An Xbox360 with 16Mb NAND (please note that the 256 and 512 Mb Jasper mainboards are not s pported yet)
4) A soldering iron (it sho ld have a fine top, as the q icksolder pads are very small)
5) Some good solder
6) some thin wires (kynar wo ld be preferred)
7) 4 M3 screws with n ts
8) A PC with Windows (XP or Vista)
9) The Cygnos360 V2 Toolbox
10) Some patience

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
3
2. Pre aration
In order to make s re that the installation of yo r Cygnos360 is smooth and yo do not have to tro bleshoot later
on, yo sho ld make some preparations before yo install it.
2.1. Preparing the solder points
Cygnos360 V2 is soldered directly onto the bottom side of the Xbox360 mainboard. Microsoft ses lead-free solder
for man fact ring. This ca ses some tro ble when trying to solder anything onto the mainboard. We therefore
highly recommend that yo mix some good solder (try to get some SMD solder) onto all the points where yo will
solder Cygnos360 V2 onto. This ens res that yo do not end p with cold solder joints and a non-working
Cygnos360 V2.

4
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
3. Installing in your Xbox360
3.1. Installing the main PCB
Cygnos360 V2 is installed directly onto the bottom side of the Xbox360 mainboard nderneath the flash memory
(NAND). Please make s re yo have done the preparation as stated above. P t the flat cable into Cygnos360 V2
before yo install it! It is easier than if yo try that later.
Place the PCB directly onto the bottom solder points of the Xbox360 onboard NAND flash and make s re it is even
on the s rface of the mainboard. Use the q ick-solder pads to align Cygnos360 V2 and fix it with some d ct tape to
the mainboard to avoid it from moving aro nd. As the next step solder the q ick-solder pads. If yo have prepared
them before with some good solder this sho ld not take more than 3 min tes.
As the next step, solder the GND wire gro nd, for example directly to the copper on the side. Then also solder the
RB cable.
As an alternative to the RB cable yo can scratch off the RB point on the mainboard as described in the chapter 2.1

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
5
Cygnos360 V2 Solder Point Xbox360 solder oint Comments
VCC C2R6
GND Good GND, preferable copper
RB Above the line at R1P7
X0 J2B1 PIN 5
X1 J2D2 PIN 1 Via 330 ohm!
X2 J2B1 PIN 2
X3 J2B1 PIN 1
X4 FT2N3
X5 J2D2 PIN 2 Via 330 ohm!
X6 J2D2 PIN 4 Via 330 ohm!
X7 J2D2 PIN 5 Via 330 ohm!

6
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
X0 -> PIN 5
X3 -> PIN 1
X4 -> FT2N3
RB
VCC
X2 -> PIN 2

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
7
(This is a photo of an gly test set p with an Op s mainboard. Please make s re yo align the wires more neatly ;-)
After soldering the Cygnos360 V2 main PCB, we recommend that yo p t some tape on top of the places where
yo soldered cables. This is to avoid that yo short circ it anything with the metal cage.
P t the mainboard back in the cage, attach the USB board and move to section 4 Software installation before
contin ing with the installation.
When closing the box, also se some d ct tape to protect the flat cable from c ts of the metal cage to avoid any
damage. Leave o t the screw in the corner to not p t too m ch press re on the cable.

8
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
3.2. Installing the USB board
Yo are free to install the USB board where yo want b t we recommend the following installation:
A good place to p t the USB board is in front of the HDD slot. The place is easy to reach and not hard to c t a hole
into and the bl e LED of the Cygnos360 V2 USB board shines thro gh nicely.
Make s re yo c t the hole exactly as in the pict res here, otherwise yo might hit some plastic parts on the front
which will hinder yo from closing the part while the Cygnos V2 USB board is installed.
Before fixing the USB board here with the M3 screws, attach the flat cable to it. Make s re yo don’t do it pside
down! Pl g the power into yo r Xbox360 and check if the bl e LED shines when yo switch to “ON”. Take o t the
power pl g again to avoid any shorting on the metal cage.
Now screw the M3 screws directly into the grid. Place the USB board onto the screws and attach the n ts from
below. Now yo can p t the part back on the Xbox360 and yo are done!

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
9
4. Software installation
Pl g in the power of yo r Xbox360. Don’t t rn on the Xbox360. Switch Cygnos360 V2 to “ON” so yo can verify if
the LED is lit. If yo switch Cygnos360 V2 to “ON” and then pl g the power of the Xbox360 in, Cygnos360 V2 will go
into bootloader mode and the LED will be blinking.
If everything is fine, connect Cygnos360 V2 with the USB port of yo r PC. Yo sho ld see the following prompts.
Select “install from a specific location” and point to the directory where yo p t the Cygnos360 V2 drivers.

10
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
Now that yo have s ccessf lly installed Cygnos360 V2 drivers on yo r PC, yo can proceed and la nch the
Cygnos360 V2 Toolbox.

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
11
5. Cygnos Toolbox
When yo start the Cygnos Toolbox yo will see that all the controls are marked o t grey.
As soon as yo pl g in yo r USB cable and connect it to Cygnos360 V2 the toolbox will recognize it and show the
stat s “connected” as well as the c rrently selected NAND flash. (either Cygnos NAND or Xbox360 NAND). If yo
flip the switch yo can see that the selection of the flash memory changes. When the LED is lit in bl e the toolbox
sho ld show “Cygnos NAND” if it is not lit it sho ld be “Xbox360 NAND”.

12
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
Now that yo have established the connection between the toolbox and Cygnos360 V2 yo can start to read flash,
program the flash or program Cygnos360 V2 with a new firmware.
Reading the NAND-Flash:
To read o t the flash and d mp it to yo r hard disk, simply go to the read tab. Select “Browse” to define the
location and the name for the d mp file. Make s re yo have selected the correct flash that yo want to read o t.
Either the Cygnos360 V2’s own NAND or the one on the Xbox360 mainboard.
After selecting location and filename press “Read”. Yo will see a progress bar to indicate how far yo are in the
d mp. If anything goes wrong here, please refer to the tro bleshoot section below.
In this screenshot yo are reading the flash of the onboard NAND-flash

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
13
Programming the NAND-Flash:
Ok, yo are going to program something to yo r Xbox360 NAND or the Cygnos360 V2 NAND now. PLEASE make
sure that you have a dum of the original before you roceed. It will save yo a lot of time ;-)
Klick on “browse” to select the image file that yo want to flash to the NAND. Make s re yo have the correct one
selected (either Cygnos360 V2 NAND or Xbox360 NAND) before yo proceed. After selecting the file click on
“ rogram” and the toolbox will erase the flash and then program the image yo have selected. The progress bar
will indicate how long it will take. If anything goes wrong here, please refer to the tro bleshoot section below.
In this screenshot yo are programming the flash of the onboard NAND-flash

14
Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
Programming the firmware:
This process will erase the firmware of the microcontroller on the Cygnos360 V2 and replace it with a different
version. Please make s re that yo ONLY se firmwares that yo have directly downloaded from o r website.
Click the “Firmware” tab and select “browse”. Now choose the firmware image yo want to flash to the
Cygnos360 V2. It does not matter if yo have yo r switch set to Cygnos360 or Xbox360. Click on “Program” to start
the firmware pdate. This will go very fast, so don’t wonder why yo don’t see m ch.
(in this screenshot yo are programming firmware on the Cygnos360 V2 microcontroller)

Cygnos360 V2 Installation Man al
Version 1.0 - October 2009
15
6. Troubleshooting
Indication: The LED is very faint
Sol tion: Yo have probably a cold solder joint at the GND solder points. Please re-solder the GND again and make
s re that yo have a good connection there.
Indication: The LED does not light p at all, no matter if the switch is at ON or OFF setting
Sol tion: Most likely yo have not soldered the VCC connection correctly. Please re-solder it and make s re yo
have a good connection there.
Indication: The toolbox does not find my Cygnos360 V2.
Sol tion: Please make s re that yo have installed the drivers correctly. Also make s re that in one of the switch
settings the bl e LED is shining bright. If not, check the indications above.
Indication: I get RROD when I power on the Xbox360.
Sol tion: Check that there is a video cable connected! Witho t a video cable pl gged in, yo will get RROD.
Indication: Toolbox gives me error 0101
Sol tion: It seems that yo have made some bad soldering. Re-check all solder points with a magnifying glass and
make s re all points are good. Try to caref lly re-solder all points.
Table of contents