Hacking the Xbox

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Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
USB Connector Pinout
The Xbox uses a USB derivative for the game controller ports. There are
four game controller ports on the front of the Xbox, and all of them have
an identical pinout, as shown in Figure F-2.
+5V USB
Data -
USB
Data +
Video
Sync
GND
Figure F-2: Game controller pinout, as viewed from outside the Xbox case looking
at the connector.
The “video sync” signal is a 3.3V CMOS or TTL-compatible signal. It is a
basic 15.734 kHz positive polarity pulse train synchronized to the horizontal
line time of the composite video output, with a single longer pulse at the
beginning of every video field. This signal enables peripherals that are
pointed at the TV screen, such as a light pen or a light gun for shooting
games, to derive position information.
The game controllers are connected to the Xbox via an intermediate breakaway
connector. The purpose of this break-away connector is to prevent
console damage (particularly hard drive damage) by dragging or jerking in
the event that a cord becomes entangled around a user’s foot. The pinout of
this break-away connector is depicted in Figure F-3.
Data +
Video
Sync
GND
Figure F-3: Game controller break-away pinout, as viewed looking head-on into the
connector closer to the Xbox.
+5V
Data -