##3. Extra features

Please select an item below to find information on the below features.

3.1 [TSOP write-enable points][#3.1 TSOP write-enable points] 3.2 [TSOP recovery][#TSOP recovery] 3.3 [TSOP split feature][#TSOP split feature] 3.4 [Character LCD support][#TSOP split feature] 3.5 [Evolution-X dashboard Xblast control][#Evolution-X dashboard Xblast control]

3.1 TSOP write-enable points

For 1.0 to 1.5 Xbox consoles, it is possible to rewrite the on board TSOP flash chip and replace the stock BIOS initially programmed with a hacked BIOS that will enable homebrew and backup support.

In order to enable erasing the old (stock) BIOS and programming a new (hacked) one, you need to enable the write support to the TSOP chip as it was disabled from the factory. To enable write-support, you will need to bridge the solder points together. The Location of these points varies depending on your Xbox revision.

The TSOP chip is the large, but thin black chip near the LPC port with narrow pitched legs. Possible TSOP brands are Atmel, Hyundai/Hynix, ST, Winbond and Sharp(Special procedure for Sharp TSOP, see picture below).

1.6/1.6b do NOT have a TSOP.

3.1.1 1.0/1.1 Xbox consoles

1.0/1.1 have 1 set of points to bridge on each side of the motherboard. They are both located near the TSOP chip.

3.1.2 1.2-1.5 Xbox consoles

1.2-1.5 have their 2 sets of points on the top side of the motherboard. They are both located near the TSOP chip.

Tip: You need to have the write-enable points soldered to fully take advantage of the TSOP recovery feature.

3.2 TSOP recovery

TSOP recovery feature is available for 1.0-1.5 Xbox consoles. It allows you to flash the TSOP of your Xbox when booting from a modchip. TSOP recovery requires to have a working DVD drive and a DVD-R to boot from, like "heimdall's HeXEn xbox engineering disc" or "Auto-Installer Deluxe Disc".

For information, the Xbox console has 2 way of booting a BIOS: from onboard TSOP and from LPC port (where the XBlast Lite is). Depending from which one your console boots, the other one will not be accessible by conventional means. So if you boot from your TSOP, you cannot flash your modchip and if you boot from your modchip, you cannot flash your TSOP.

TSOP recovery also requires that you flash one of the BIOS bank of your XBlast Lite with a special hacked BIOS called "tsop_m7.bin" and boot from it. This BIOS will enable booting from LPC port while giving access to flash the on board TSOP.

To summarize the mechanism, the special BIOS, coupled with a XBlast Lite, will start booting the console from the LPC port, then reset and restart booting from on board TSOP and finally switch back to LPC, mid-boot, to load the kernel of the hacked BIOS. So the feature rely on the fact that the TSOP to recover contains partially valid data to work. If you TSOP is blank or too corrupted, the TSOP recovery feature will not work. Also, if your TSOP is already flashed with a "modern" hacked BIOS (like Evox M8+, X2 5035 or others), there is a strong possibility that this feature will not work, at least with the special BIOS tsop_m7.bin. As of writing this manual, no special BIOS can recover a TSOP flashed with Evox M8+ or X2 5035 due to their different boot process compared to stock or more "traditional hacked" BIOSes. Technically, it is possible to create a special BIOS that would enable TSOP recovery for M8+ and others but such BIOS has not been created yet. TSOP recover feature will work all the time when a stock BIOS is already programmed on the TSOP.

For users who use the TSOP splitting feature of the XBlast Lite, please refer to the XBlast OS manual for more information on the "TSOP recover force bank" feature prior to attempting to do a TSOP recover.

The procedure to do a TSOP recover on XBlast Lite is as follow:

0- Ensure TSOP write-enable flash points as well as A15 signal are all soldered before attempting this procedure.

1- Flash a user flash bank with the special BIOS tsop_m7.bin

(optional for TSOP split feature users)Configure the "TSOP recover force bank" feature in the "Tools" section.

2- Insert a burned DVD-R to boot from in your DVD drive

3- From XBlast OS main (icon) menu, boot the bank on which you flashed "tsop_m7.bin"

4- If the operation is successful, you should see the following boot screen(there is no flubber animation before the big �X� screen shows up)

[pic of tsop_m7.bin boot screen]

5- The DVD-R should boot like normal. (Note that both Auto-Installer and HeXen discs take a really long time to boot on some consoles, seeing the top_m7.bin boot screen for some minutes is possible and expected).

6- Use your favorite Xbox program to flash your TSOP with a new BIOS.

Tip: XBlast OS.xbe, Evolution-X dashboard, raincoat all support flashing the TSOP.

Tip: TSOP split feature users should use XBlast OS to flash their TSOP as it will detect the TSOP split and give you the option to flash the bank you want.

3.3 TSOP split feature

1.0/1.1 differs from other revisions of motherboards as they have a 1MB TSOP. Normally, a Xbox BIOS fits in 256KB of flash space. It is a well-known fact on the scene that you can "split" this 1MB of flash space into either 2 or even 4 equal parts. This gives you the ability to have 2 * 512KB or 4 * 256KB BIOS banks on your Xbox TSOP. This is called TSOP splitting. Normally, to control from which TSOP "bank" you wish to boot from, you'd need physical switch(es) to toggle the desired bank. This normally requires mounting the switch(es) somewhere outside the case.

The XBlast Lite modchip can help you take advantage of this "feature" by enabling you to split your TSOP in half (thus getting 2 * 512KB BIOS banks) and replacing the need for physical switch with additional boot options in XBlast OS main (icon) menu.

Here's the main menu without TSOP splitting activated:

[pic of XBlast OS iconMenu, no TSOP split]

Here's the main menu with TSOP splitting activated:

[pic of XBlast OS iconMenu, with TSOP split]

To take advantage of the XBlast Lite TSOP split feature you must solder a wire from your Xbox motherboard's A19 solder point to XBlast Lite's A19 solder pad, if you haven't done it during the initial installation of the XBlast Lite. You must then activate the TSOP split feature in XBlast OS. To enable this feature in XBlast OS, please refer to the XBlast OS manual.

Tip: If you don't ever plan on "unsplitting" your TSOP, you really should disconnect the MCPX chip from the A19 signal of your TSOP. Leaving the MCPX connected to A19 while controlling it with the XBlast Lite can cause excess heat in MCPX chip and could eventually burn the signal driver for the pin controlling the A19 signal inside the MCPX chip. It does not matter too much as it will not break your Xbox; it will just make it impossible to boot a full 1MB TSOP after a few years of usage in the event you'd remove the XBlast Lite from that Xbox. For the very experienced modders, if you wish to disconnect the MCPX from A19, please cut a trace on the Xbox motherboard located under the MCPX chip, on the bottom side of the motherboard.

Here are 2 suggestions of location for cutting the trace.

Using a really small drill bit and turning it by hand on top of the trace works well. A very sharp X-acto knife to do a straight cut works too. Whatever method suits you, be very careful and be patient as accidentally cutting surrounding traces would be very hard to repair!

3.4 Character LCD support

XBlast Lite supports connecting a small Character LCD via the LCD port. It also controls backlight intensity as well as contrast setting from software; no need to adjust external potentiometer.

[Pic of XBlast Lite LCD port]

Supported LCD models have to be compatible with either HD44780 or KS0073 protocols. The LCD requires a total of 12 connections with the XBlast Lite to properly interface it. If your LCD doesn't support backlight, only 10 connections are necessary; leave A and K signals unconnected.

Please refer to the schematic representation below for proper pin mapping

It is normal and desired to leave pins labeled D0 to D3 on the LCD unconnected. Although the graphical representation above is made with a 2 lines by 16 characters wide LCD, a 4 lines by 20 characters wide LCD is recommended.

Tip: Remember to enable the LCD in the XBlast OS for it to function.

XBlast Lite uses the same communication protocol between your Xbox and the LCD as SmartXX modchips to display information. This means that every homebrew software that supports the SmartXX LCD will support XBlast Lite LCD.

Tip: On 1.0-1.5 Xbox consoles, LCD as well as GPIO ports of the XBlast Lite are accessible even if you booted your Xbox from the TSOP. For 1.6/1.6b consoles, XBlast Lite is totally unresponsive if you boot from the on board, stock BIOS.

3.5 Evolution-X dashboard Xblast control

It is possible to partially control your XBlast Lite via the Evolution-X dashboard. With it, you can reboot your Xbox to the desired bank (Xblast Lite bank or TSOP) and flash a new BIOS to a selected bank (also support TSOP bank selection when TSOP is split).

You need to add a menu section with specific commands to your "evox.ini" file. The valid commands are regrouped into 3 categories. A single category of command can be shown in Evolution-X dashboard depending on the state of your XBlast Lite modchip. There are 3 known states: "Xbox booted from XBlast Lite flash bank", "Xbox booted from split TSOP bank" and "Xbox booted from full TSOP". For 1.6/1.6b Xbox, only the first state is possible as XBlast Lite will be completely unresponsive if your Xbox booted from the on board BIOS.

[Evox command list]

You can rename the menu entries, remove unwanted lines ,modifying the existing command lines may produce Unexpected behaviour

Here's an example of integration into a sample evox.ini file.

          Section "XBlast TSOP split mode",ID_Chameleon_Mode_1

{

    Line "XBlast TSOP split mode"

    Item "Switch To TSOP (Disable Chameleon)",ID_Chameleon_Release_D0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To XBlast 512KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To XBlast 256KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_2,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To TSOP Bank 0",ID_Chameleon_Bank_1,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To TSOP Bank 1",ID_Chameleon_Bank_3,ID_Full_Reboot

    Line "-=*-*=-"

    Item "Flash TSOP Bank 0",ID_Chameleon_Bank_1,ID_Flash_Bios

    Item "Flash TSOP Bank 1",ID_Chameleon_Bank_3,ID_Flash_Bios

}

Section "XBlast TSOP mode",ID_Chameleon_Mode_2

{

    Line "XBlast TSOP mode"

    Item "Switch To TSOP (Disable Chameleon)",ID_Chameleon_Release_D0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To XBlast 512KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To XBlast 256KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_2,ID_Full_Reboot

    Line "-=*-*=-"

    Item "Flash TSOP",ID_Flash_Bios

Section "XBlast Onboard Flash",ID_Chameleon_Mode_4

{

    Line "XBlast Onboard Flash"

    Item "Switch To XBlast 512KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To XBlast 256KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_2,ID_Full_Reboot

                        #Item "Switch To TSOP (Disable Chameleon)",ID_Chameleon_Release_D0,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To TSOP Bank0",ID_Chameleon_Bank_1,ID_Full_Reboot

    Item "Switch To TSOP Bank1",ID_Chameleon_Bank_3,ID_Full_Reboot

    Line "-=*-*=-"

    Item "Flash XBlast 512KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_0,ID_Flash_Bios

    Item "Flash XBlast 256KB Bank",ID_Chameleon_Bank_2,ID_Flash_Bios

}

Tip: If you copy the example above, make sure you enable the proper line(s) depending on your situation in the �XBlast Onboard Flash� section. If your TSOP is split, you might want to remove the line

�Item "Switch To TSOP (Disable Chameleon)",ID_Chameleon_Release_D0,ID_Full_Reboot�. If your TSOP is NOT split, you should remove the lines �Item "Switch To TSOP Bank0",ID_Chameleon_Bank_1,ID_Full_Reboot� and �Item "Switch To TSOP Bank1",ID_Chameleon_Bank_3,ID_Full_Reboot�.

Tip: Don�t forget to add XBlast Lite�s flash chip in the supported flash list of your Evox.ini to enable flashing BIOS to banks. Add the following line in the [BIOS] section of your evox.ini file:

Flash = 0xbf5b,"XBlast Lite",0x80000