darkSpyro

I have a lot of old portals (like 4) that are for the X-BOX 360. Has anyone ever tried to hook up their extra portals to a powered usb hub in order to use them as devices to show off your lightcores/giants? Is that even possible...without having them plugged into the XBOX...just the hub? I don't have a powered hub, but I was thinking about picking up one.

I think there was a user who was going to try this, but i don't remember ever seeing them posting about it again.

I'm no tech expert, but I think it'd be easier to just rig something up that could activate the lights and put it onto a long stand or something, rather than using all the portals together, right?

If you do rig anything up, make sure to post pics! I wanna see something cool and techy that can light all the figures up at once.

This is a neat idea. It would be interesting to see the results of this test.

Sadly the old portals don't activate the lightcore function unless the game is started. The new portal turns in the zlC function with or without the game.

Also the old portals only light up if plugged into a PC or Mac USB Hub, not a usb wall outlet, etc.
Hope this helps

I was only able to get my xbox portals to light up when I start up my mac in the os choice screen (hold option while booting).
I have an old mac left on in that mode all the time just for that. It works on Intel ones and my old PPC ibook.
I have two powered on and one wireless one, just sitting next to them to light up one more on that portal too, but not use batteries.

They should work with a hub in that mode because I use the extra usb jack on the keyboard.
I figured it out when booting into windows to try to get the windows sky-editor going, but never could. I tried a bunch of hubs and wall plugs, PCs and reading a lot of these forums about making your own RFID shelves, but had no luck until that discovery.

I close the ibook cover and stick a giant or swapper (large base) on the apple logo and the base outline glows too.
So far no screen burn-in from leaving it in that mode for weeks now.

My wife has a Nexus 7 tablet and LightCore figures light up when placed against the back of that tablet, which has NFC. Just throwing that out there.

Quote: KrazyBoomer

Sadly the old portals don't activate the lightcore function unless the game is started. The new portal turns in the zlC function with or without the game.

Also the old portals only light up if plugged into a PC or Mac USB Hub, not a usb wall outlet, etc.
Hope this helps

My kids have been asking for a Lightcore night light in their bed room and I can't get our old Spyro's Adventure or Giants portals to light up at all when trying to use a UBS phone charger.

Just to confirm then = a new Swap Force portal should light up Lightcore figs when powered off only of a USB powered hub?

I can't get either older or newer (swap) xbox portals to run off of a powered hub (plugged into a computer or not).
I'm pretty sure that you need the device it's plugged into to be sending a certain signal/voltage to it.

So other than an XBOX, the only thing that I've successfully got to make it work is a mac booted into the OS selection screen.

I think that mode may be sending all kinds of odd usb signals because it's looking for all kinds of devices to boot from.

Thanks guys...based on your replies I think there really isn't an easy solution. I tried several USB chargers (apple, other tablets, etc.) that I had laying around, and none of them kicked on the portal. That makes be believe that a powered USB hub will not help.

I can't believe that someone hasn't figured out this in the past, or how to make some kind of home-brew solution. Kind of hard to believe that powering a USB device properly is so difficult. I should have been an electrical engineer.

here is the thread you guys should be reading

//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=73090

no reason to ask questions again. go read. youre welcome.

Thanks for posting that URL. It's a bit more technical than I am looking for, even though I got more technical with my last post.

What I am looking for is a way to use our old portals without using our consoles...without soldering wires...etc.

Quote: Brainwashed

My kids have been asking for a Lightcore night light in their bed room and I can't get our old Spyro's Adventure or Giants portals to light up at all when trying to use a UBS phone charger.

Ha. Someone should make a tiny portal that plugs into the wall and has a base that lights up and activates the Lightcore effect on applicable figures. Then charge $20 for it.

You can get a Mac computer for around that $20 range.
I did a search on my local Sacramento craigslist and found a *working* Power Mac G4 for $25 (maybe haggle down too).

It's big, but you could also get a smaller laptop with a broken screen for that much. I saw one for $30 or best offer. My old ibook doesn't have make any fan noise after the first couple of minutes. Plug in your hub, boot it with your PC's keyboard (just hold option while booting), then take the keyboard back to your PC.

That sounds a little bit like what you're asking for. Power up a few portals for around $20 plus your hub cost.

that seems so very wasteful. using a whole computer just to run portals of power on.

Yup. So when your kids outgrow Skylanders, you have a good, very inexpensive computer for them to use.

even that seems mean, making a child use an old ibook...