Microsoft Wants Kinect to Die, But This Fan Has a Hack to Keep It Alive

The Kinect is officially dead. Microsoft first launched the advanced motion sensor as an add-on for the Xbox 360, but consumers rebelled when it tried to make them standard for the Xbox One. Microsoft stopped manufacturing the device in 2017 and made them harder to use shortly after.

Users who want to attach their Kinects to newer Xbox Ones or Xbox One Xs need to buy an adapter the company also no longer manufacturers. Those adapters now sell for between $130 and $200 on the secondary market. But a crafty Kinect fan has another option.

As first spotted by Hackaday, Redditor Mitch Davis opened up his Kinect and crafted his own adapter for the cost of about $40. All he needed was a 12V AC adapter, a USB 3.0 cable, and a soldering iron. Kinect fans who already own the latter can do this project for around $20.

Davis is a mechanical engineer but he doesn’t have much experience with computer hardware. He said the hack was easy. Someone with any proficiency with soldering could probably complete this project in 15 minutes,” he told me in Reddit message. “It took about 25 for me with the practice wire and redoing the job after my first botched attempt.”

The original Xbox Ones had a special plug for the Kinect that carried both signal and power. The adapters worked by running that through a USB 3.0 port on the newer systems and powering it with a 12 volt AC adapter. To keep his Kinect churning, Davis opened it up, soldered the 12V wire onto the device’s board, and sealed it back up. Once it was getting power from an external source, the Kinect turned on and his Xbox One X recognized it immediately.

Which is good, because Davis loves the Kinect. “I used my Kinect every day,” he said. “It was very convenient in terms of operations features hands-free…I even took my last successful job interview using Skype from Kinect.”

Davis is a Microsoft devotee and bought its new Xbox One X console at launch, and was upset when it didn’t have the port for his Kinect. “It felt like a compromise, and an unnecessary one considering Microsoft had a solution but inexplicably decided to discontinue it essentially right in line with the launch of the One X,” he said.

That pushed him to see if he could come up with his own solution and its gotten a huge response. Many gamers pushed back against the Kinect when it came out, but its fans are devoted. “I know I'm not the only person who was looking for a more economically friendly solution than the resale market,” Davis said.

It was a device that was always more popular with the DIY maker crowd than it was with gamers. Modders have used the Kinect to turn their bodies into controllers, as a 3D scanner to put data into AutoCAD, and the input device for a simple hologram projector.

Davis’ hack is good news for Kinect fans and—despite Microsoft’s seeming desire to bury the old device—he isn’t worried about any repercussions. “Worst case, it voids the warranty,” he said.