So, I had an I/O Magic 16x Drive sitting around from a past deal at Staples in the states, but hadn't put it to use yet. It was an LG GSA-H10N that only cost me about $10 USD (after rebate and coupon).

I then got lucky and found a good deal on an INOi 5.25" external combo Firewire/USB2 enclosure (DW560C), that ended up being real cheap after a manufacturer rebate and a cashback promotion from PayPal. Turns out the enclosure uses a Prolific PL-3507 Rev. C chipset.

I had read the horror stories about using LG drives in enclosures, and the additional hassles of trying to use one with a Prolific enclosure, but decided to do some experimenting.

Turns out it wasn't really that big of a deal, at least in my case. First, in order to avoid the insanity of having to remove the drive from the enclosure, and install it internally just to flash it, I simply changed the firmware on the enclosure to the special LG Prolific firmware known as "GSA-5160D Controller Firmware", which can be found on the lgservice.com site. Flashing the bridgeboard on the enclosure worked perfectly. Then, I simply cross-flashed the drive to an E10N with Dangerous Brothers JE06 firmware, and then I upgraded the drive to the latest firmware with the official LG JE07 flasher. Flashing worked perfectly in both situations, while the drive was in the enclosure and connected via USB. No need to install internally.

Now, I have an external LG GSA-E10N that I made myself.

Below is my first test scan with an MIC Playo disk using a fake code (I wanted to see how the drive would do with lesser quality media). I don't have a Lite-On handy to give a more accurate scan (yes, I know about the BenQ vs. 10N/12N issue), but this at least confirms that it's working.