Anyone ever built their own audio header cable? My Mobo has the standard 10-pin header, w/ pinout diagrams supplied (thank you Asus...) but my case didn't come w/ ports or cables. And the half dozen local computer stores I've asked just look at me funny and say, "What's that?" or "Didn't your case come with those?". The 3.5mm stereo & mic plugs I can buy; my local electronics shop has 10-pin computer plugs for sale - the solderless sort, which is better yet. They even have a "3.5mm PC stereo plug" that seems to have a microswitch in it - for signalling to turn off the rear-plugged speakers, I'm guessing. 10-wire ribbon cable is trivial to get. What risks are there? Is worst-case "There's no sound on my headset or mic" or "There's smoke coming out of my brand-new Mobo"? (Given that all the actual work is done well away from the computer, and all the pinouts & links can be tested beforehand, I'm guessing the actual risk is minimal... but that's just a guess...)
Ten pin header... most look like this... but you have a schematic .. so no worries.... One tutorial: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article.php?id=93 If you want the header with the ribbon cables, look at the: internal 10" serial cable on the PDF below: http://www.rainbowkits.com/cat-cables-504.pdf Here are the wiring configurations for the jacks themselves, this should give you everything you need to put it all together.... http://www.vandenhul.com/artpap/wiring.htm You should not have to worry about hurting anything, the outputs aren't going to be a problem unless you attempt to force voltage back at them The inputs will be just fine unless you plan on inputting a couple of hundred watts or something way out there...... You will be able to wire this up and test it just fine without any worries of blowing stuff up.... (that wonderful burning smell... ) Hope it helps out....
Thanks for the links, Jay. I'll have a proper read thru them later, and visit my local electronics store next week. I'll keep this thread updated; if it turns out to be easy - and it works! - I might write up a quickie Mod Guide for this site!
Further to this; went to my local electronics store today and got 10-strand ribbon cable, a 10-pin header plug, a 3.5mm stereo jack (socket), and a 3.5mm mic jack. However, I can't find pinout information for either of the jack assemblies! The part #s are 24-391-1 (3.5mm Stereo PC Jack) and 24-387-2 (2.5mm mono chassis jack) (this for the mic plug). They're made by Mode Electronics, to whom I've sent an email, but if someone already has this pinout information I'd be grateful! (I've never worked with audio plugs/jacks before...) And yes, I have already w/ Google. Got dimensions and some fuzzy black & white pics, but no pinout diagrams or datasheets! (cool smileys here, BTW!)
The Jack pinouts are an industry standard (I think), that is why I provided you with: This gives you the wiring configs for the plugs and if you have the config for the board, them you should be good to go!!!!
Unless I'm missing something - which is entirely likely! - the info I need isn't on the Van Den Hul page, actually. I've checked all the 3.5mm links on that page, and they're all concerning the plugs (the male ends) not the jacks (the female ends). That page seems mostly concerned w/ building male-to-male cables to link dissimilar jacks, AFAIK. However, I just now (literally) got an email from Mode Electronics giving me the exact data sheets - with pinouts - for the two jacks I'm using! Kudos to Mode for very prompt customer service! I think I now have enough information to actually sit down and do this thing!
All sorted? I wish... The pinout diagram/description in this article and my ASUS A7N8V-E manual seem to contradict each other - and I'm worried about blowing a smoking hole in my month-old MoBo with this project... The Hardware Secrets article says "The connection of the wires must be made the following way: Mic In to pin 1; Gnd to pins 2 and 3; R Out to pin 5; Ret R to pin 6; L Out to pin 9, and Ret L to pin 10." My ASUS manual says, paraphrased, "Pin 1: MIC2, Pin 2:AGND; Pin 3: MICPWR, Pin 4:+5VA, Pin 5: LineOut R, Pin 6: BLine Out R, Pin 7 & 8: nothing/no pin, Pin 9: LineOut L, Pin 10: BLine Out L" So, a little table: ("HWS" is the Hardware Secrets article ref'd above, "A7N8V" is my MoBo's manual...) Code: PIN# HWS A7N8V 1 Mic In MIC2 2 GND AGND 3 GND MICPWR 4 ??? +5VA 5 R Out R Out 6 R Ret R Bline Out 7 NC 8 no pin here 9 L Out L Out 10 L RetL Bline Out So there is a discrepancy with Pins 1, 3, & 4. Given that these involve the power & ground leads, that's why I'm nervous... Also pins 6 & 10 - is "BLINE OUT" just a techy way of saying "RET"? I realize that both L & both R pins actually share one headphone jack connections - the HWS article made that clear - but I'm hoping my mobo doesn't have some wierda** pinout. It's more likely that I'm just confused, however... Sorry, I'm realizing that this is currently over my head - but I want front plugs, dammit, if I can get this sorted out... I know I can do the physical wiring & related bumpf, if I only know what I'm wiring... On the good news front, I've got the stereo jack pinouts sorted, and (pending the above questions) I've got a good idea of the mic jack pinouts too... useful site for that: Jack Pinouts
Bringing my own thread back to life... I built the audio cable last night, and tested it tonight. Good News: I haven't killed my mobo or my speakers. More Good News: The headphones work off the front jack. They're cheap pieces of cr*p, but they do give stereo sound. Bad News: The new front Mic plug doesn't work. However, the rear Mic plug does work still, so I haven't damaged anything, just not wired it up right... I'll post construction details to date if there's any interest, and I'm going to (cautiously) experiment tomorrow with Mic wiring... Briefly, it's actually sort of clever. Those jumpers on the audio header pins don't actually "short" anything - instead, they actually carry the audio signals across the header when there's nothing plugged in there. "BLine_out" seems to stand for "back line out" ie the line to the mobo's usual rear audio ports. The PC stereo jack has two simple switches in it, that're pressed apart by the plug when it enters. When they're closed, the audio signal comes up each Line_Out, across a switch, and down to BLine_Out enroute to the rear jacks. Stick a standard plug in there, it breaks the two BLine_Out switches and all the signal goes out the plugs & then the regular GND line. If there's interest I'll post some diagrams & more info! And if anyone knows how to get the blasted Mic port working, let me know!
i have done this same thing, the RET line out is very common as it blanks out your speakers for you on inserting headphones. For your mono (2 pin) mic try wiring it you pins 3 and 1 (MICPower and MICINPUT) but dont hold me to that... what have you wired it as now?
Right now the Mic is wired to MIC2 & GND; I'm going to swap it around to MICPWR & MIC2 later today & see how it goes. At least the headphone jack works; the wiring there is a lot more complex than for the mono mic jack. (5 lines connecting the 'phone jack, only 2 for the mic!) The header plug I'm using can be flipped open again with careful application of a screwdriver tip, so there's no soldering to undo...
OK, that did work. Cool. More details later, I'm just testing my domain & hotlink protection right now. Some of you might get ideas just from this pic alone. Off to the gym, back to be a desk-potato later!
sorry to revive a long dead thread, but I can't figure out how to get my mic working off a front audio jack. What pin from the audio header goes to where on the front audio jack (the mic has a stereo plug if that makes a difference)
Audio headers are not entirely standard. Your MIC will be wired as follows: Microphone jacks use two signal lines and one ground, much like a headphone jack. The seperate signal lines are only used independently if you're using a stereo microphone. Atleast ne of the MIC wires should to be a ground, or perhaps that's what MIC2 is. You can't kill anything with the front audio header no matter how weirdly you connect it. Pin 1: MIC2 Pin 2: AGND <- shared ground? Pin 3: MICPWR Pin 4:+5VA <-this one makes no sense to me Pin 5: LineOut R <- Right linout/rear Pin 6: BLine Out R <- Right speaker Pin 7 & 8: nothing/no pin, Pin 9: LineOut L <- LeftLineOut/rear Pin 10: BLine Out L <- Left speaker I haven't seen very many audio headers that are identical so don't assume the same pinouts will work for you. Each stereo audio jack will need two signal lines and a ground. Each stereo microphone jack will be the same.
