Matching USB pinouts for KT7A header against weird case cable

[Dougie Nisbet]

I have a case that has two USB ports on the front and an 8-core cable that has each plug individually separated so that it is possible to connect it up anyway I please on the USB motherboard header. I've had a good search of the newsgroup archives to see if I can match up the colors and names to the motherboard header, and I'm stumped. The labels on my cable use audio references. Here is what I have:

LABEL COLOR
----- -----
GND Black (quite thick)
GND Black (thinner)
LOUT blue (presumably 'Left Out')
ROUT brown (presumably 'Right Out')
LIN red (presumably 'Left In')
RIN white (presumably 'Right In'.
Unsure whether this is white or pale yellow) MIC IN orange MIC IN green

The two 'MIC IN' labels aren't a typo. They both say the same, not differentiating between Left or Right.

The Abit manual says the pins are as follows:

1 Key Pin
2 NC
3 VCC0
4 VCC1
5 Data0 -
6 Data1 -
7 Data0 +
8 Data1 +
9 Ground
10 Ground

Can anyone suggest which connector goes where?

Dougie

 

[Kim Archer]

Sounds like Audio to me.

Regards. Tim.
Birmingham. UK.

"Dougie Nisbet" wrote:

I have a case that has two USB ports on the front and an 8-core cable that has each plug individually separated so that it is possible to connect it up anyway I please on the USB motherboard header. I've had a good search of the newsgroup archives to see if I can match up the colors and names to the motherboard header, and I'm stumped. The labels on my cable use audio references. Here is what I have:

LABEL COLOR
----- -----
GND Black (quite thick)
GND Black (thinner)
LOUT blue (presumably 'Left Out')
...

 

[Bill Drake]

Hi, Dougie. You are going to have to manually confirm
the wiring layout.

There is no way to tell which way the manufacturer wired this thing up -- you will have to trace the wires back to find the proper relationship between the USB terminals and the labels on the header connectors.

Things to check:

1. If your case has audio connections *as well as* USB
connections on the front, then the cable you mention is for the audio connections. There is another cable for the USB connections.

2. If your case does not have audio connections on the
front, then the manufacturer has mislabelled all the stuff on the back by using the wrong plastic header block parts.

Gawd only knows what else they've done wrong.
I'd want to check this out thoroughly before trusting blindly in bozos who make this kind of error.

3. Disassemble the case front and inspect the connector block for the USB ports and/or Audio ports if supplied. Ensure the wiring at the USB connectors themselves is done properly.

If so, all the manufacturer has done is used the wrong plastic header block parts. If not, then you are going to have to get a proper USB connector block assembly from the case supplier to replace the bogus one you've got now.

To use your existing connector, even though it is labelled incorrectly, you need to trace back the wires and confirm their connections as follows:

1. The layout of the VCC, Ground, Data1 and Data2 pins inside the USB connector itself is standard.

2. Cut a standard USB cable and bare the 4 internal conductor wires. This becomes your test cable.

3. Plug your USB test cable into the external connector and use an ohm meter to trace the 4 wires from the test cable down to the wires on the header connectors. Please note there is no enforcement of the standard for the colours. They
*may* vary from what's used inside USB cable.

4. Note the name of the header connector used for each wire from the USB test cable.

5. Change to the other USB port. Note the name of each header connector for the second USB port as well.

6. You should now be able to match things up with the
published layout in your motherboard manual.

Best I can do for now. <tm>

Bill

Dougie Nisbet wrote:

I have a case that has two USB ports on the front and an 8-core cable that has each plug individually separated so that it is possible to connect it up anyway I please on the USB motherboard header. I've had a good search of the newsgroup archives to see if I can match up the colors and names to the motherboard header, and I'm stumped. The labels on my cable use audio references.
Here is what I have:

LABEL COLOR
----- -----
GND Black (quite thick)
GND Black (thinner)
...

 

[Chris (archive)]

Take a look at this POST for USB
2.0.http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=%25hIdb.3213%24La.2197%40fed1read02&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dusb%2Bgroup:alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte%2Bgroup:alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26group%3Dalt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte%26safe%3Doff%26scoring%3Dd%26selm%3D%2525hIdb.3213%2524La.2197%2540fed1read 2%26rnum%3D5

 

[Dougie Nisbet]

On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 19:19:05 +0000, Bill Drake wrote:

[ ... ]

If so, all the manufacturer has done is used the wrong plastic header block parts. If not, then you are going to have to get a proper USB connector block assembly from the case supplier to replace the bogus one you've got now.

To use your existing connector, even though it is labelled incorrectly, you need to trace back the wires and confirm their connections as follows:

1. The layout of the VCC, Ground, Data1 and Data2 pins inside ...

Thanks for that detailed response Bill. I think it is the case that the plastic block parts are mislabelled. I can trace the cable to a small PCB at the front of the case, and I suspect if I look more closely I'll be able to see which cable goes to which pin. I might pursue that later but at the moment I'm turning the air blue trying to get a PNY GeForce FX 5200 graphics card to work with this build. I think a sledge-hammer might fix the problem, permanently!

Dougie