"Ben Pope" said:
You may be able to remove the metal pins from the plastic case, they usually
have a little barb that prevents you from pulling them straight out, but if
you look carefully you should see a way of removing them. I think that you
can usually hook part of the casing with a knife and slide each pin straight
out.
It should be fairly obvious which to connect together, I'd suspect that the
grounds are connected to each other and the +12V together as well.
Ben
You could pull the pins from the 2x5 and connect them directly to the
header. But, the problem is, the pins may try to rotate, and if they
do, they could short together. One solution would be to use heat-shrink
tubing (polyolefin). This can give you a tight fitting plastic insulation
around each pin, to prevent them from shorting even if they get rotated
while in place. To find some, measure the widest part of the bare pin (a
diagonal cross section for example), and then buy tubing which is large
enough to slide over it without pinching. Since heat shrink resists
being forced over something, there should be some slack. Generally, I
buy two or three sizes of tubing and test for the best fit. Then, apply
a gentle heat until you see the tubing shrink (shrinks to at most 50%
original size - try for a tighter fit and lesser shrinkage than that).
Too much heat can make the tubing really brittle or burn through it.
For example, I use a soldering iron to shrink this tubing, but I just
let the heat waft off the tip of the iron, without touching the iron
to the tubing. Since the tubing will conform to the pin, the small piece
of tubing shouldn't slide around when you are finished. If need be, it
can be cut off with diagonal cutters or a hobby knife.
To find some, start here:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/us/dksus.dll?Criteria?Ref=127554&Cat=32375550
There are many colors, sizes, and lengths. A five foot piece will be
plenty. This PDF page from the catalog will give you a more convenient
way of selecting a part number.
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T033/0971.pdf
The other option is to find a 1x8 plastic shroud, just like the 2x5
plastic shroud around the case connector right now. Frontx sells parts
like this -
http://www.frontx.com/order_c.html
http://www.frontx.com/cpx075_7.html (1x8 plastic shroud to hold wires)
The problem is, you won't know for certain whether the pins in the current
shroud will fit in the new shroud or not. The only way to be certain
is to buy pins that match the shroud, then if the existing pins don't
fit, you remove the pins on the end of the cable and install the
new ones (not a lot of fun).
I'd recommend searching for a shroud on the Digikey site, because they
have plenty of parts like this, but so far I haven't found one which
is just a flat feature-less shroud (at least one that allows easy
disassembly, to move the wires around). A shroud solution is better
than heatshrinking the individual wires, when you need to remove
and reassemble your computer.
I'll post a part number later if I find one.
As for the wiring, this is what I would use. The motherboard has
three ground pins, two intended as "shield wires" to help reduce
crosstalk between TPA and TPB, while the third is intended as
ground return for the power supply. The case wiring is using its
two ground wires for both functions. This means the motherboard
pin 7 won't be used. The case has two +12V pins, and only one
(either one will do) needs to be connected. Any unused pins from
the case wiring (like that +12V wire) should be carefully insulated,
so they don't accidently touch something and blow it up.
Case Wires Motherboard Pins (pin 7 Ground is unused)
1 TPA+ 3 TPA2+
2 TPA- 4 TPA2-
3 Ground 1 Ground
4 Ground 2 Ground
5 TPB+ 5 TPB2+
6 TPB- 6 TPB2-
7 +12V 8 +12V
8 +12V (insulate)
9 Key
A NC
HTH,
Paul
