"Barry" said:
I took the plunge and built my own system and so far all is well with only
one or two bits of 'unfinished' business. The Coolermaster Wavemaster case
has a top panel for additional sound, mic, USB and Firewire. I identified
the additional USB headers and connected fine but I am struggling with the
sound, mic and Firewire. The extra motherboard header seems to be for
something called the Intel FP (front panel?) and while it has individual
pins and jumpers, I only seem to succeed in cancelling the rear panel mic
and sound when I hook up the wires from the case's top panel and the
Firewire lead from the case is a different shape altogether. Has anybody
successfully got all connections working on a Wavemaster case and P4P800
board? It would be really nice to finish my project.
Thanks
Barry
I had a look at the Coolermaster site, and their idea of documentation
leaves a lot to be desired. The product manual is a JPEG file
you download off of a link on this page:
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.p...AC-T01-E1C&other_title=TAC-T01-E1CWave Master
First of all, the four wires for the audio consist of GND, LEFT, RIGHT, and
MIC. These four wires connect to two interruptable type audio jacks.
The following diagram shows how the five pins of a stereo interruptable
jack work:
http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/CUI Inc/Web data/SJ-3515.pdf
Pin 5 = TIP
Pin 4 = TIP_return
Pin 3 = RING_return
Pin 2 = RING
Pin 1 = SLEEVE
Since the audio on the Wavemaster doesn't have any return wires, the
best you can do on the output jack is as follows. Note that when the
two jumpers are removed from the FPAUDIO header on the motherboard,
the lime colored output jack on the back of the computer will no
longer work. This is because the two return signals are not available
to wire to the FPAUDIO header.
Headphone jack on the Wavemaster:
Pin 5 = TIP = Left channel output = wire "2 (blue)"
Pin 4 (shorted to pin 5 - doesn't affect anything)
Pin 3 (shorted to pin 2 - doesn't affect anything)
Pin 2 = RING = Right channel output = wire "1 (purple)"
Pin 1 = SLEEVE = Ground = wire "3 (green)"
For a microphone input, the TIP, RING, and SLEEVE parts of a stereo
type plug correspond to MIC, MIC_PWR, and GROUND. The Wavemaster
shorts all the pins 2 through 5 together, which is a disaster. That
connectivity is appropriate for as passive microphone (piezo or
electromagnetic or even an amplified mic that has its own battery)
but is not going to do a good job for an electret microphone.
I think the Digikey catalog shows electret microphones as connecting
MIC to MIC_PWR internally, so it will still work. The problem is,
you need to connect two pins from FP_AUDIO to the one wire "4 (yellow)",
to even have a chance to support electret microphones. I am unaware of
any easy to use consumer solution for this - you can buy crimpable
pins from Frontx.com and make up an assembly, but that isn't why you
spend good money for a computer case.
PIN 5 = TIP = MIC = wire "4 (yellow)"
PIN 4 (shorted to pin 5)
PIN 3 (shorted to pin 5)
PIN 2 = RING (shorted to pin 5) - normally this is MIC_PWR,
but in many cases will still work if MIC_PWR and
MIC are shorted together for use with an electret
microphone.
PIN 1 = SLEEVE = GROUND = already wired via the "3 (green)" wire
So, looking at the FP_AUDIO header on the motherboard, we get:
4 (yellow) --> MIC2 X X AGND <-- 3 (green)
4 (yellow) --> MICPWR X X +5VA
1 (purple) --> Line_out_R X X BLINE_OUT_R
NC X
2 (blue) --> Line_out_L X X BLINE_OUT_L
Notes: If you only use non-electret microphones, then you don't absolutely
need to connect "4 (yellow)" to MICPWR. If you do use electret microphones,
you need to try to get "4 (yellow)" connected to MIC2 and MICPWR
simultaneously. Also, because BLINE_OUT_R and BLINE_OUT_L have no place
to go, the lime colored audio output connector on the back of the
computer will no longer work. You would need to connect Line_out_R to
BLINE_OUT_R and connect LINE_out_L to BLINE_OUT_L to restore audio output
on the lime colored jack (while the purple and blue wires are plugged
in, so that too is going to be difficult to do).
As you can see, Coolermaster has a lot to learn about wiring up audio.
Due to the JPG picture being unclear, I cannot see the labels on all
the USB pins properly. I think the wiring will look like this, and
the four and five pin USB assemblies (CN2 and CN3) should just fit
over the pins on the motherboard USB_56 header. Check the wire colors
to be sure they mate properly, as shown below. (Maybe your paper copy
of the manual is clearer than the downloadable JPEG file.) If the wires
aren't in the right position, you may have to pull them out of the plastic
shroud and reinsert them in the correct order.
1(BLACK) --> USB+5V X X USB+5V <-- 1(WHITE)
2(BROWN) --> USB_P5- X X USB_P6- <-- 2(BLUE)
3(RED) --> USB_P5+ X X USB_P6+ <-- 3(BLACK)
4(ORANGE) --> GND X X GND <-- 4(RED)
X NC <-- 5(RED)
Notes: Some poster claims the Asus "NC" no connect pin is actually
grounded, and that is the reason you can connect "5(RED)" to it. If
it really is grounded, this can help ground the braided shield on
the USB cable, but it might also work even if the "NC" pin is floating.
Grounding the shield is supposed to help reduce electrical interference
with TVs and radios from your computer.
For the IEEE1394 (Firewire) connector, it looks like you need a cable
with pins on one end, and a Firewire connector on the other end. I am
unaware of a commercial solution to do this. If you can find the
Asus Firewire PCI slot adapter plate shown in the motherboard manual, you
could use that inside the computer case, plus an ordinary firewire to
firewire cable to do the wiring. Then, just secure the firewire adapter
plate to something solid inside the case.
So, all in all, it is going to be a bit of work to get this Coolermaster
solution connected to your motherboard. On my Antec case, I leave this
kind of crap unconnected. Very few case makers know how to do front panel
connectors properly.
Something else to keep in mind - even though Coolermaster provides
the documentation, sometimes the wiring on the case is actually different
that what the documentation show. I recommend using an ohmmeter to verify
each of the connectors. The most important signals to verify are any
power signals, like the +12V and GND (VP and VG) on the Firewire
connector and the +5V and GND signals on the USB connectors. If power
gets reversed due to a case manufacturing error, you could burn out a
peripheral used with the badly wire port. If a signal pin is miswired,
that would probably just stop the interface from working, without doing
any permanent damage. An ohmmeter is a cheap investment compared to
damaging a Firewire equipped video camera.
Good luck,
Paul
