Hello folks,

Not sure if this is the right place for this question so if not please point me to somewhere more appropriate.

Anyway I want to wire up a cable to connect my cases AC-97 connector to two 3.5mm mini-jacks which I can feed through the back of the case and plug into the Audigy (Audigy 1's don't have the internal connector found on the 2 ZS). I have not done any soldering before (my electronics stopped at A-Level physics many years ago) but figured now is as good a time as any to start as it seems to be becoming a more regular task. Reading the instructions for wiring up the Audigy 2 ZS internal connector I concluded that I need the black connector and terminals to create the plug that will connect to the case connector. I can then cut a male to male mini-jack cable in half and hopefully wire up this to to the correct terminals (if not i will need to get some cable and solder a couple of mini-jacks as well).

My problem lies in finding the equivalent connector here in the UK simply because there is too much choice. Only one place seems to have the connectors described but not as stock items so they will incur a £10 (~$20) extra fee before the cost of the items and as they seem to stock lots of similar items this seems excessive, I just need to know what is an equivalent.

Normally Maplins is good for stuff like this but this seems to be too specialist (they seem to be becoming less of an electronics shop) so I have resorted to web searches and come up with the following component suppliers in the UK.

RS Electronics - http://rswww.com apparently the big cheese for this sort of stuff
Farnell UK- http://uk.farnell.com
CPC - http://cpc.farnell.com

The connectors in the article are:
Connector terminals - http://rocky.digikey.com/scripts/ProductIn...23&M=16-02-0115
Connector housing - http://rocky.digikey.com/scripts/ProductIn...23&M=22-55-2101

I think I have found an equivalent to the housing here in as much as that it sounds quite similar

I am a bit less ure about the pin size but I this this is an equivalent.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, point out any obvious flaws in this plan.

Thanks,

Opener

not hard.
this "guide is only if you want the 1/8" output jack" but can also apply to mic and other jacks

1/4 and 1/8 jacks are the same
only has 3 wires.

left channel ,right channel ,and ground.

a jack has 3 pieces. the black bands inbetween are just insulators to separate them

the left channel is the tip of the jack (the head)
the right channel is the middle piece
the largest piece (the last one on shaft) is ground, then the rest of the wire.

just find your front panel wires. and solder them underneath your soundcards output jack.

usually the jacks on cards have 3 pins. left right and ground. in that order, just picture how the plug looks into the output jack, and youll see what i mean. and thats how you can solder it

k. that should get your rolling.

fyi, soldering and mod your soundcard can void its warranty.
im not responible if it fcuks up your card. since its a *mod.
i dont recommend you to plug and use both jacks at same time. might kill your card?
or just play shitty sound

Those are just the connectors on the AC97 harness that connect to the MB. there are 2 options, feed wires through an empty PCI bracket and solder on 1/8" TRS (Tip-Ring-Shield) connectors to connect to the jacks on the card.
Or, as ooeric you could solder the wires directly to the back of the sound card.

For your reference I've also attached the pinout of the AC97 jack keep in mind that this is the pinout of the MB header.

[img]http://diy-street.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6081&d=1182205946[/img]

ooeric, He wants to output from the normal 1/8" mini jack on the back of the sound card to the mini jack port on the front of his case...


Don't buy any parts opener, if you have a 1/8" cable already, cut it open and splice it directly to your cases ac97 cable... just leave enough cable still attached to the 5x2 connector at the end so that if you want the connector back, you can splice it back...

didnt i answer his question with a solder job?
with my technique, you dont need to splice nothing.
and if you want like it, you can always just cut the wires off underneath and that fixs everything.

ya gotta remember.. these are on the cheap solutions.

i myself dont bother cause i have a 250$ and 500$ headphones. but thats another story lol
i could have recommended him a 2 output amp, which is certainly the logical and most efficient choice, with most options. but $$$.

Yeah, it's always a matter of how much work/money you want to put into it and how concerned you are with looks.

Under the OPs circumstances I'd be inclined to solder to the back of the card; cheaper than buying connectors and no extra wires coming out the back of the case.
I hate the fact that multifunction bay manufacturers usually have PCI pass-throughs for the audio (often even USB) rather than offering internal headers.

Thanks for the help,

The reason I am considering the male connector route was that it seemed the least destructive and seemed to hold the least risk. Also if the card dies or I decide to replace it (or for reasons I can't yet fathom decide to use onboard sound) and the newer card has an AC-97 connector onboard I wouldn't need to do anything other than plug the case cable in to get it working. I mentioned this to one of the Integration Test guys at work yesterday who many years ago used to work on the hardware side and he also suggested just cutting off the connector and splicing the cables as an easier option than trying to find a suitable connector here in the UK and suggested asking one of the hardware team. Unfortunately as the software and hardware teams don't really have much contact there was nobody to ask from the hardware side who might have been able to provide a simple answer as to the correct connector as over the years all our acquaintances have left the company.

Having to feed the cable out the back is a bit naff but on my previous machine I bought a third party front panel which not only fed the audio through but also the USB and firewire connectors. All in all not the cleanest way to work but it does get the job done and its only really an irritant when you go round the back of the case and have to sort through the bundle of wires.