Guide: S/PDIF header to coaxial cable.

Well this guide is for people, who like me have an entry level mobo that's got a SPDIF header but no actual Coaxial or optical connection. This mod is for a cable that will connect to the actual header on your motherboard and have a Coaxial connection on the other-end allowing you to connect your sound system or surround sound to your computer digitaly rather then through the normal headphone socket, which is analuge.

First i want to say that you guys do any mods to your computers at your own risk. I will try my best to explain this as detailed as possibe (it realy isn't that hard).​

TOOLS
First you will need a Soldering iron/Solder some Shrink Wrap an old RCA Cable some Wire stipers perferably Wire cutters/scissors a Lighter and some Motherboard connectors that attach your hard drive or power LED to the mobo(motherboard) Two Zip-Ties and some Electrical Tape.

(1)
Is to research your mobo and find out which of the pins is your ground and which is the S/DIF out (NOT THE +5V). On My Mobo it was pin 2 for the out and pin 3 for ground.


(2)
Strip your Mobo connectors leaving a bit of length and do the same for your RCA plug. Locate your live and ground cables on the RCA plug. Usualy the live has its own seperate sleaving that is coloured red.

Mobo Connectors

RCA Jack

Striped RCA cable, live is on the right

Once you have stripped your cables cut enough shrink wrap to cover the bear wires
and slide it down one side. LEAVE IT FOR THE MOMENT. Next solder the RCA wire and mobo conector wire together. I had no solder so did not do this bit but i would recomend it for a strong connection, plus there is some great guides for soldering on tpu. Once the solder is dry slide the shrink wrap over the bear wires and heat it so it shrinks. Do the same for the next two wires.
TIP: I chose black and red for the mobo connectors so i could easily work out which is groud and S/PDIF out for later.


(3)
Next wrap the wires in a bit of electrical tape to keep the solder secure, again i did not have this so had to use cheap selotape but i would recommend electrical tape.

Once all that is done your finished, see i said it was easy, and you should have something a little like this.


(4)
Now you need to connect it to your computer, this is why i said do that research first. You should no which is your ground and which is your SPDIF out so connect the ground wire to the ground pin and the live wire to the SPDIF out pin. Then plug the RCA into your stereo etc. And thats it done.

(5)
This next bit isn't needed but may help. I found that sometimes i cought the wires and they would be pulled out of my mobo and my rig really did not like that. So i came up with a quick idea to fix it. Somewhere down the wire, after the solder, make a naught and slide a Zip-tie through it, connect the zip-Tie to it's self, but not too tight. Next connect another zip-Tie to a spare drive bay headder in your case and done, then if you pull on the wire itl pull the case keeping it in place.


(6)

Step back and enjoy.




I hope some of you guys n gals found this useful, if not oh well ive always wanted to make a guide anyway

 

thanks mate i was stuck for quite a while working out how to hook my rig up to my receiver through coaxial. So i thought i couldn't be the only person to have ever had that problem so i thought this might be helpful

 

noise in the audio channel

thanx for the instructions...
I'm experiancing noise in the audio channel like as if its emmitting some sort of radio frequency coz when i connected the cables to my mobo and reboot the system i could hear only noises in my subwofer system and FM radio
i have a PI945GCM mobo
plz help
thanx