What's this mobo header for?

sanespace · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:13 pm

This is TOP 3 of hardware hacks, you know:

1.- RAM upgrade
2.- Proccessor upgrade
and

3.- VGA-out upgrade

and for me...

4.- Buggy power fan replacement
5.- ...

What next?

Very good work. I'm gonna be the next one in making this DIY connector.

Thanks..... and can you post a video with a little more resolution, please?

And... does anybody know what is the other mobo connector for? PS/2 perhaps?

mkawa · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:32 pm

good to see that i'm not alone in soldering those damned crimp connector pins

usually i use a small pair of pliers to get a reasonable mechanical connection, then tin the assembly to keep it together. i'll post the VGA d-sub part numbers when i order my parts (fry's usually stocks these as well -- shouldn't be more than a dollar for the assembly).

hestaman · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:46 pm

mkawa wrote:

good to see that i'm not alone in soldering those damned crimp connector pins

usually i use a small pair of pliers to get a reasonable mechanical connection, then tin the assembly to keep it together. i'll post the VGA d-sub part numbers when i order my parts (fry's usually stocks these as well -- shouldn't be more than a dollar for the assembly).

Want to make a few? I'd gladly pay the price for parts that were listed:

housing x 10 : 4.49
crimp terminal x 100 : 3.75
Alt. Connector Housing : .41
Connector Terminal : .26
--------------------------------
Total 8.91

+ shipping & handling (and a little profit) for $15.00. PM me if interested!

JohnBick · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:02 pm

hestaman wrote:

Want to make a few? I'd gladly pay the price for parts

Same here!

GGKoul · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:08 pm

I'm in for a cable too!!!

ymboc · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:39 pm

sanespace wrote:

Very good work. I'm gonna be the next one in making this DIY connector.

Thanks..... and can you post a video with a little more resolution, please?

And... does anybody know what is the other mobo connector for? PS/2 perhaps?

Thanks... Sorry about the vid quality -- I used a digital camera to film (ie: static focus - can't re-focus while filming). The original source I uploaded to youtube was actually readable -- although barely so, I admit. But YouTube's processing made it even blurrier than it already was - which is why I tried to post to liveleak because they don't really screw with the video as much. If you have a specific request of something you'd like to see I'll gladly take a still picture and post it here.

As for the other pins & things... With video & USB keyboard in hand I think I'm going to leave it at that... finding the rest imho is going to be very hard... finding an analog signal like VGA is easier to find than a digital signal when you're limited by what equipment you have at hand like I am... I think there are people on the forum that know the complete pin-out but they're probably under NDA so... yeah I think this is going to be as good as it gets at least for a little while...

And finally...
Not to crush anyone's hopes of getting 'manufactured' cable for cheap... I really hope someone finds a way to make these cheaply and quickly so the non-DIY inclined can get their hookup as well... but you guys are seriously underestimating how big a PITA it is to solder all these connections.

mkawa · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:16 am

Quote:

Not to crush anyone's hopes of getting 'manufactured' cable for cheap... I really hope someone finds a way to make these cheaply and quickly so the non-DIY inclined can get their hookup as well... but you guys are seriously underestimating how big a PITA it is to solder all these connections.

agreed. sorry guys.

peekb · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:03 am

Edit: NM...was able to get it after watching the video several times. Looks like "Power State Resume Control" on the Power Management screen is what I'm looking for...

Great job!

Can anyone tell me if the BIOS contains an option for automatically powering the machine back on after a power loss? I have this setup on all of my PCs except for this...

Thanks!

Cougar · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:27 am

There is, and if you follow this post you can set it.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/ ... .php?t=609

JohnBick · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:51 am

Some of you may be interested in a post I placed in another thread regarding MSS starting up after a power failure. See here:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/ ... 4&start=15

(Edited to remove details in that other thread.)

hestaman · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:55 pm

edited - personal comment not relavent to current discussion... sorry!

JohnBick · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:13 pm

Edited to remove details provided in alternative thread referenced above.

peekb · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:16 pm

Cougar wrote:

There is, and if you follow this post you can set it.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/ ... .php?t=609

Perfect. Thank you!

jrock · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:33 pm

As an "unofficial" confirmation that this cable is good, I finagled a snapshot of the pinout schematic from an unnamed source in HP. You'll also see where keyboard, mouse, and rs-232 pins are located.

Also, I've posted a snapshot of our prototype units to show you how we accessed this header. The breakout board has only one active part to convert the TTL data levels to RS-232, otherwise it just has capacitive links to the pins for video, keyboard, and mouse.

And of course, I will not only conclude with the usual "if you take a Dremel to the side of your server, you void your warranty", but will also let you know that if you do put a hole in the side of your server, you'll no longer be compliant with radiated emissions regulations (which is why the punchout is not in production units).

-jrock

Land Master · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:49 pm

Jrock....you should be ashamed of yourself :wink:

This poor guy busts his hump for two months and "all of a sudden" the schematic appears.

Too funny.

By the way where can we get our hands on that "official" cable. It looks a lot nicer than ymboc's but probably not as much fun.

GREAT WORK YMBOC!!!

What's this mobo header for?

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