Ira Aduro Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Hey all, before I ask my question I'll note that I know there are conversion cables for sale by people here. However I'd like to have USB 3 on the front and so I devised a way to do that but that leaves me without a working power button and led indicator. I noticed the power button, et al. has a three pin connector. I've been searching for a three pin to two pin adapter so I can just plug the power button into my gigabyte motherboard. I haven't had any luck. Is anyone aware of such a connector and would that 1) work 2) allow the led to function. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eep357 Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 haven't done a G5 mod, but if it's a power button with built in led, you should have one wire going to + on you mobo power pins and one going to + on your HDD LED pins and then they would both share the 3rd wire as their - ground. A multimeter will help you figure it out. Since the LED is a diode, it will only be a complete circuit i one direction. So with multimeter set to read ohms, which ever two wires give a zero reading but also give a 1 reading when positive and negative multimeter probes are swapped should be your led. Then same test for powerbutton but it should be 1 when button not pushed and 0 when pushed. The common wire you needed to get bpth tests to work is your shared ground. It's because of the diode that the ground wire can be shared without what should be 2 separate circuits getting crossed up. So you actually want to make 2 x 2-pin connectors from your 1 x 3-pin connecter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Aduro Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 So I would split this into three wires, connect all three to mono connectors (using a single slot connector thingy)? Is it possible to desolder the usb 2.0 female connector from the front port board, solder on a usb 3.0 female connector and call it a day? btw it would help if I posted a photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eep357 Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 USB aside as you said you had that covered. 3-pin plug there is for the power button and the power LED right? So you would make it into two separate 2-pin plugs, one to go on the mobo's power switch pins and another to go on the mobo's power LED pins (sorry said HDD LED in error before). One of the wires in that 3-pin plug (the common ground) will need to be slit into two wires giving you four wires all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Aduro Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 Ok I see now. I have never done something like this before but I understand enough to do it, I think. Just to be sure I'm going to say it back to you. I need apply the - and + multimeter probes to two wires. Whichever two wires I get a 0 and 1 reading from (swapping the + and - probes) are the LED and Ground wires. Then, whichever two wires I get a 0 and 1 (depending on whether power button is pressed or not) are the power and ground wire. I need to splice the ground wire into two wires (I guess I'd splice by wrapping two wires at different points around the ground wire?) Thanks a ton for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheTech Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Ira - I have a link on my resource page for cables that should help you out a ton. They can go directly from that connector to your motherboard: http://www.whatthetech.info/tutorials/g5modding/ Scroll down to "Front Panel Jumper Wires" - the male end should fit right in that three-pin connector, just hot-glue to make sure they stay and run them to your motherboard. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Aduro Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 So buy this set of male/female jumpers? If so that doesn't seem like it would provide me with the two ground wires I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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