!@#$%! confusing IEEE 1394 case connections!

[vlad4]

Hi all! I am currently in the middle of building a new PC and need some assistance in figuring out the IEEE 1394, (firewire), case to mobo connections! The case has the wires labeled differently from how Soyo lists their connections.

The case I am using is the black Lian-Li PC-6077 and the mobo is a Soyo KT-600 Dragon Ultra Platinum.

Here is a link to a photo of the connection instructions for the Lian-Li case....

And here is a link to a photo of the connection instructions for the Soyo mobo...

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mechBgon]

Don't you wish they would standardize on one labelling scheme for Firewire? Anyway, here goes:

Firewire has two twisted-pair data lines. They could be called Twisted Pair A and Twisted Pair B, or Twisted Pair 0 and Twisted Pair 1, or whatever.

In each of the two twisted pairs, there's a "positive" and "negative" data wire.

Firewire also has three ground wires and two Power wires. Of the ground wires, it looks like two are "chassis" ground and the third one is some sort of reference ground.

So with those general concepts in place, here is my interpretation of the diagrams

[*]The first twisted pair is called TPA (twisted pair A) by Lian Li, and is called A0_C by Soyo.
[*]The second twisted pair is called TPB (twisted pair B) by Lian Li, and is called B0_C by Soyo.
[*]Lian Li makes it easy to tell the + from the -, because they call them TPA+ and TPA-.
[*]Soyo makes it harder to tell the + from the -, but the letter M or P (A0MC or A0PC for example) would suggest "Minus" or "Plus" to my mind.
[*]Of the ground wires, I think that Lian Li's VG lines equate to Soyo's CGND, and Lian Li's GND equates to Soyo's GND
[*]And I think Lian Li's VP is Soyo's PWR0.

So that would account for all the wires. To boil it down to how you would plug 'em in, here's a pic with the Lian Li stuff superimposed in red lettering on Soyo's diagram: link to photo Good luck, and I hope that helps but please don't sue me if it doesn't work! :Q And welcome to the Forums

 

[vlad4]

Too cool! Much obliged!

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing Imagine if the manufacturers had this level of support... :Q

 

[vlad4]

Nope, nada, no go. Sorry, but the firewire drive doesn't mount when connected to the front panel with that wiring scheme. The drive's LED lights up, but there's no activity to the drive, (the LED doesn't flash). It mounts fine when connected to the mobo's back panel IEEE 1394 connection tho.

Any other suggestions?

(Sorry for the delay in responding, but I had intermittent issues with a power supply.)

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm, perhaps swapping the twisted-pair wires would help. I mean that maybe instead of TPA equating to the A0's, they correspond to the B0's.

If Soyo provides a rear Firewire plate that plugs onto those headers, then you could also do this:

[*]Find a continuity meter (most multimeters have one)
[*]On paper, make one diagram that shows the motherboard end of the Soyo FW cable (two rows of five pins), make another diagram that shows the Firewire jack where you plug stuff into, and make a row of individual squares that represent the Lian-Li's one-wire pluglets. In a Firewire jack, there are three contacts on the top of its center post, and three along the bottom, and then there's the shell that surrounds the center post.
[*]Begin establishing what mobo-plug pin is electrically connected to what pin in the Firewire jack remembering that the shell itself is part of the connector
[*]Note down your findings as you go, and now you will know where each contact in the Firewire jack needs to plug into on the motherboard.
[*]Now you have a cross-reference showing which Lian-Li pin corresponds to which Soyo pin, using the Firewire port as the reference standard.[/list]I went through this routine to confirm that my Inwin i530 card reader's FW port was, in fact, wired the same as my Asus K8V Deluxe Firewire plate (both use 2 x 5 mobo plugs). Hope that helps

edit: Darn it, I looked at Newegg's photos and they don't have a separate Firewire plate to use as a reference item Well, the Ground and Power are probably fine, since the power comes on, so either the data pairs need swapping, or the individual wires within each pair need swapping, or both. Good luck!

 

[vlad4]

I found this on Soyo's site...

Firewire cable configuration for the Bayone and other manufactures

But it really makes no sense to me since all of the case's wires are not used.

Thanks for all of the help, guess it high time I bought a replacement for my dead multimeter.

 

[vlad4]

Well I phoned Soyo in Cali today. Guess what they said?

"I think we will have to contact Taiwan, we have no information for this."

So much for Tech Support!

 

[mechBgon]

Sorry to hear that

 

[PCTweaker5]

Hey I killed you in Max Payne2 wtf are you doing here? Seriously!