USB Card reader and A1 internal USB - connection problem

I recently acquired a USB Multifunction card reader and would like to connect it to A1 USB connectors located on the motherboard (J9A1). The problem is that the connector of the card is a mirror of the motherboard pinout.

In A1:
+5v D- D+ GND x
+5V D- D+ GND SHL

Here 'x' marks a missing pin, and SHL is a shield ground.

In card reader:
+5V D- D+ GND GND
+5V D- D+ GND x

Here the 'x' marks a block in the connector which effectively prevents the connection.

Any ideas how to fix this problem? Is there some adapter available which would reverse the pins or do I need a completely new connector?

What is the idea of the SHL pin? The front end USB connector cables of the Antec tower do not use this pin at all, only the four pins are used.

@GrumpyOldMan

I don't know the electronics of it, but I had a multicard reader fitted at bigbash#3, and all they did was make a hole in the connecter (the card reader plug) where the pin was missing so that the pin on the motherboard went in to it (presumably just so that the motherboard connector pins weren't bent), and evrything worked fine.

My card reader has the card reader which works like a hub, and also a usb socket which unfortunatley is just a pas through ans suffers from the usb problem on my unfixed A1.

@Swoop

Does anyone know if it is possible to use usb on the SE?
I know the original usb doesn't work,but is there another way?

@Swoop

Thanks for the tip, I "drilled" a hole to the card reader connector with a hot needle and can now plug it into motherboard connector. No smoke or other alarming features appeared when I powered up the A1, so things are looking good for the moment

@GrumpyOldMan

Please, could you update us on the topic, i just of today
tired to plug in a Two-USB-port (case sheet metal thingie)
to my XE and found the same problem you were facing.

. . . . .
. . . . x

That is the connector that came with the slot where the x
marks a dead spot (that is, there is no hole there) and
the pin hole beneath the x is blind (that is no wiring there)

Now...

. . . . x
. . . . .

that is my XE USB connector.
It's mirrored and i can't plug the adapter in.

Did it work for you?
By simply burning a hole in the connector with a needle?

Thanks in advance

@GrumpyOldMan



Your first post showed the cables and what they do, could you maybe add the colors of the cables, too?

I somehow managed to shoot my Flash stick and want to check if the cables are wrong in any way.

Thank you

Mine has:

Red White Green Black Nothing
Red White Green Black Nothing

or the other way round if i turn it.

@Raziel

First, sorry for the slow reply, just noticed your messages in this thread!

To answer your earlier question - yes, drilling the hole solved the problem for me. I still have not tested the card reader with lots of different cards, but at least the USB works fine (I can plug and unplug devices without a reboot).

As for the colours of the wires, in my case they were as
follows:

Blue Yellow Red Black x
Purple Green Orange Brown x

@GrumpyOldMan

The "SHL" is a ground pin purely for the cable shield. Electrically it is the same as the 0 V pins, and may be unused if you have a flat ribbon cable.

I had the same "problem" recently and it seems as though the sense of the connector is reversed somewhere. The two sides of the connector (the 4-pin rows) are one port each, so the only effect of a reversal is to swap the two ports.

I would not worry if a (short, internal) cable had only eight pins. If it were a cable a metre or more long, then you need a proper shield, but inside a case it's not important.

Raziel's colours are typical. The Red is +5 V, the Black is 0 V (or ground), the Green and White are the two data lines. If a shield is present, it would also be connected to ground.

@GrumpyOldMan

Heh, no problem...thanks for the answer

I did the drilling myself, but couldn?t get anything to work.
I wasn?t even able to make UBoot see the new device, but of course this could be due to my not fixed hardware.
Will see how it does when i get my board back.

One question though, you stated in your first mail:
Quote:

I presume that this is meant while looking at the pins and counting from left to right, that is "back" of the mobo (where the original USB ports reside) to "front" (where the IDE connectors are)?

@tonyw

Thanks for the confirmation on the colors

But why is the pin layout on the mobo "different" (missing or misplaced "hole")?
I thought the AOne was PC conform?

Or did i just got myself a not normed 3rd party hardware?

@Raziel

Quote:

I used the header for USB 3 and 4 which is located at the back corner of motherboard, near the PCI slots - roughly like this:

-------back mobo connectors----
USB
..PCI PCI PCI PCI AGP

...............IDE
...............IDE
floppy
--------------------

The pins are like you said - from back of mobo towards floppy connector.

Hope this clarifies things a bit

@GrumpyOldMan

Thanks a lot for all the answers, i have it working now...

...but...

I had a non-fixed mobo and that was causing the problems.

Now that i have my board back (with fixes done) everything
went nicely right out of the box. Everything is seen by OS4
and UBoot and everything (for now) works flawlessly

I too had the "babble detected on" errors and a few strange
behaviours too, but i think it was due to the hardware glitches.

@GrumpyOldMan

What kind of A1 do you have? On my XE it perfectly matches!

@Chip

It is a non-fixed XE-G4 model. I suppose it is more to do with the connector used in the card reader cable than the A1. Similar thing can be witnessed with IDE cable connectors I think - some of them have all holes open while others have one blocked.