Does anyone know what this connector is for on my USB card?

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Kookoo

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#450202 20-Mar-2011 22:51

Niel: Next to the un-fitted Molex connecter it says DCIN-1. Next to the fitted 4 pin connector it says DCIN-2. It is a DC input connector.

Damn, you have sharp eyes. It always appeared to me as DCN-1 and DCN-2 and made me wonder what the heck that meant, but on a closer look it's just that they printed I and N so close together that they appear as a single letter N.

I am not sure about the significance of compliance to the charging port standards or the implementation of a dedicated charging port. If standard USB ports can currently handle charging of attached devices (and probably my hub would have been fine to if I've connected it to power as I should have, and if I installed the ASRock charging utitlity), what is the significance of a standard then, or a dedicated USB-like charging port?

Right-o. I'll need to play with the cables a bit to make sure I can reach the USB hub from my PSU, but I'll chop off that tongue on the bottom of the berg connector and pray really hard that it does what it's supposed to do. I'll need to find a test machine for the 3G modem that is the primary candidate for faultiness and see if it works. I also noticed that I didn't describe how blew my mobo the last time entirely correctly. The TP-Link WiFi adaptor was connected to the internal port, not the external one. This can be significant because the internal port is labelled USB6 (USB5 is empty), but the headers are labelled USB5-2 and USB6-2, and they were both being used at the same time. It could be that I am not supposed to use both the headers and the internal port simultaneously...

Hello, Ground!

Kookoo

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#450211 20-Mar-2011 23:14

Niel: The square solder pad has nothing to do with GND. It is the pin-1 identifier. On some connectors that happens to be GND, but a square pad does not mean GND.

They could have fitted the wrong connector, which is why it is not documented. Replacing the connector with the correct one will cost a lot more than the profit of selling it undocumented. Or it could have been designed for something like a Dell PC which has custom connectors, but they manufactured extras and sell them unbranded and without the power loom. Or it is just a bad copy.

True. I had another look at the back of the card, and pin-1 seems to be on the same circuit as pin-1 of the non-existant full 4-pin molex, terminating on B-side pins 59, 61 and 62, which makes it +5V, not ground. Bugger.

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gzt

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#450226 21-Mar-2011 00:10

It could be that I am not supposed to use both the headers and the internal port simultaneously...

That makes sense. The Belkin manual I read recently detailed a similar configuration with the same caveat.

Niel

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#450240 21-Mar-2011 07:10

If it says e.g. USB5-1 and another says USB5-2, then it is very likely 2 connectors in parallel for 1 port and you should use only 1 at a time otherwise it will not work (but should not blow up). It can result in the PC thinking you have a USB 1.1 device attached if you use both -1 and -2 connectors of the same port.

The dedicated charging port is significant on netbooks and laptops. Long ago they were limited to 100mA with active current sensing, then 500mA. So there a dedicated charging port rated for 1.8A makes sense. Motherboard manufacturers do not waste money on current sensing and just allows more.

The small power connector is also 5V, GND, GND, 12V just like the large Molex connector. Middle 2 are GND on both.

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Niel

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#450241 21-Mar-2011 07:12

Just remembered, sometimes instead of protecting each port at 500mA a manufacturer will say protect 2 ports at 1A, or 3 ports at 1.5A. So if 1 port blows, you loose a few ports.

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Kookoo

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#450898 22-Mar-2011 19:56

Last update. I trimmed the tongue on the berg FDD connector and connected it to the USB hub, rebooted, all seems to work just fine.

Lias, mckenndk, gzt, Niel - thanks for all your help!

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richms

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#451646 25-Mar-2011 00:09

If you do go the route of a hub with a power supply, check that it actually doesnt also try to back feed the PC from the power adapter.

I smoked up the power supply for a cheap 10 port that I got when I plugged it into the PC as the PC was off and the hub tried to power the PC. If you look online there are people that open them up and modify them to cut the power from the PC to the hub so they never run off or try to power the PC.

Also, even when the DC was not connected it reported that it was a powered hub so quite easy to take WAY more than 500mA from the PC.

I really wish that PCs would impliment per port limiting so that non compliant crap like those USB HDD cases with a Y cable and 2 plugs would throw errors instead of just being erratic and unreliable.

Richard rich.ms

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