The Soyo^® BayOne Extreme^™

Background

One of the great annoyances of the PC world is that (until very recently) the audio jacks and USB sockets are located in the back of the machine.  This has caused me no end of accidentally disconnected cables, peering around the back of cases while trying to keep them from falling on the floor, and simultaneous hearty commentary.

As always, having created the problem, the PC industry is glad to sell a solution for it.  There are now many add-on front panels on the market.  A good one brings forward at least the audio jacks and USB sockets.  It is also very nice to have a universal card reader if you own a digital camera, and many panels have this feature too.

A panel with all the nice features is not expensive, but is not cheap either.  My own unit, a 5¼" panel, has audio jacks, three USB sockets, and a universal card reader.  I regard it as money well spent, but when working on a client's machine it is easier to sell something not so expensive.

Enter the Soyo^® BayOne Extreme^™

The Soyo^® BayOne Extreme^™ front panel (nothing I can see makes it "extreme" other than "it's at the outside of the box") is readily available on bargain computer parts web sites.  Compared to other front panels of the type, it's reasonably (i.e., cheaply) priced.  There's a good reason for this, and I discovered that after buying one.  It doesn't work with a standard sound card using 3.5mm stereo jacks.

I can't imagine why this should be the case.  I can only speculate that Soyo was counting on the defunct Intel motherboard sound connector to become an industry standard.  Well, it didn't, and now these panels are available quite cheaply.

I looked mine over, and thought "Hmmm ... for ten bucks, it is really not a bad deal.  It brings forward three USB connectors and has a universal card reader.  Admittedly, it uses too many USB headers, but that can be fixed with a cheap USB hub and a little engineering.  And, in any case, it is not going into my machine -- I'll just tell the client to ignore the audio jacks."  But those three audio jacks kept nagging at me, and finally I opened the thing up to see if I could rewire it to make the audio connectors useable.

In short: Yes, it can be done.  Is it sensible to do so?  That depends on you more than anything else.  If you feel happy with a soldering iron and Soldavac^® or Soldapullt^® in hand (don't even think about desoldering this with wick braid), this can be a short and cheap project with a happy ending.  On the other hand, if you need to buy tools or cables to proceed, or can't solder, don't make this your first, second, or even tenth project.

Equipment Required

• Soldering iron with micro-chisel tip
• Three 18" to 24" shielded cables, 3.5mm stereo plug to bare wire
• 2" of 1/8" shrink-wrap tubing
• Two tie-wraps

The Conversion

From here on out, explanations and commentary are limited.  It is expected that you are aware of what you're getting into, or more correctly, that you are aware of that into which you are getting.

Top view of the chassis.  The card reader is removable, and sits atop the audio and USB jack pod.  To remove the card reader, push the button sticking out of the front.
Top view of the chassis with the card reader removed.  The audio and USB jack pod is now exposed.
To dismount the audio and USB jack pod, remove the three screws shown in the image at the right.
Disconnect the 4-pin cable emerging from inside the pod.
The pod will now slip out toward the back of the unit.  Care is required.  Some wiggling and prodding is required to get it out without breaking anything.
To free the circuit board, remove the two screws shown in the image at right.  The PCB then lifts out freely.
Turn over the PC board and locate the audio section as seen at right.  This section is populated with many small surface mount components, all of which must be carefully and cleanly removed.  Yes, all and cleanly.  This is some kind of RC network across the jacks, doing unknown and unwanted things to the frequency response.  But a short due to a solder bridge in this area would be a hell of a lot bigger problem than an unwanted high-end rolloff.
I removed the SMT components with a small iron with chisel tip.  After heating one end of the component, they lifted off with gentle prying from the tip.  Be sure that no solder bridges are formed while desoldering.  Do not remove the two electrolytic caps.
Turn the PC board over and locate the audio jack solder pads.
Audio cables must be soldered to the audio jack connections.  Solder to the indicated pads only.  These are switching jacks and connecting to the wrong pin may disconnect the audio cables when a plug is inserted.
I cut two inexpensive 3.5mm stereo plug to 3.5 mm stereo plug cables in half to provide cables.  No matter where you get your cables, be sure they are shielded.  Interestingly, the color code on these cables was reversed; red was left and white was right. Solder the cables to the indicated pins.  It is prudent to shrink-wrap the ground lines, so that they cannot short against anything carrying power or otherwise important on the PC board.
Reassemble the unit in reverse order of disassembly. Tie-wrap the cables to the edge of the unit as shown.  This prevents them from being yanked out, with consequent damage to the PC board. Depending on where it is installed, to clear any device below it may be necessary to tie-wrap to one of the tie-wrap arches at the back.  The tie-wraps descend below the unit by about 3 mm.

Conversion Done

Now that the project is complete, it is time to gaze upon the results with either pride or disgust.  Depending on the way things went, you can either

• Reflect happily on saving a few bucks, or
• Regard the ruined circuit board and learn from the experience.