So I just bricked two keyboards

[biohazard918]

So I just put together a second machine out of parts I had laying around. Found out the hard way this z68 board has a front eee 1394 connector and that the motherboard header for it is identical to a usb 2.0 header. Only difference is on this particular board it is white and the usb is blue. Also turns out 1394 doesn't deliver 5 volts at 500 mA but rather up to 30 volts at 1.5 amps. So now I have two dead keyboards sitting in the trash including my "nice" chinese mechanical keyboard from my gaming rig. Just looking to vent and this seems like the right place. Anyone else done this or similar?

 

 

/side note holy crap this membrane keyboard is bad how did I ever live like this

//sorry about the image quality best result I could get with the poor lighting

[dDave64]

Sorry dude. That sucks.

 

I haven’t bricked a keyboard like that but I’ve had several bricked keyboards myself. I used to let others (siblings, friends, etc.) use my computer regularly. After the third major water spill and the third wasted keyboard I decided my computer needed to be for my use only.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, biohazard918 said:

So I just put together a second machine out of parts I had laying around. Found out the hard way this z68 board has a front eee 1394 connector and that the motherboard header for it is identical to a usb 2.0 header. Only difference is on this particular board it is white and the usb is blue. Also turns out 1394 doesn't deliver 5 volts at 500 mA but rather up to 30 volts at 1.5 amps. So now I have two dead keyboards sitting in the trash including my "nice" chinese mechanical keyboard from my gaming rig. Just looking to vent and this seems like the right place. Anyone else done this or similar?

 

 

/side note holy crap this membrane keyboard is bad how did I ever live like this

//sorry about the image quality best result I could get with the poor lighting

1394 connectors are for Firewire which runs at 30V for it's + line, not USB. 

[biohazard918]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

1394 connectors are for Firewire which runs at 30V for it's + line, not USB. 

I am acutely aware. I would like to know who decided they should share the same physical header.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, biohazard918 said:

I am acutely aware. I would like to know who decided they should share the same physical header.

There are different versions such as 2x3 headers and 1x8 straight inline ones, the sharing of it and the USB headers was very commonplace and was usually denoted with a unique color or different housing itself which could have been done better in this board. Most would have very bright colored headers on the board so it would stand out.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html

[kirashi]

20 minutes ago, biohazard918 said:

Anyone else done this or similar?

Nope, never done this before, as I usually confirm what the connectors are for by reading the silkscreened labels on motherboards I'm unfamiliar with. Totally sucks for the keyboards, but it's a good lesson learned I guess.  

[biohazard918]

1 minute ago, kirashi said:

Nope, never done this before, as I usually confirm what the connectors are for by reading the silkscreened labels on motherboards I'm unfamiliar with. Totally sucks for the keyboards, but it's a good lesson learned I guess.  

That's the thing I should have been familiar with it. It was the motherboard in the first gaming pc I built. I used it for years before replacing it with the current system and never knew it had a fire wire header. I guess I am lucky in that I'm cheap when it comes to keyboards. I killed a bundled keyboard from an old hp system and my "nice" keyboard cost 33 dollars to replace. It was one of the boards from that round up of cheap chinese mechanical keyboards linus did a couple of years ago. Also lucked out in not killing the receiver for my logi g700s mouse. Fortunately I plugged it into one of the front 3.0 ports and not the live at 30 volts 2.0 ports.  Also "lucky" In that I hoard computer hardware and had 3 more functional keyboards in storage.

 

/probably shouldn't put nice in quotes given my only complaint about it iwas the unicorn vomit fixed color led backlighting

[TheSLSAMG]

1 hour ago, biohazard918 said:

Anyone else done this or similar?

Yeah, I killed my 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive on a Z68 system a few weeks ago because I hadn't realized it had a FireWire header and it was the same physical connector as USB 2.0.

[Vandey]

You guys need to read the little letters next to the connectors on the motherboard... it should say 1394 or usb right next to the header. I'm surprise newer boards even continue to support 1394.