SPDIF_0 header question

[ExXsTacYx]

Soooo I was wondering I had an extra toslink port and thought I should try and like put it on spdif_o. I had done a project a long time ago taking a ps2 apart. Leaving me with that extra part. I had soldered the wires to link up right and when I put on the header it shines the light through the optical cable and even gives me the digital audio output driver however I don’t get any sound whatsoever from it. I have the toslink cable to a Astro mixamp pro tr. when let’s say Spotify is playing through with digital output as the audio main it shows its playing just I can’t hear anything. Like you can see the audio bar thing moving like its playing something. If that makes any sense. Am I missing something? Like do you need a sound card for this ? No biggie if this won’t work 

[The Flying Sloth]

I must be misreading your question because you can't solder an optical cable, any heat applied are anything like that will ruin the cable so it's either you've got a bad cable or your external sound card isn't functioning, also, make sure you power the external card, it won't make noise without power.

[kasugatei]

9 hours ago, ExXsTacYx said:

Snip

So if I understood correctly you've taken Toslink connector which you've desoldered from Playstation 2 and soldered it to a wire which is connected to SPDIF header, right?

 

I'm afraid that it is not that easy since you need some extra components in between the header and the Toslink connector to make it work. You can try DIY, but I would recommend you to just buy SPDIF PCI bracket. Those things are dirt cheap and some local PC stores may have those laying around and will give you them for peanuts.

[The Flying Sloth]

21 minutes ago, Niksa said:

-snip-

Yeah, kinda, maybe, see, technically S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) is an audio transfer format interface and can either be sent over RCA or TOSLINK so in theory, if it's an optical S/PIDF header it should just work but

1, I'm not sure it's a header for S/PDIF at all let alone Optical S/PDIF [EDIT: having looked at motherboard diagram it is NOT OPTICAL]
2, Why the heck would you want to do this anyway?????? There's a perfectly fine 3.5mm connection available and if you think the DAC in Astro headsets is going to be noticeably better than onboard audio you've got another thing coming.

So OP, there's your answer, it's electrical S/PDIF, not optical.
Don't need any extra components to make it work, you're just not doing it right  

[kasugatei]

14 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

snip

Ok, it is a time for a longer post.

 

1. SPDIF according to the specification can be sent either by optical or coaxial

2. If you would connect a logic analyzer (or oscilloscope) on both optical output and coaxial output the signal would be exactly the same

3. Electronically TOSLINK is just a LED with a inverter circuit so it doesn't matter what kind of connector is on the MBO and I can assure you that you won't find optical header on the motherboard.

3.1 In the whole circuit of both sender and receiver TOSLINK behaves like optocoupler. Having that in mind, receiving side connector is different elecrtonically from the sending side. As stated before sending side had LED with some additional electronics, while receiving side has photodiode and additional electronics.

4. What OP did was connecting header directly to the TOSLINK module. This won't work. Some other components are required in between TOSLINK pins.

4.1. Coaxial connector connected directly to the pin header won't work as well because of mismatched impedance. Another components are required in between as well.

5. You can easily convert between coaxial and optical electronically. When certain standards are devised they have that in mind. You don't want over complicate circuit to change between types of the supported media.

 

Also to answer your post from before, he did not solder optical cable. What he did was soldering TOSLINK connector (its 3 pins) to the cable which is connected to the motherboard SPDIF pin header. If your motherboard has TOSLINK output, electronically it is done more or less the same (without missing components, of course).

 

tldr MBO SPDIF headers don't have electronic components required by the output connector because this makes easier for the consumer to choose desired output media type.

 

Something like this should work

https://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-Optical-Plate-Cable-Bracket/dp/B01LWNKIKN

 

Pinout seems to match Aourus header (Vin, NC, SPDIF, GND) and if you watch closely to the right of the connector, you can see those components which re required for TOSLINK circuit to work.