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USB card reader

Last response: in Storage
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I need to install a card reader that also has a USB port in a desktop. There are no available USB motherboard headers for me to connect it to. I would like to cut the header off and solder on a regular USB type A plug in place of the header. The problem is that the USB cable has only 4 regular wires plus a bare ground, and the header has 9 wires. Can I double up some of the compatible wires or do I need to use two USB type A plugs. And if so with either option how do the wires go? On the header wire it has a red, orange, yellow, white, green, blue, brown, black, purple wires. The USB type A plug and cable I'm using has a green, red, white, black and a bare ground wire which I need to solder onto the internal card reader in place of the 9 wire motherboard header. So can and how do I make this work? I'm planning to run the cable through the case and plug it in to a port on the back of the tower. I have in the past, soldered USB wires for extension purposes before and they always worked well so the plan should work if I can hook up the wires in their correct place. Also I don't need for the USB port on the card reader to work at the same time that it is reading an SD card. As long as they will each work one at a time. The front USB port on the card reader would be used pretty regularly but the SD card reader would only be used occasionally.

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Motherboard Expert

The USB header is for 2 USB jacks, not just one, which is why the cables aren't matching up. Look up the pin config in your motherboard, and then find out which wires are which in the cables, and go from there. Good luck, don't short your board.

festerovic said:
The USB header is for 2 USB jacks, not just one, which is why the cables aren't matching up. Look up the pin config in your motherboard, and then find out which wires are which in the cables, and go from there. Good luck, don't short your board.



What I'm wanting to do is this, I have a card reader that also has a USB port. It has a header that plugs onto the motherboard. I want to cut that off. Next I want to take a USB cable and cut it off. I want to solder the part with the type A plug onto the device in place of the header plug. Do I need to use two USB cables or can I double up the proper matching wires and use only one USB cable-type A plug? I don't need for the card reader and the USB port to work simultaneously. Although that would be nice if they did.
Motherboard Expert

The device is potentially using 2 USB connections, depending on how its wired. If you try to wire it using only half of the cables it may not work correctly. The header style connector uses 2 channels of USB, and you only need 1, so you will have to figure out the wires in the header style connector, and match them to the single USB type a connector. Again, this will require the pin outs on the Header style connector, and now the card reader. You need a multimeter and the mobo manual.
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