sxan

Hi there,

My point is getting S/PDIF output, and using microphone @ the same time on my X-Fi ExtremeMusic.

Is there any possibility of getting S/PDIF output from AD_EXT connector?
I don't want to buy Sound Blaster® X-Fi I/O Drive Upgrade Kit, cos it's freakin expensive.
Does the old method of fooling the card that the bracket is connected work?

dj_stick

bridge pins 25 & 35 - that may work

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sxan

nope, it doesn't work.

dj_stick

there has to be another way to trick this - one user mentioned somewhere not too long ago that his card (either x-fi or audigy 2) had a pair of jumpers installed on the card - perhaps that was the fix for the x-fi - but i cannot remember which pins they were

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lambition

You don't need anything special to get SPDIF output.

Pin 9 of AD_EXT is SPDIF out.

Just hook up center pin of RCA cable to pin 9 and any ground (pins 5, 6, and 8 are good candidates as they are close) to sheild. Then it will work.

Voltage level from that pin is about 1.3V higher than normal SPDIF signal, but it will work just fine directly connecting it to Coaxial SPDIF input.

With high voltage, it is also possible to drive optical (TOSLINK) output jack's LED.

dj_stick

be careful, the TTL (0-5v) signal may damage some coaxial receivers that are based on standard spdif levels (-.5 to .5v)

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lambition

For those worried about damaging receiver's decoder, try adding the circuit in the following link.
http://users.andara.com/~cquigley/sb.html


Don't know if it really works, cause I haven't tried it my self. But it should bring down signal level low enough.


Note that this circuit is for SB Live and pinouts for X-Fi are different.

Change Pins as follow
Pin 17 -> 9
Pin 15 -> 5 (This won't work under some one figure out how to fake I/O drive anyway.)
Pin 23 (don't hook this up for X-Fi. Just loose 4.7K resistor)
Pin 1,2 -> 1 (just connect pin 1 only. there is no pin 2 in X-Fi)
Pin 7,8 -> 7, 8 (You can just use sames pins, don't need to use both though)


Input part won't work unless some how X-Fi driver thinks I/O drive is connected, which I don't know how.
To get output only, just make output part of the circuit.

I don't think capacitor C3 is nessary either. So just connect pin 1 to pin 14 of 74HC04 (shown as HC04 in the circuit. Its just hex inverter)

jiiteepee

Could this be helpful - http://www.electricstart.de/site/optical.htm

I suppose, pins 25&35 needs to be bridged.

Actually, the easiest way mignt be getting a pre-amp for mic and connecting it into AUX_IN (found in X-Fi card board).

NOTE: I'm not sure if you can select AUX_IN as separate input (ASIO driver mode) so, check this 1st before ...

jiitee