Giro
Junior Member level 1
Hi, Interesting problem with an surely easy fix (I hope).
So I have breakout / riser that enables 2x PCIe x1 cards off a PCIx1 slot. Its been tested in x16 slot and is functional. The main PCB and daughter PCB (latter is what plugs into motherboard) are connected via USB 3.0. (USB 3.0 specificaiton = 8 wires inside (ignoring shield).
At the time of purchasing the riser, hereinafter named 'doubler' (image 1) I was unaware of the item in image 2 and believed it was possible to interchange the daughter board with a PCIe mini one. Only AFTER did I discover such an exchange wouldn't work, was I aware of 2nd product; which ftr has since sold out with slim chance of finding another. So I am stuck with item #1..
Now, I sourced a mini pcie daughter board (sold seperately) and connected it to that in image 1, with USB 3.0 cable only to find that mobo does not detect the doubler. Though the mobo does detect it when using the supplied PCIe x1 daughter board, this is not an option because the only slot for it, is curently taken.
So to troubleshoot I cut the USB 3.0 cable in half (the one in image 2), with each daughter board (a mini and a x1) on opposite ends. USB 3.0 has 8 colour coded wires inside, which simplified pin-to-wire 'map'. I used continuity function on multimeter to do this as well as info obtained from pinouts.ru website (which appears reliable). I mapped out respective wire colour to all the pins to on both boards (see below, fig A,B) once mapped, I proceeded to join the cable back together in order to
A) establish if all colours match up (where applicable, note/correct those that don't)
B) test doubler configured with mini PCIe once resoldered.
fig A
fig B
Observations:
1) All the colours match up accordingly end to end except for REFCLK +/- (green / white) which were wrong way round. I soldered them together according to pinouts.ru, the right way. In other words, white to green, green to white.
2) The x1 daughter board uses all 8 wires but PCIe mini daughter board only uses 7. Thus the Line Reactivation pin on the PCIe x1 board isn't connected as there isn't a spare (connected) pin on the mini board for it. All the other pins and respective wires match up to one another. I have triple checked everything.
So whats wrong? How can I get the doubler to work tiwh PCIe mini daughter board? Notice it is possible, as the one in Image 2, appears to use exact same daughter board, granted the main PCB does look significantly different.
I also wish to add that there is this product here which appears to adapt x1 to PCIe mini directly with no other addtional components (capacitors etc):
Can it be done?
So I have breakout / riser that enables 2x PCIe x1 cards off a PCIx1 slot. Its been tested in x16 slot and is functional. The main PCB and daughter PCB (latter is what plugs into motherboard) are connected via USB 3.0. (USB 3.0 specificaiton = 8 wires inside (ignoring shield).
At the time of purchasing the riser, hereinafter named 'doubler' (image 1) I was unaware of the item in image 2 and believed it was possible to interchange the daughter board with a PCIe mini one. Only AFTER did I discover such an exchange wouldn't work, was I aware of 2nd product; which ftr has since sold out with slim chance of finding another. So I am stuck with item #1..
Now, I sourced a mini pcie daughter board (sold seperately) and connected it to that in image 1, with USB 3.0 cable only to find that mobo does not detect the doubler. Though the mobo does detect it when using the supplied PCIe x1 daughter board, this is not an option because the only slot for it, is curently taken.
So to troubleshoot I cut the USB 3.0 cable in half (the one in image 2), with each daughter board (a mini and a x1) on opposite ends. USB 3.0 has 8 colour coded wires inside, which simplified pin-to-wire 'map'. I used continuity function on multimeter to do this as well as info obtained from pinouts.ru website (which appears reliable). I mapped out respective wire colour to all the pins to on both boards (see below, fig A,B) once mapped, I proceeded to join the cable back together in order to
A) establish if all colours match up (where applicable, note/correct those that don't)
B) test doubler configured with mini PCIe once resoldered.
fig A
fig B
Observations:
1) All the colours match up accordingly end to end except for REFCLK +/- (green / white) which were wrong way round. I soldered them together according to pinouts.ru, the right way. In other words, white to green, green to white.
2) The x1 daughter board uses all 8 wires but PCIe mini daughter board only uses 7. Thus the Line Reactivation pin on the PCIe x1 board isn't connected as there isn't a spare (connected) pin on the mini board for it. All the other pins and respective wires match up to one another. I have triple checked everything.
So whats wrong? How can I get the doubler to work tiwh PCIe mini daughter board? Notice it is possible, as the one in Image 2, appears to use exact same daughter board, granted the main PCB does look significantly different.
I also wish to add that there is this product here which appears to adapt x1 to PCIe mini directly with no other addtional components (capacitors etc):
Can it be done?
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