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Adjusting the soundblaster volume comfortably by a single fingertip

the buttons mounted into an unused 3,5 disk drive slotThe design of most genuine Soundblaster cards is prepared to use two simple buttons built into the PC case in order to adjust volume. Except some special vendor-specific configurations this possibility is neither used nor well-known (at least it is noted in the online help). Using two simple buttons we can change this in a few minutes .


Needed stuff:

Preparing the installation:

Letīs begin with the most difficult part: Finding a place on the case where to mount the buttons. On my PC, they are mounted on an unused drive slot, but any other place is fine. If you are using headphones directly plugged into your soundcard, you should take special care to find a place which is easy to reach.

The connector already solded onto an SB Live by me (just in front of the oscillatorīs metal case)If you want, you may also put the connecting pins onto the soundcard (if they are not already mounted there by the manufacturer). In order to free the PCB holes, take a hand drill (no electric one, you may damage your card), since the large copper ground makes it difficult to unsolder the holes.



Wiring:

Connect the buttons this way

One contact of each button gets connected with the corresponding volume up or volume down pin on the sound card. the third one is connected to the two remaining contacts of the buttons and on the other end of the cable two the GND pin of the card (see pictures). The pins to use on the cards depend on the type of the soundcard (search after hwinfo.hlp on your harddisk and your driver disk in order to find out more):

ISA-CardPCI-Card
Pin 1Increase VolumeIncrease Volume
Pin 2GNDunused / GND
Pin 3Decrease VolumeDecrease Volume
Pin 4 GND


Usage:

Depending on the button pressed, the volume is constantly increased or decreased. It is also possible to mute/unmute the output by pressing both buttons simultaneously. You can even watch the volume changing in the mixer program!.

Notes:

Have fun with this unique add-on!
Mail the Author: webmeister@deinmeister.de

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