MB PRO

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The MB_PRO connector is used to connect a Sound Blaster card to a Modem Blaster card. The signals can also be re-purposed for other uses.

The pin arrangement is as follows:

9 7 5 3 1
10 8 6 4 N/C

The purpose of the pins, from the point of view of the sound card, are:[1]

Pin Purpose
1 Audio GND
2 Key, no pin
3 Line-in
4 Audio GND
5 Line out left
6 Audio GND
7 Line out right
8 Modem speaker input. On a sound card, this input receives a line-level audio signal from the modem.
9 Audio GND
10 Microphone in Isn't this mic out for the modem?

AC'97 mod

It is possible to connect AC'97 front panel pins to a MB_PRO header, although it's still a work in progress.

AC'97 pin Sound card
MB_PRO pin
Purpose
5 7 Line out right
2 6 Line out right GND
9 5 Line out left
2 4 Line out left GND

For now it seems that all ground must go to pin 2 on AC'97 side. Some pinouts say that pins 4, 6 and 10 are ground, but that is demonstrably untrue. Those pins are for plug detection of associated pins. Microphone seems to be located on pin 10 on MBPRO side of things and should go to pin 1 on AC'97, but it's quite possible that auxilary power will be required for pin 3 on AC'97.

TAD conversion

Some sound cards have an MB_PRO connector but no TAD connector. A cable can be made to allow internal modems with a TAD socket to be hooked up to the MB_PRO connector:

Modem
TAD pin
Sound card
MB_PRO pin
Purpose
1 8 Phone line audio, from modem to sound card.
2 6 GND
3 9 GND
4 10 Microphone audio, from sound card to modem.

TAD pins 2 and 3 can also be patched to any of the other GND signals on the MB_PRO connector if that is more convenient. The two in the above table are just one possibility.

References

  1. Creative Labs - Pin Assignment of I/O Jacks and Connectors on Sound Blaster Devices Link dead, need archived mirror