Hi, everyone!

Please read this listing in its entirety before ordering so that you know what you're buying. You must drill a hole in the front panel of your Teenage Engineering Computer-1 case 15mm vertically above the factory audio jack hole to install this. This hole will be hidden under part of the front panel just below the power switch. If you do not wish to drill this hole, you should not buy this dongle.

While building my Teenage Engineering Computer-1 case, I ran across the problem of the provided headphone port being the older AC97 standard that doesn't have the ability to detect when a headphone is plugged in. I really need that feature because there's a speaker attached almost all the time to the rear jack that I need to occasionally bypass when I plug headphones into the front jack.

So, I went looking for an aftermarket replacement and found that most HD Audio front console assemblies have two ports: one microphone and one headphone port. And they often have one or more USB ports in addition to the audio ports.

But nobody seems to offer just one HD Audio headphone port by itself, with nothing else to complicate things.

So I designed one from scratch.

This is a fully-standard-compliant "Intel HD Audio Dongle" designed to present a single 3.5mm stereo headphone out port secured through the Teenage Engineering Computer-1's front panel with just one hidden 4-40 screw and one drilled hole.

Now for the details:

These are hand-assembled by me. I may offer a DIY kit in the future, or just the bare PCB.

The vertical distance between the center axis of the jack and the center of the mounting hole is 15mm. There's a lot of room for adjustment designed into the PCB mounting bracket hole so that you can adjust for variances of up to 0.75mm.

You are expected to use the existing four wires from the Computer-1's 8-conductor ribbon cable PLUS two jumper wires OR you can buy a 30cm male-to-female HD AUDIO extension cable to make it easier.

If you choose to use the stock wiring plus the two extra jumper wires, these are the specific connections you have to make from the motherboard to the dongle:

Mobo HD Audio male header -> wire -> Dongle female header

-----------

Pin 2 (GND) -> TE cable "S" -> GND

Pin 4 (Presence) -> male-female jumper -> PRE

Pin 5 (Port 2 Right) -> TE cable "R" -> P2R

Pin 7 (Sense Send) -> TE cable "Spare" -> SSN

Pin 9 (Port 2 Left) -> -> TE cable "T" -> P2L

Pin 10 (Sense 2 Return) -> male-female jumper -> S2R

You cannot omit or mix-up any of these hookups, or the motherboard and OS will not be able to detect when the headphone is plugged into the front panel jack. If you mix-up the hookups, you MIGHT damage your motherboard, so triple-check your work!

If you do decide to use a standard HD AUDIO cable, note that there is no plug to block pin 8 on the Dongle's female connector, so you do have to pay attention to the orientation of the HD AUDIO cable's male pins when plugging it into the Dongle's female connector.

This listing includes:

+ the pre-assembled Dongle board

+ one stainless steel 4-40 machine screw (for mounting through the front of the Computer-1 case--if you want a black screw, you will have to obtain one yourself elsewhere)

+ two male-female jumper wires

- No case is included

Check the pics--the Computer-1 case's wide spaces between panels makes it easy to test the dongle outside the case over the long term before you drill any holes.

Ships in a bubble mailer.

Q & A 

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Q: Why did you use 4-40 screws and not the Torx T-8 M3 screws that are provided by Teenage Engineering?

A: I actually designed the PCB for M3 screws, but I could not find a source for an M3 L-bracket. If you can find one, feel free to use it, and please let me know where to buy it! I would much rather use metric screws that match the rest of the design, especially since TE ships a couple of spare screws with the Computer-1.

Q: Why not just keep using the stock AC97 headphone jack?

A: With my particular system, there are three audio outputs: built-in speakers on my monitor (audio routed through the HDMI cable), the rear audio output jacks on the motherboard, and this front panel dongle, in order of lowest precedence to highest precedence. Normally, if no one is around, I'll play sounds through the monitor's speakers. If I want higher-quality sound, I'll plug Teenage Engineering/IKEA FREKVENS speakers into the rear audio output, which cuts off the monitor's speakers. If someone else is home and I don't want to bother them, I can plug in headphones into the front panel jack, which cuts off both of the other audio outputs. The Computer-1's original AC97 jack can't do that. You have to manually select the audio output within the OS.

Q: Will you design one that has both a microphone input jack and the headphone output jack?

A: I did, for open-frame overclockers/builders, but this two-port dongle does not work with the Computer-1.

Q: How do I drill the screw hole?

A: Very carefully. Haha, just kidding. Here are a few tips about drilling the hole.

If you have already folded the lower front panel, I recommend using the side of a wooden board (a 1x4 works) to support the metal while you are center-punching it and drilling. If you don't have a wooden board or block, you can take a corrugated box, cut it into rectangular pieces, and use rubber bands to hold the pieces together in the shape of a wooden block. This is good enough to support the metal.

Put painter's tape on all the parts of the lower front panel that might touch the workbench and the support block. You want to prevent scratches to the orange/silver finish.

It's better to drill from the inside towards the outside, so that if the drill bit walks or you slip and scratch the beautiful orange or silver finish, it won't be seen from the outside.

Mark the center of the screw hole 15mm vertically up from the center of the headphone jack hole with an extra fine permanent marker. Double and triple check the fitment by holding the dongle up to the marked spot and confirming it is marked in the right spot.

Use a center punch to dimple the center of the screw hole where you marked it. Go slow and get it right.

Use sharp drill bits, not dull ones!

Drill a small pilot hole through the center with a 1/16in or 2mm drill bit. We are deliberately going undersized for the 3mm (just under 1/8in) hole so that if you mess up, you can correct for it with a round needle file.

Check the hole position again by holding the dongle in place. If the drill bit walked too far off the correct position, get a round needle file and file in the direction you want the hole to shift towards. Once you get the pilot hole centered in the right spot, you can finish up with the 3mm or 1/8in drill bit. It will center itself in the hole, even if you filed it slightly oval. I did the final drilling by turning the drill bit by hand, slowly, to gently cut through the soft aluminum bit by bit. You don't have to do that--I was just being extra careful.

Even if you mess up, you have quite a bit of leeway. The L-bracket can be moved a bit up or down on the PCB by loosening the PCB screw and re-tightening it.

Do not exceed 3.5mm (1/8in.) for the screw hole.

When you drill the final hole, there will be some metal flashing to remove from the edge of the hole on the outside surface of the panel. You can gently remove that and clean up the edges of the drill hole by very gently taking a larger drill bit with your fingers and twisting it just touching the hole. It will take off the excess metal flashing easily. Another way to do this is to simply cut the flashing off with a sharp X-Acto blade.