motherboard
-mic left in
-ground
-mic right in
-gpio
-right line in
-jack sense
-key
-left line in
-jack sense

front audio connectors
-mic in
-mic bias
-r out
-l out
-gnd
-r in
-l in

please help me match up the pins to the connectors.

thank you,

ajr2012

Please tell us the make and model of the motherboard. :)

First, it is clear that these 2 connectors do not match up exactly. Here's a few observations:
1) gpio is for the general purpose I/O bus. There are many devices that can interface to this bus, but in general, normal users would never use it or need it. There is no pin on your front audio connector anyway, so leave this disconnected. 2) I believe -key is for a key-lock on the front panel. These are rarely used by the typical user. Again, There is no pin on your front audio connector anyway, so leave this disconnected. 3) The jack sense pins are more complicated. These are presented on this connector because they appear on the motherboard's CODEC chip, and may be used by more sophisticated front panel cards to detect the use of a front panel jack. If I recall, when these lines are properly wired, the CODEC can be configured to automatically switch inputs from the rear connectors to the front ones when you plug something into the front panel. Your front panel does not use them, so you can probably leave them disconnected. 4) I notice that you only have one Mic input on the front panel. Given this, if you want a stereo microphone, you will need to either get a more sophistaced front panel or use the rear panel connectors. For your front panel, pick either the R or L mic and wire up that one to the front panel. 5) There is no Mic Bias listed on the motherboard connector. All electret microphones require a DC voltage to be applied to the microphone in order for it to work at all. I can't take the time to design this for you so this part you will have to figure out on your own. You can probably download the CODEC data sheet (it's probably from either Realtek, TI or Analog Devices) which will contain the circuit diagrams required for setting up the microphones (and the jack sense lines too). You'll have to locate the CODEC on the motherboard and read the part number printed on the top of the CODEC chip (you may need a magnifying glass). 6) Oddly, your motherboard does not seem to have line-out on the connector (or you have omitted them from the list). In either case, the front panel "in" and "out" lines should be wired to the corresponding "line in" and "line out" lines on the motherboard.

It's clear that all these inputs and outputs share a common ground connection, so be sure to wire the motherboard ground pin to the front panel ground pin.

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