Originally , I wanted to use the front i/o board that came with my case . It looked pretty crummy , but it's original equipment and , with a spliced cable should work as original.
So... cut the original cable in half ,and proceeded to piece together a cable to mate with my MOBO's usb , fw , and power on headers . Plugged it in ... didn't work . Checked all the connections to make sure everything had continuity , and that everything that should transmit power or ground was doing what it should . Everything seemed OK , but still no front panel/power button activity , so made another cable from the second half of the original cable . Went through the whole thing again , checking , and double checking pinouts at both ends . Still nothing so I'm assuming the i/o board's bad .
Decided to build my own using the metal shield that covers the i/o board as a framework for the usb/fw cables . I'll also incorporate a dvd release button using the headphone jack hole and a tactile switch. Had a couple of usb and FW sockets around from a project from some years back , got a piece of perfboard from the local Radio Shack and proceeded to cut out the front panel from the damaged case I'm using for parts . I'll use this piece as a pattern to make sure everything lines up .
Cut out a small piece of perfboard and fastened the usb socket to it via the socket's tabs .Wired the ends of my motherboard to the appropriate terminals of the socket , got the pinouts from the pinouts.ru website .
Checked everything out and then epoxied the wired down to the perfboard , and epoxied another piece of perfboard to the first to act as an insulator/spacer. Sanded the copper off the second piece before gluing. Put the metal shield into place on the cut out font panel and then epoxied the usb port into place , using a usb cable inserted into the socket through the front panel to ensure alignment.
Wired up the fw cable , but wasn't able to put the socket onto perfboard owing to the socket's increased depth .
Had to cut a relief in the metal shield for wiring clearance. The socket was carefully directly epoxied to the shield . Had to put 2 small pieces pf perfboard between the top of the socket and the shield to shim everything into place.
Thr DVD release is a small tactile switch with two wires which will connect to the prevously attached release wires on my DVD drive . The switch is epoxied onto a piece of perfboard and the assembly epoxied to the shield .
I turned a small aluminum pin which fits over the end of the switch and will protrude from the headphone jack hole , allowing the DVD to be released .
Here's the front panel assembled:
Wired up the power switch and led , both work fine
So now I've just got to stick everything together .