I just used some 20-wire ribbon cable with a female IdC connector at each end. The only trick is that one end of the cable needs to have ever pair of wires swapped.

So the pinout is like this:
1-2
2-1
3-4
4-3
5-6
6-5
7-8
8-7
9-10
10-9
11-12
12-11
13-14
14-13
15-16
16-15
17-18
18-17
19-20
20-19

On my machine the card fits on the SB16, MPU401AT and Turtle Beach Motegro II. The NEC 385 does sit between the next two ISA slots in order to fit.

Making your own ribbon cable shouldn't be hard. Do you attach the plugs with a vise?

While rummaging through my stuff i actually found a ribbon cable with exactly the proper connectors! 😁

And DonutKing is totally right, the pair of wires need to be swapped on one end.

Now the question is how to do that in a Non-redneck way (redneck way= cutting the ribbon in the middle and making the crossover right there then covering the thing with tape)

Mau1wurf, what do you mean by ''Do you attach the plugs with a vise?''

Ive never modified a ribbon cable before. Looks like the end of the plug can be taken off. Seems to be holding by some clips. hmmm ...

If you're making a new cable, you need to crimp the IDC connectors. There are two plastic parts to the connector, one has small metal teeth that pushes through the insulation on the ribbon cable. The other part is just a backing and clips onto the main part to hold it in place. It requires a bit of force especially to keep the two parts lined up so they crimp onto the cable straight, so its best to do it in a vice for lack of a better tool.

MaxWar wrote:

And DonutKing is totally right, the pair of wires need to be swapped on one end.

Couldn't you accomplish that by rotating the plug 180 degrees?

If the teeth are staggered top-bottom in even pairs, rotating it 180 degrees would swap that around to bottom-top and thus un-swap the rows? Does that make sense?

SquallStrife wrote:

MaxWar wrote:

And DonutKing is totally right, the pair of wires need to be swapped on one end.

Couldn't you accomplish that by rotating the plug 180 degrees?

If the teeth are staggered top-bottom in even pairs, rotating it 180 degrees would swap that around to bottom-top and thus un-swap the rows? Does that make sense?

Pair 1-2 would then become pair 25-26 :p

No, the red wire is still at the same end.

Each column of pins on the plug covers two wires, the top hole goes to the wire on the left, the bottom hole goes to the wire on the right. If you spin the connector around 180 degrees before you crimp it on, the top and bottom pins are swapped on the connector. So pin 2 will be at the top left, pin 1 will be at the bottom left.

SquallStrife wrote:

No, the red wire is still at the same end.

Ok, then you mean taking the connector OFF the ribbon, then connecting it back after rotating it 180?

Ive never dismantled a Ribbon cable so i dont really know how the whole thing fits together, it might work but in any case i think ill practice with some other ribbon cable before i try it with my precious 26 pins cable.

MaxWar wrote:

SquallStrife wrote:

No, the red wire is still at the same end.

Ok, then you mean taking the connector OFF the ribbon, then connecting it back after rotating it 180?

Well yeah, or if you're making one from scratch, which is what I had in mind, going back to DK's post.

The little strip of jaws is staggered so that a 1-dimensional array of wires can be translated into a 2-dimensional array of pins. Spinning the connector laterally swaps the odd-even pairs of jaws arround, eliminating the need to swap individual pairs of wires.

MaxWar wrote:

Ive never dismantled a Ribbon cable so i dont really know how the whole thing fits together, it might work but in any case i think ill practice with some other ribbon cable before i try it with my precious 26 pins cable.

Good idea, the trickiest part of recycling IDC connectors is getting the retaining clip off non-destructively.

SquallStrife wrote:

MaxWar wrote:

And DonutKing is totally right, the pair of wires need to be swapped on one end.

Couldn't you accomplish that by rotating the plug 180 degrees?

If the teeth are staggered top-bottom in even pairs, rotating it 180 degrees would swap that around to bottom-top and thus un-swap the rows? Does that make sense?

I tried this but it doesn't work.

It's because each pair is aligned vertically.

When you rotate the connector 180 degrees, the pairs are swapped but so is the top and bottom connector so its back where you started.

If you get it wrong your PC will completely fail to post, it will appear stone dead (at least my 99ish vintage AT power supply did. I suppose if you have an older AT power supply that is a bit less forgiving the results may be more spectacular)

D'oh! of course!

Yeah I spent a while working out on a piece of paper which way to crimp the plugs until I finally figured out that there was no way around it apart from just swapping each pair on the cable.

I just removed the connector from the sound card, put a piece of flatcable inbetween, and soldered it all together. Sure a separate cable is better but this method works fine as well.

I took a suitable flatcable with connector on one end, then on the other end I soldered the loose ends to a circuitboard jumper block. picture here.

I did the same, only soldered the cable directly to the sound card:

(the markings on the cable read '105% SPACE SHUTTLE' by the way 🤣)

If I understand correctly, daughtercards [such as the XR385], plug drirectly into some sound cards *if* the layout of the two cards accomodate each other, but if they don't a cable is needed. Am I getting this right? Is there a compatibility list somewhere of which combos work without a cable?

I'm waiting for delivery of an XR385 - my first step into the world of multi-card audio. My plan is to combine it with a Vibra 16-S which has done decent retro service so far.. I also have a Turtle Beach Montego 1, MX300, and Ensoniq Vivo with 26 pin connections to test out as well

The Yamaha YMF ISA card series usually only allow for a small midi daughterboard: the Yamaha OPL4-ML-DB. Cannot recall any other soundcards like that.

An XR385 sure won't fit on the Vibra16 I have here (CT2960). The card would touch the mainboard and the mounting holes are way off.

Damn.
It must've been amazing luck that my cable worked at all, I figured that the cable should be 1->1 straight through and I guess getting it wrong saved me...

😳

It fit on the Vibra I had, but that card had the hanging note bug and was useless.
No complaints with an OPL3-SAx though 😁