USB Cable Modding

[Ogrius]

I am going to be modding my usb header cables so as to add an internal usb hub so that all 3 sets of my front panel usb ports can be connected and functional. I only have one open USB header on my mothreboard as the other one is taken up by a media card reader. The problem is that a USB cable has 4 wires in it, Voltage+, Voltage-, Data+, Data-. The USB headers have 5 connections, the 5th connection being the shielding. So how do I actually solder a wire into the shielding of the USB cable?

[xoqolatl]

You don't. Your cable should have alluminium foil around 4 center cables; you have to connect the foil to shielding, for example by wrapping a fine wire around it and soldering that wire to mb header connector.

[Ogrius]

You don't. Your cable should have alluminium foil around 4 center cables; you have to connect the foil to shielding, for example by wrapping a fine wire around it and soldering that wire to mb header connector.

So just take my wire, wrap it around the shielded portion of the usb cable a couple times, electrical tape it down and wire it into the connector? I would imagine you would want to secure it to the shielding better than that. The whole problem I saw though was how would you solder onto the shielding without melting right through to the wires it encloses. If that's the solution though, so be it. I will end up with one extra end of a USB cable anyways so I will use that as a tester anyways.