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Soldering a VGA cable - number of wires doesn't match [closed]
I decided to open up a VGA cable which started to produce only red / blue / green colored image. I thought that inside I will
something like shown on this scheme:
Instead I found that my VGA cable is a more complex one. Allso the wire colors do not mach with the ones in the scheme abo
It has 11 wires instead of just 6. My cable has yellow and cyan cables for V-sync and H-sync but then there are these colours
(white, gray, brown, black, dark red and bright red) which I don't know where to solder. I need an advice.
soldering vga
asked Dec 9 '13 at 7:54
71GA
234 2 10
as off-topic by , , , , closed Leon Heller Joe Hass Matt Young Daniel Grillo JYelton Dec 9 '13 at
18:38
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Can't you open the other connector, or use a multimeter to check which wire is connected to which pin?
Wouter van Ooijen Dec 9 '13 at 8:04


Unfortunately no. The other side of this quite long cable is plugged onto a projector on the ceiling. Is it possible that
all unknown wires are GND? 71GA Dec 9 '13 at 8:14
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector jippie Dec 9 '13 at 8:42
2 Where is the old connector? Can you open it up to check the wiring? jippie Dec 9 '13 at 8:48
2

WIRE COLOR IS NEVER A GOOD INDICATOR OF SIGNAL PURPOSE. You need access to the connector to find out
which is what. Passerby Dec 9 '13 at 10:25
2 Answers
You actually have 14 wires if you count the ground return for each colour, it may use one of
those on pin 5 (GND) as in your diagram to complete the set of 15. The other pins are often
used for communications. For example from on Wikipedia some of the ones
your diagram showns as not connected are:
VGA connector
Pin 4 - ID2/RES - formerly Monitor ID bit 2, reserved since E-DDC
Pin 9 - KEY/PWR - formerly key, now +5V DC
Pin 11 - ID0/RES - formerly Monitor ID bit 0, reserved since E-DDC
Pin 12 - ID1/SDA - formerly Monitor ID bit 1, IC data since DDC2
Pin 15 - ID3/SCL - formerly Monitor ID bit 3, IC clock since DDC2
The reference to DDC refers to the that the host can use to query the
monitor for its capabilities such as supported resolutions and refresh frequencies. So while I
believe in many cases they could be left disconnected with the loss of that functionality they
won't all be additional ground signals as you mentioned in a comment.
Display Data Channel
If you're feeling experimental (and there are no guarantees this won't cause damage)
because I'm not sure if the colours are 100% standard I'd try the following:
Connect the RGB center wires to pins 1/2/3 with the shields going to pins 6/7/8
respectively.
Short pin 8 to pin 5 to get the additional ground.
Connect the other wires as per your diagram leaving unknown ones disconnected
Now see if you can get an image on the projector by forcing a resolution you know that it
supports because you won't have the DDC channel. If that works OK and it's not a problem
leave it at that. Otherwise you could probably identify the remaining pins by measuring
between ground and the DDC2 pins 12 / 15 using a scope during initial negotiation to check
for the square clock versus data. The 5V to go to pin 9 should be easy enough to spot and is
presumably present the whole time.
answered Dec 9 '13 at 10:19
PeterJ
9,776 10 21 52
Nearly all modern PC that have a VGA connector use the same 15 pin VGA connector that
the original IBM VGA card used.
There are at least four versions of the VGA connector, which are the three-row 15 pin DE-15
(also called mini sub D15) in and DDC2 pinouts, a less featureful and far less
common , and a used for laptops. The image and below table are the
newer 15-pin VGA VESA DDC2 connector pinout.
original
9-pin VGA Mini-VGA
edited Dec 9 '13 at 12:22 answered Dec 9 '13 at 11:25
Butzke
810 4 23
Nearly all modern PC graphics cards do not have a VGA connector at all. Pete KirkhamDec 9 '13 at 12:09
@PeteKirkham - Nearly all modern computers who has the connector has that type of VGA. Butzke Dec 9 '13 at
12:11
If that's what you meant, correct the answer, don't add a comment. Pete KirkhamDec 9 '13 at 12:18