?'s about cables

[isugoat]

i have a 2 player control panel w/ trackball and i'm trying to figure out how to hook it up to my computer.  i want to keep it to just one cable running between the panel and my computer.  bare minimum i need to hook up is the DB15 Gameport connector (i'm running hacked daisy-chained Sidewinders) and then a PS2 (hacked intellimouse).  i'd also might like to throw a USB port on the panel (in case i get a light gun) and another PS2 connector for a keyboard.
anyway I'm looking at using this 36 pin printer cable to hook it up.  i don't know anything about how these cables are wired. so my question is: when i slice one of these 36 pin cables up to do the wiring, will there be 36 usable wires inside?

thanks in advance

[cdbrown]

I think you should get the male - female extension cable.  That way you can plug them together.  Sometimes they say they are 36 but in fact may be 35 + internal ground (which is useless to you).  Determine exactly how many wires you need and go from there - you can cable tie multiple wires together or put a cable wrap on it for neatness instead of just one cable.

Cheers
-cdbrown

[isugoat]

why do you think it wouldn't work?  is it something to do with the ground?  like i said i don't know a lot about wiring, but i think the ground would be fine.  the way i'm thinking is that i splice all the ports into the 36 pin cable inside the CP and then inside the PC i wire directly from the 36 pin cable to each of the respective ports.  essentially the 36 pin cable just carries the signals...

i want to stay away from just using extension cables for each of the ports because that'd be at least 3 cables running between the CP and PC.  even with shrink wrap or loom i think 1 cable would look better, plus the separate extension cables would be more expensive =P

[cdbrown]

In the extension cables I have opened which were DB25 - there was 1 ground wire which I couldn't use
http://home.iprimus.com.au/craigrb/images/db25.JPG the wire on the left is the cable ground which I couldn't use.  It may be fine in your cable.  Also the reason I say have male-female extension so that you can unplug this cable when you need especially if you are hardwiring one end into the PC.  
           male    female
Panel  -----=   ]------- PC

If you don't need to worry about disconnecting then just get the male-male one and cut the ends off.  All the wires are reasonably easy to identify with the colours.  The blue wire at one end is the same as the blue wire at the other.  However sometime they get connected to different pins on the connectors - but if your not using it then it ain't a problem.