HOW TO MAKE AN ARCADE VGA BREAKOUT CABLE

[Petesie]

My Ultimarc vga card arrived today and as i had a couple of old monitors lying around i decided to be miserable and have a go at making my own vga breakout cable.  i cut the vga cable of my monitor and striped the wire back - here goes,
there are 9 wires of which 3 are considerably bigger than the other remaining 6 wires.

really what im asking for is does anyone know of a step by step diagram of how i complete this small task - i have read ultimarcs site but would prefer a stp by step.
ive been googling all day to no avail, everyone whos mamein a cabinet talks of it but no pictures at all.

any and all help would be most appreciated

peter

[divemaster127]

Ultimarc sells the cable for $12.00

[Petesie]

i know he sells it for £8 but wanted to make my own first and if i mess it up( i have 2 to wreck dont forget) i will buy 1 but in the meantime i wanna make it

[Petesie]

anyone got any easy to see pictures - when you click on the ultimarc picture it doesnt enlarge so i can see it - all i want is to see it close up - can anyone help??

[8way]

Just get a 2 male DB15 connector and a some Cat 5 cable. You only need pins 1,2,3,13,14, & GROUND. Just follow the pinouts found here http://www.bbdsoft.com/video.html. You can also use a old monitor cable, if you have a dead old or unused monitor. Just cut the cable, and just get 1 male DB15 connector and mach up the wires(you need a multimeter to do this) or you could just try to mach up the colors. RED, GREEN, BLUE, BLACK(Ground) are no problem to find cause their universal their allways going to be that color. The hard ones to locate are the to Syncs, they usually vary in color depending on the monitors manufacturer. Anyways hope this helps. On a side note, don't know if you have a local store around you that sells male 2 male DB15 cables, but if you do you can get one for about as much as it cost for the parts to make one which is still cheaper then Ultimarc. And if you go with the old monitor cable and a DB15 connector that would cost you next to nothing, or if you had two old monitors to cannibalise then it would cost you absolutely nothing.

[Petesie]

thx 8way for your help.
i only have 5 wires coming from my green connector plug on my monitor but u say 1,2,3,13,14 and ground - that makes 6
confused a little???

[Petesie]

i have a multimeter by the way

[Petesie]

does anyone have a picture of a homemade vga breakout cable???

[8way]

thx 8way for your help.
i only have 5 wires coming from my green connector plug on my monitor but u say 1,2,3,13,14 and ground - that makes 6
confused a little???

Sorry i should have mentioned that on Arcade monitor the two Syncs (pin 13 & 14) are connected together so you would have 5 wires.

[Petesie]

so then find the two sync wires on vga cable, join together and join to monitoe sync cable??

[CheffoJeffo]

I have abandoned a number of responses so far because folks keep posting rapidly. 

Yes, you can most likely connect the 2 sync wires from the VGA cable to the single sync wire on the arcade monitor.

Question: Do you know the pinout of your arcade monitor ?

[8way]

so then find the two sync wires on vga cable, join together and join to monitoe sync cable??

Exactly. By the way, if your planing on connecting directly to the monitor it may not work correctly. Most monitor will need a signal booster, if you don't use one you will get a very dark picture. You can get the signal booster from Ultimarc or you can make your own but its not easy. Just first try it without the booster and then decide to buy one or make one if it don't work.

[CheffoJeffo]

In order to combine 8way's and my concerns, what monitor do you have ? Then we can check the pinouts and determine if you need a video amplifier.

 

[Petesie]

so ask all your questions just visit my other thread in monitor section re - how to wire an arcade monitor?

ok - heres my 1 question

ive been out in the garage wiring tonite - vga card looks the business by the way, cant wait to hook it up.
so on my hanaratex monitor, the green connector(im new and dont know the correct words for the parts   lolol)
has 5 wires coming from it, left to right black,blank,white,blue,green and red. ive checked with my m/meter pins 1,2,3 and they match red,blue,green and blue so ive hooked them up to the red,blue,green on the monitor. wots the white and black - (is the black on the monitor ground which is black wire pin 5 on vga).  then is the white on monitor left & right sync???
im lost help

13 pin on vga is white and 14 is yellow

[CheffoJeffo]

I *NEVER* go by colours -- check the pinouts as to what everything is supposed to be.

[Petesie]

13 and 14 pin on the vga are the 2 sync wires - do i twist together and attach to white wire on monitor.
the  black wire on pin 5 to the black ground on vga??

[Petesie]

i think i worked it out - here goes

pin 13 which is horizntal sync connect to black/white??

pin 14 which is vertical sync connect to black/white???

there is no ground on the monitor - yes/no

[CheffoJeffo]

Sure.  

It may well work -- but it is, IMPO, the wrong way to go about this, which is why I specifically asked for monitor information and told you to check the pinouts.

I understand the excitement to get things working (and had exactly the same questions that you have back when I first connected a PC to an arcade monitor), but doing things properly doesn't take much additional time and will avoid problems and prepare you for the next time. Or when it breaks. Or to help somebody else out.

 

EDIT: Yes, there is always a video ground. HAVE YOU CHECKED THE PINOUTS ?

[Petesie]

i dont know what you mean by checking the pin outs - im sorry for being stupid

the monitor is a hantarex polo 1 so i can just plug into wall - its in a mortal kombat 2 cab and is 25 inch - does that help??

[CheffoJeffo]

There is nothing wrong with not knowing -- that's what this place is about.

There are a number of different monitors, each with their own pinouts (just like the VGA pinout -- Pin 1 may be Blue, etc.). If we can identify your monitor and then look at the harness that comes from the chassis (the circuit board attached to your monitor), then we can determine, with some certainty, where the wires should connect.

If I had to guess, and rely upon the wiring harness attached to your monitor, neither of which I like to do, I would say that black is your video ground and that white is your composite (combined) sync, so twist the sync wires from the VGA cable together and attach to the white wires from your monitor.

BUT, I would find the pinouts to make sure first. YMMV.

[Petesie]

how do i check the pinouts??

[CheffoJeffo]

Crap ... lost my posting ... sorry for the delay ...

I was reading your other thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=82590.msg862510#msg862510

grantspain posted the pinout (assuming you do have a Hantarex Polo) and, based on your reply below his, the colours in the wiring harness do align with the pinout.

So, match colours for Red, Green and Blue. Connect Ground to Ground (black from your monitor; connects to 3rd pin from the left on the green connector from the picture that grantspain provided). Then twist the two VGA sync wires together and attach to the white wire from your monitor (pin 1 on the green connector).

Sorry to make this so difficult -- I didn't have enough info until I found your other thread.

[Petesie]

thx jefo - thats the info i needed-was thinkin the same thing but needed clarification before i did it - dontg wanna wreck this now, tooo close to playing bubble bobble  lolol

[Petesie]

lastly wot do i do with the remaining wires in the vga cable??attach to connector strip or something 

[8way]

What cable are you using to do this?

[Petesie]

im using a vga cable cut off the back of an old monitor i had lying about.