VGA screen cables

[OMGpedobear]

the 20 qire ro so ribbon cable goign between the actual lcd itself and the control board is only a few inches long and is shielded for about and a inch fo that, is there anychance i could extedn that to about 3 feet to but the power supply and other things further away from the lcd panel itself ?

[kibble]

the 20 qire ro so ribbon cable goign between the actual lcd itself and the control board is only a few inches long and is shielded for about and a inch fo that, is there anychance i could extedn that to about 3 feet to but the power supply and other things further away from the lcd panel itself ?

at least in my book, misspellings are not nearly enough of a problem to warrant so much effort going into word filters.also as far as swearing goes if people wana swear they can always write %&%* .

I had to read this thread about the VGA screen a few times to make sense of it. LOL

Anyway, if you're talking about a regular computer monitor and the cable like so:



Yes, it can be extended, I've done it. I made a cable 4 1/2 feet long for another project I have going on. If that's what you're talking about, I'll post more pics of what I did.

[OMGpedobear]

ok point made .... Thanks and was there any problems with ghosting , dead pixels or dead lines of pixels ?

[hailrazer]

You get interference if you don't keep the twisted pairs twisted. So see the blue/white pairs that are twisted together? When you extend them keep the new wires twisted together also.

[OMGpedobear]

could i use pairs of cat 5 cable twisted togethor ? did you twist them together kibble ?

[kibble]

You may be able to use cat 5, but it will probably be stiffer since it'll be so thick, depending on how many pairs you need.

Here's what I did. Sorry I don't have more detailed pics, I'll try to explain as best as I can. I was in a rush to make this cable and I didn't take any pics of what I did.



I took a 6ft long parallel cable, like the one's for printers. I cut the ends off and cut it about 4 feet long. I stripped the plastic off using a razor, long ways, so I could just shed the plastic off and leave the stranded wire mesh inside intact. The wire mesh will expand if you push it together and makes removing the wire inside easier. The pairs of cables inside are already twisted together, like so:



I needed a total of 10 pairs of wires so I took what I needed, the parallel cable had 17 pairs inside. I cut the short cable between the controller and LCD and I soldered each twisted pair to one of the pairs on the connector for the lcd. It helps to have a datasheet for the lcd as you'll be able to tell which ones are the data lines. The power and gnd lines don't really require the twisted pair and can just be one long cable, which is what I did. At the point where I soldered the wires together I used heat shrink to protect them. I don't have a picture of them individually. Where you see that little bulge in the mesh with yellow underneath to the right of the pic just above the voltage regulator is where all the individual solder joints are heat shrunk. The red and black heat shrink that you see in the pic are just being used as sleeves so I could keep track of the gnds and positive supply.




At the opposite end, where the controller is, I didn't use the connector that was originally there because I am actually using this LCD on a different controller, but I had to solder each pair on that side too. Just do the same, keeping all wires going to their proper place. For the power and gnd, I just used a pair of 18 gauge wire, one of them completely stripped of its covering so it's bare for the gnd. I soldered all the positive lines to one end of the 18 gauge cable. Same with the gnd. Again, you can see a bulge in the pic on the right hand side of the cable underneath the white heat shrink. That's where all those heat shrunk solder joints are.



I ran all the cables inside the wire mesh to protect them and prevent interference and used heat shrink on the ends of the mesh to prevent them from being all frayed and sticking out. There is a regulator in my cable as you can see in the picture of the lcd end because the controller puts out 12V to the LCD and the LCD I'm using requires only 5V. Again. you don't have to worry about that part.

I hope this makes sense. Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Here's the cable working, the image looks weird because it's being backlit with a flashlight, this is just the bare LCD.

[OMGpedobear]

I can not thank you enough kibble . I will use parralel cable then , My only concern with parralel cable is its thickness, the wire has got to run from the top fo the lcd all the way to the bottom and the idea of putting the lcd electronics else where was to make the screen thinner ;(. I think ill try first with pairs of cat 5 cable wrapped in aluminium tape. If that dosent work ill use prarralel cable . Was this for a diy projector btw ? Also i think ill just connect the same wires togethor in the extended cable, ill probably end up killing something if i group wires togethor incorrectly. And again thanks kibble:).

[kibble]

LOL, yeah it's for a diy projector I'm also working on. It's actually not going to be a standalone projector though, it's going to go inside my big TV to replace the CRT's as the image quality is crap. I can't even hook up my Wii with component cables through the TV's component connectors and run it at 480p cuz it's not supported. Don't even talk about hooking up a computer through s-video.

You may be able to get away with just extending the cables with no shielding on the outside. I was getting crazy interference on the cable, mostly because the switching regulator is right next to it, but it will also be around other circuitry and power supplies so I wanted to eliminate the chance of other stuff affecting the image.

[OMGpedobear]

well that's kinda worrying as this is for a wiiP . Thanks again and good luck with the projector. are you using a crt as a back light then ?

[kibble]

Nope, I'm using a plasma light source:

[OMGpedobear]

ok, thats awesome. Wont that burn the lcd panel really really badly ? just an over head projector will educe the panels life time:P , a black lcd panel will cook under that thing, awesome non the less.

[kibble]

Yeah, it most likely would fry it pretty quick, which is why I have to figure out the best way to apply this unit and still provide protection for the LCD so that very little heat actually reaches it.

[hailrazer]

Lexan x10 is used a s a heat shield or tempered glass.

Leaxan x10 is better as it has UV protection.