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Make your own VGA cord of CAT5 cable!

by mlandgraaf on April 2, 2008 Table of Contents Make your own VGA cord of CAT5 cable! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Make your own VGA cord of CAT5 cable! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Strip you filthy cable you! Strip! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Soldering is fun! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Decoration! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Check if it works! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 5

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

Intro: Make your own VGA cord of CAT5 cable!

As most of you know, getting a descent length of VGA monitor cable is a costly thing. With this instructable I'll show you how to make a 15m long VGA cable, out of plain ol' CAT5 network cable.

Image Notes 1. it looks like a mess.. actually it really is!

Step 1: Strip you filthy cable you! Strip!

To make life a bit easier, strip of about an inch of the CAT5 outer insulation. And behold: 8 precious wires in pretty colors. Make sure you strip about 2/3 mm of the inner wire insulation. Try using an wire stripper. I use my teeth, because Macgyver does it too. Don't make it to long as it could shortcut when fiddling all the wires in the VGA connector.

Image Notes 1. Nice wires

Image Notes 1. naked wires

Step 2: Soldering is fun!

Well the next thing to do is solder the wires to the VGA connectors you bought. The best connectors are male ones. But my local radioshack didn't have em, so he sold me the female ones with an male-male adapter. As long as it works i say! The connector have got the pin numbers on the solderside, and with the help of a scheme i stole from http://www.geocities.com/dougburbidge/vgaovercat5.html i can solder the right wires to it. Note that im not using an RJ45 connector as shown on the illustration, thats not necessary in my application (very awsome home cinema set). Just solder the shown colors to the right pins. Good luck with the bridge for pins 5, 10 and 8, naah it's not really that hard =)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

Image Notes 1. after you get the first one, it's easy!

Image Notes 1. dont need this one.... 2. ripped off http://www.geocities.com/dougburbidge/vgaovercat5.html

Image Notes 1. mmmm solder

Image Notes 1. beware of bridge!

Step 3: Decoration!
I bought some VGA connector housings, it really tidies up the lot. After that i popped on the adapters, but if you bought the good connectors you don't have to, of course. Repeat steps 1-3 for the other side of the cable. You're awesome!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

Image Notes 1. nicee!

Image Notes 1. adaptor!

Step 4: Check if it works!

Connect the cable to the computer and to the beamer. Make sure your graphic card settings are correct and presto! VGA over a CAT 5 cable! I have no idea how long this cable could be. i made one that was 15m long and it worked perfectly @ 1024x768, so hallaluja! Enjoy!

Image Notes 1. screen works!

Image Notes 1. Great son of god! Free beer! Oh yeah and the cable works!

Image Notes

Image Notes

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

1. yep it works! 2. good ol' Amstel Beer!

1. Does it's job like a charm!

Image Notes 1. 15m of pleasure! Enjoy!

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DC Power Over Ethernet (Injector Adapter) For: Router, AP, Switch, Hub by rjwarpath

Super Long Ethernet Cable by Lancealator

Power Over Ethernet Router Conversion by lonjim2

Make a VGA PRO (tm) extender... by Genderle

Comments
37 comments Add Comment

cklein-2 says:
does this play video to the tv

Mar 9, 2011. 1:29 PM REPLY

serooo says:

Jan 21, 2011. 12:55 PM REPLY it's perfect worked for me, but i've a problem with electricity when i turn the light on or off the signal from laptob to tv is cut and come back again. even there is no electricity near the cat 6 cable and when i connect original vga cable it work perfect. so i dont no the relation between the cable and the electricity pls advice thanks. Nov 28, 2010. 3:02 PM REPLY

NitroBlastSIB says:
First of all: Good job, nice work... Second: I've to ask this, did you record some noise at final picture or lack of quality?

mike_k11 says:
Hi, i want to make the extender,,but what configuration use to the cat5 if i want to add a box with vga connector and rj45 jack ? can i use the tipical orage-white orange green-white blue blue-white green brown-white brown ??? thanx

Sep 9, 2010. 7:05 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

Sowee says:
Mine is working quite well. I'll post a photo later. Thanks for this instructable.

Nov 4, 2009. 6:50 AM REPLY

bijikenyot says:

Jul 14, 2010. 7:38 AM REPLY mee too..i have connected it to my lcd screen..the length of wire about 50m thats nice..in my big screen. i have tested it about 1 hour and no found "kabooom" or "smoke" from my LCD unit.. in my lcd unit i got VGA to monitor, and after i connect it to my crt monitor, the contrast on montor looks weird.......maybe some purple and ghost fonts, but i still can read them cleary.... anyway , for small ideas you got AWESOME predicate from us.... i will post an image latter....

bijikenyot says:
it's good...nothing bad at all

Jul 17, 2010. 6:23 AM REPLY

livebriand says:

Jun 9, 2010. 3:50 PM REPLY Yeah but wouldn't you have limited resolution or picture quality since some pins on the VGA are left without connection and others are bridged?

Zigster007 says:

Apr 16, 2010. 9:40 AM REPLY I just did this, I bought the D-Sub Connector and Connector Hood from RadioShack. They already have solder terminals on them. So far i have tried a 50ft cat5e and it works perfectly, i also tried a 300ft cat5e and it did not work. So obviously somewhere in between is the limiter. But for any normal household 50ft should be enough distance to go from one side of the house to the other.

Zigster007 says:

Apr 25, 2010. 7:28 AM REPLY Once i installed it i notice that the maximum resolution you can get on this is 1600x1200. To fix this i followed a tutorial on www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/7947-force-dvi-hdmi-resolutions-refresh-rates.html which gives a walk through on how to force resolutions. But now i have a weird refresh rate that makes it hard to watch anything on the television. Will update when i figure it out.

virtualizado says:
Este tutorial es de lo mejor que he encontrado!! Muchas gracias!! Thank you a lot in Spanish!!!!

Apr 22, 2010. 9:35 PM REPLY

shtihl says:
good thing you 'stole' the info from that geocities site since geocities no longer is active ;)

Apr 4, 2010. 4:44 PM REPLY

SMHLonWlf says:
Some times using your teeth is better than using regular wire strippers, cuz you get complete control ofer how much pressure you put on the insulation, especially with smaller wires. but yeah, when the wire sise goes past a certain gauge, then use scissors/wire strippers. Personally i like to use scissors to cut & strip wires.

Nov 8, 2009. 4:19 PM REPLY

feiming says:
It's easier to burn the cable.no matter how fine the wire is,it always work

Mar 15, 2010. 8:18 PM REPLY

CrudeBuster says:

Nov 19, 2009. 6:03 AM REPLY The scheme lacks the DDC wires, the video board won't be able to detect which monitor type is attached. But its a good idea nevertheless, I was about to do it but I needed the DDC signals, or else Windows don't let me use some resolutions, and some hacking through settings would be necessary. Too much ado for a simple extender, for me, but it's useful for a lot of people, kudos to you.

chuckconder says:
Use a simple VGA DA....MSV12 qvs.com search MSV12

Feb 18, 2010. 6:58 PM REPLY

CrudeBuster says:
But this kills the prospect of using a ethernet cable as extender.

Feb 25, 2010. 3:35 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

wa2ise says:

Jan 12, 2010. 6:04 PM REPLY You can eliminate the ghosting by impedance matching, but at the penalty of some loss of contrast. As Ethernet twisted pair is 100 ohm impedance, and VGA is 75 ohms, add 24 ohm resistors in series of the center conductors of the red, the green and the blue video signals where you will feed these to the ethernet cable at the computer (source). And at the monitor, again add in series 3 more 24 ohm resistors, one for the red center conductor of the VGA cable that will feed the monitor, and likewise green and the blue. I said 24 ohm as this is the closest common standard value they make, and will be close enough here. As I said, you'll get 75% of the contrast on the monitor you had before, but you can turn up the contrast control to compensate. Jan 7, 2010. 12:48 PM REPLY

ironsmiter says:
Instructables Gone Commercial. Gotta love it when the paying public proves out your ideas. http://www.ecnmag.com/Products/2010/01/Wallplate-Module-Delivers-VGA-Video-over-Cat-5/

therocker284 says:
will it damage the source of the video if ever i got troubles on connecting the wires (inverted wire connection)?

Sep 26, 2009. 11:18 AM REPLY

redhat11 says:
can i directly use cat5 to connect the vga port directly to vga port? means vga port - cat5 - vga port

Aug 6, 2009. 12:30 AM REPLY

mlandgraaf says:
Sure, if you're good with soldering it wouldn't do harm

Aug 7, 2009. 2:34 AM REPLY

emtdfj says:

Jul 15, 2009. 8:21 PM REPLY I used cat 5e run of about 60 feet through conduit and found only slight ringing hardly noticeable. It saved us bunches due to the run and the need to run through ceiling and under concrete. If it looks bad try moving to 75hz or 85hz. Great project thanks Jun 3, 2009. 10:56 AM REPLY The "ghosting" effect is known as Ringing, and it is caused by an impedance mismatch of the synch pair between video card, cable, and monitor - an effect you will get by using long cat5/cat5e/cat6 cables due to their high impedance (~100 ohm). This can be solved (i think) by using a low impedance (75 ohm) coaxial cable for the synch along side the cat5. If anyone tries this let me know, I have not. I tried making a 50 ft vga cable and got the ringing. Ended up just buying a 50' vga cable for $80 ---- rip off city.

volto says:

vultu says:
WORKS PERFECT!!! THANKS!

Apr 14, 2009. 5:34 AM REPLY

Derin says:
i think the title and the first sentence in step 1 was funny

Aug 25, 2008. 5:12 AM REPLY

kimrich says:

May 25, 2008. 11:24 PM REPLY Great idea. Seems to have definite length limitations --- unless the path is clear of potential RF interference, maybe? I have to go 50 ft and it sounds like this hack prob won't hack it without ghosting. Does anyone have any amplification of this likely problem? I know diddily about signal issues. Maybe different cable type? Or maximum observed cable length without ghosting? Does it work well with CRT monitors and not LCD monitors? Or better with LCD monitors? As soon as you dig an inch beneath the surface you run smack into why electrical engineers are usually well paid - grin. May 19, 2008. 6:27 PM REPLY Hi, I made one of those to connect an LCD TV which is 50ft away from a PC., the result was a Ghosting image (1024x768), then I tried a shorter cable with 33ft long and though smaller the image was still ghosting, also once restarted the computer didn't know what kind of monitor was connected. I've three questions only. Is there a way to eliminate the ghosting? left it this way, could damage my TV? and, is it normal that this kind of cable is not allowing to detect the TV? (sorry for my horrible english). and thanks for your Instructable. Apr 17, 2008. 4:49 AM REPLY great idea. gatta try this soon. It would be cool if you have soldered a ethernet port to the ends in stead of just using the cable. This way you can extend your cord as you like with just any ethernetcable you get your hands on...

gizqmo says:

diyworkbench says:

I HACK says:
Gud job mate , simple but useful .

Apr 5, 2008. 11:29 PM REPLY

killerjackalope says:

Apr 2, 2008. 5:12 PM REPLY It might actually be easier to use and cut a pre-existing Vga cable, in terms of soldering and stuff because you wouldn't have to be working in so close to the little connectors.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/

mlandgraaf says:

Apr 3, 2008. 9:53 AM REPLY Yep i thought of that, but because the CAT5 is twisted pair, i reckon you couldnt just connect some wires together, 'cus you could get interference. And the soldering to the connector wasn't that hard, and it made a killer finish look.

killerjackalope says:

Apr 3, 2008. 10:47 AM REPLY Fair enough then, still a great idea, I suppose the only better thing would just be having two converter plugs, meaning a one time job and it's reversible in a second.

GorillazMiko says:
Nicely done! Great photos, detailed, nice job. :-)

Apr 2, 2008. 2:59 PM REPLY

mlandgraaf says:
Thanks :D

Apr 3, 2008. 9:55 AM REPLY

mathieujohnson says:
what is the highest resolution you can get with that cable?

Apr 2, 2008. 3:19 PM REPLY

mlandgraaf says:

Apr 3, 2008. 9:55 AM REPLY I tested it at 1024x786. My beamer doesn't go higher. I think that if you keep your cable not too long you can get high resolutions

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-VGA-cord-of-CAT5-cable/