Cable building attempt (was: WTB: Sony CPD-1302 video cable)

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

>Mitchell Spector wrote:
>> "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>Mitchell Spector wrote:
>>>
>>>>I've had a Sony CPD-1302 monitor sitting on my floor about three weeks 
>>>>now and unable to use it (or even test it) since its missing the video cable.
>>>>I'd like to connect it up to my Apple IIGS.
>>>>
>>>>What I need is a 9-pin (DE-9 male) to 15-pin (Mac and IIgs) cable, or
>>>>alternatively a DE-9 to VGA.
>>>>
>> I took an old Macintosh video cable and cut the connector off one end. 
>> Inside there are 8 wires, 3 of which are thicker than the others (I'm
>> guessing they are for the pins carrying the red, green and blue signals).
>
>Those are actually coax cables, so careful stripping them.

    I had already stripped the coax wiring by the time I posted about it,
using a pair of nail-scissors. I managed to cut myself once or twice in 
the process so I guess that is what your "careful" warning was about. :)

>> Of the thick cables there is: Red, Blue, Brown. There remaining thin ones 
>> are: Brown, Red, Orange, Black and White. I'll have to rig up a homemade
>> continuity tester but I'm hoping the color coded wires could save me the
>> trouble. The best I could do for the DE-9 end is a PC serial connector which
>> has an IDC ribbon cable...the bits of wire are very thin but at least I can
>> visually trace which pins each wire corresponds to.
>
>You could also use a PC serial cable with a 9-pin male-male gender
>changer...

    I found an old Macintosh serial cable with a male 9-pin connector, though
unfortunately it physically omits pins 2 and 3 so I went with the PC serial
cable instead.

>> I'm ready to splice the two together with tape (I've painstakingly exposed
>> the metal contacts in each wire) but I need to figure out the Apple cable 
>> end first. In any case all this would just be something to test the monitor
>> out, I'd need a more permanent solution.
>
>With careful work and some soldering, that *could* be a permanent
>solution, but I get your drift.
>
>You can use a continuity tester to trace which wires are connected to
>which pins.  All it takes is an AA battery, a 1-cell flashlight bulb,
>and some wire.

    Thanks for the tip! Your suggestion gave me an idea, I built a continuity
tester using two AA batteries (3 volts combined), a LED with wire leads, two
stripped garbage bag twist-ties and some tape.

    And It worked! Here are my findings about the cable wiring....

RED coax = 1, 2  (red ground, red) 
BLUE coax = 9, 13  (blue, blue ground)
BROWN coax = 5, 6  (green, green ground)
brown = 11  (mono audio)
white = 4  (n/c)
red = 10  (n/c)
orange = 7  (-5v DC)
black = 3   (composite sync)

    I matched them up to the Sony CPD-1302 pinouts, minus the Green and 
Blue ground signal (they're supposed to go to pin-1, but that is also where
the Red signal is which is a problem). I'm pretty sure the G, B grounds are
necessary because all I could see is an inversed faint/ghosted image with 
no color. Pin-2 needs to be separate from pin-1 for this to work, but they're
wired together on the pre-molded end.

   Hmm, what if I purchase a Sony multiscan DE-9 to VGA cable (I think a
few places still sell them) and attach a Mac-to-VGA adapter on the end?
I'm assuming that would work. Even if I had the homemade cable wired
correctly, it really needs to be soldered and not spliced and taped--the
connection wasn't exactly solid.

Mitchell Spector