Soldering a DVI connector

I was wondering if anyone has soldered a DVI connector, and how
difficult it is to do. I need to route a DVI cable through a small
hole, so I am planning on routing the bare cable through the hole and
soldering the connector afterwards. Crimp terminals would be nice,
but I was unable to find such a connector. Pacific cable sells
solderable DVI connectors. If anyone has words of advice, it would be
appreciated. Thanks.

"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
oups.com...

I was wondering if anyone has soldered a DVI connector, and how
difficult it is to do. I need to route a DVI cable through a small
hole, so I am planning on routing the bare cable through the hole and
soldering the connector afterwards. Crimp terminals would be nice,
but I was unable to find such a connector. Pacific cable sells
solderable DVI connectors. If anyone has words of advice, it would be
appreciated. Thanks.



Unless you are an expert at soldering you'll be better off just enlarging
the hole



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

If you need to know the pin outs try http://www.hardwarebook.net/.

You can use it online or download the zip file ...... very handy

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:32:49 -0700, Andrew Sarangan
wrote:


I was wondering if anyone has soldered a DVI connector, and how
difficult it is to do. I need to route a DVI cable through a small
hole, so I am planning on routing the bare cable through the hole and
soldering the connector afterwards. Crimp terminals would be nice,
but I was unable to find such a connector. Pacific cable sells
solderable DVI connectors. If anyone has words of advice, it would be
appreciated. Thanks.


If you have a good soldering iron with a low temp (not
something like a junky Radio Shack special), a small tip in
good condition, and either some spare flux to apply or a
solder with a high flux core % (so you are using the minimal
amount of solder necessary for a good joint instead of too
much solder just to get enough flux for a good solder flow),
it is reasonably easy to do, providing you have a setup that
allows keeping the wires stationary while soldering. One of
the cheapest ways to do that is a device called "soldering
helping hands" (Google will find examples).

Beyond that, we can't say how good your eyes, how little
your hands shake, how well you do at smaller pitched
soldering in general. IMO, soldering it is no more tedious
than stripping all the wires beforehand.

I tend to agree with Philo that you should just cut a larger
hole, then if that is unslightly take a blank electrical
wall plate, drill a hole that is about 2mm oversized in
diameter of the cord, then cut the plate in half across the
middle of the hole horizontally (the 2mm is to allow for
that amount of material to be removed by the cutting blade).

After having the two pieces, sanded flat so they fit
together as flush as possible again and double-checking that
the hole remains a sufficiently large diameter for the cable
to fit, run the cable through the larger hole, put the 2
halves of the cover plate on then mark on each halve's hole
where to put the wall anchor for the screw. If you like you
could even glue the two halves together before screwing it
down though if you tightened the screws too much it might
crack apart again.

It is not the drywall hole I am worried about. I already have a 4"
hole cut out for the face plate. It is the 2x4 studs that are
difficult to drill through. Routing the wire will require drilling
through several 2x4 studs behind the wall. One would need to
practically sever the 2x4 to make a hole large enough to fit the DVI
connector. I am going to try the soldering option. I also found that
there is a compact circular connector for DVI called Rapidrun, but
they are awfully expensive, about $50 for a 2ft length.




On Aug 10, 8:00 pm, kony wrote:
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:32:49 -0700, Andrew Sarangan

wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has soldered a DVI connector, and how
difficult it is to do. I need to route a DVI cable through a small
hole, so I am planning on routing the bare cable through the hole and
soldering the connector afterwards. Crimp terminals would be nice,
but I was unable to find such a connector. Pacific cable sells
solderable DVI connectors. If anyone has words of advice, it would be
appreciated. Thanks.

If you have a good soldering iron with a low temp (not
something like a junky Radio Shack special), a small tip in
good condition, and either some spare flux to apply or a
solder with a high flux core % (so you are using the minimal
amount of solder necessary for a good joint instead of too
much solder just to get enough flux for a good solder flow),
it is reasonably easy to do, providing you have a setup that
allows keeping the wires stationary while soldering. One of
the cheapest ways to do that is a device called "soldering
helping hands" (Google will find examples).

Beyond that, we can't say how good your eyes, how little
your hands shake, how well you do at smaller pitched
soldering in general. IMO, soldering it is no more tedious
than stripping all the wires beforehand.

I tend to agree with Philo that you should just cut a larger
hole, then if that is unslightly take a blank electrical
wall plate, drill a hole that is about 2mm oversized in
diameter of the cord, then cut the plate in half across the
middle of the hole horizontally (the 2mm is to allow for
that amount of material to be removed by the cutting blade).

After having the two pieces, sanded flat so they fit
together as flush as possible again and double-checking that
the hole remains a sufficiently large diameter for the cable
to fit, run the cable through the larger hole, put the 2
halves of the cover plate on then mark on each halve's hole
where to put the wall anchor for the screw. If you like you
could even glue the two halves together before screwing it
down though if you tightened the screws too much it might
crack apart again.

Why does it have to go through every stud?

Just run it along the floor underneath a piece of quarter round.

"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
ups.com...
It is not the drywall hole I am worried about. I already have a 4"
hole cut out for the face plate. It is the 2x4 studs that are
difficult to drill through. Routing the wire will require drilling
through several 2x4 studs behind the wall. One would need to
practically sever the 2x4 to make a hole large enough to fit the DVI
connector. I am going to try the soldering option. I also found that
there is a compact circular connector for DVI called Rapidrun, but
they are awfully expensive, about $50 for a 2ft length.




On Aug 10, 8:00 pm, kony wrote:
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:32:49 -0700, Andrew Sarangan

wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has soldered a DVI connector, and how
difficult it is to do. I need to route a DVI cable through a small
hole, so I am planning on routing the bare cable through the hole and
soldering the connector afterwards. Crimp terminals would be nice,
but I was unable to find such a connector. Pacific cable sells
solderable DVI connectors. If anyone has words of advice, it would be
appreciated. Thanks.

If you have a good soldering iron with a low temp (not
something like a junky Radio Shack special), a small tip in
good condition, and either some spare flux to apply or a
solder with a high flux core % (so you are using the minimal
amount of solder necessary for a good joint instead of too
much solder just to get enough flux for a good solder flow),
it is reasonably easy to do, providing you have a setup that
allows keeping the wires stationary while soldering. One of
the cheapest ways to do that is a device called "soldering
helping hands" (Google will find examples).

Beyond that, we can't say how good your eyes, how little
your hands shake, how well you do at smaller pitched
soldering in general. IMO, soldering it is no more tedious
than stripping all the wires beforehand.

I tend to agree with Philo that you should just cut a larger
hole, then if that is unslightly take a blank electrical
wall plate, drill a hole that is about 2mm oversized in
diameter of the cord, then cut the plate in half across the
middle of the hole horizontally (the 2mm is to allow for
that amount of material to be removed by the cutting blade).

After having the two pieces, sanded flat so they fit
together as flush as possible again and double-checking that
the hole remains a sufficiently large diameter for the cable
to fit, run the cable through the larger hole, put the 2
halves of the cover plate on then mark on each halve's hole
where to put the wall anchor for the screw. If you like you
could even glue the two halves together before screwing it
down though if you tightened the screws too much it might
crack apart again.

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:24:25 -0700, Andrew Sarangan
wrote:

It is not the drywall hole I am worried about. I already have a 4"
hole cut out for the face plate. It is the 2x4 studs that are
difficult to drill through. Routing the wire will require drilling
through several 2x4 studs behind the wall. One would need to
practically sever the 2x4 to make a hole large enough to fit the DVI
connector. I am going to try the soldering option. I also found that
there is a compact circular connector for DVI called Rapidrun, but
they are awfully expensive, about $50 for a 2ft length.



You don't need to make the big hole for the DVI connector,
just notch-out the side of the 2x4s. The way to do that
without the bit jumping off the side is to drill a little
oversized and temporarily nail a piece of 2x4 to the side of
the one you are drilling to keep the drill bit in place.
You could instead use a sawzall or saber-saw to cut parallel
slits spaced equal to the diameter of the cable and then use
a chisel to chip out the middle between the cuts.

I'm curious now though, to drill these you'd have to have
the drywall or plaster off already. Is this a new,
rough-out construction or are you tearing out the wall to do
it? Keep in mind, there is a finite length you can run a
DVI cable before there are timing errors.

On Aug 11, 12:17 am, kony wrote:
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:24:25 -0700, Andrew Sarangan

wrote:
It is not the drywall hole I am worried about. I already have a 4"
hole cut out for the face plate. It is the 2x4 studs that are
difficult to drill through. Routing the wire will require drilling
through several 2x4 studs behind the wall. One would need to
practically sever the 2x4 to make a hole large enough to fit the DVI
connector. I am going to try the soldering option. I also found that
there is a compact circular connector for DVI called Rapidrun, but
they are awfully expensive, about $50 for a 2ft length.

You don't need to make the big hole for the DVI connector,
just notch-out the side of the 2x4s. The way to do that
without the bit jumping off the side is to drill a little
oversized and temporarily nail a piece of 2x4 to the side of
the one you are drilling to keep the drill bit in place.
You could instead use a sawzall or saber-saw to cut parallel
slits spaced equal to the diameter of the cable and then use
a chisel to chip out the middle between the cuts.

I'm curious now though, to drill these you'd have to have
the drywall or plaster off already. Is this a new,
rough-out construction or are you tearing out the wall to do
it? Keep in mind, there is a finite length you can run a
DVI cable before there are timing errors.

The drywall is already in place, so I am cutting out access holes
where necessary to gain access to the wall cavity. I can use a right-
angle drill attachment to make holes in the 2x4 without tearing down
too much drywall. The cable has to go from a room upstairs to the
basement room, almost directly below each other. It is not a long run,
only 6 ft so length is not a concern. But I have to drill through the
bottom 2x4 in the upstairs room wall cavity, get below the floor, and
then drill through another 2x4 in the downstairs room. There is no way
to get in and out of the wall cavity without drilling through at least
one 2x4.

Andrew Sarangan wrote:
The drywall is already in place, so I am cutting out access holes
where necessary to gain access to the wall cavity. I can use a right-
angle drill attachment to make holes in the 2x4 without tearing down
too much drywall. The cable has to go from a room upstairs to the
basement room, almost directly below each other. It is not a long run,
only 6 ft so length is not a concern. But I have to drill through the
bottom 2x4 in the upstairs room wall cavity, get below the floor, and
then drill through another 2x4 in the downstairs room. There is no way
to get in and out of the wall cavity without drilling through at least
one 2x4.

More curiosity: Why do you want the PC in a room different than the monitor?

Andrew Sarangan" wrote:
But I have to drill through the
bottom 2x4 in the upstairs room wall cavity, get below the floor, and
then drill through another 2x4 in the downstairs room. There is no way
to get in and out of the wall cavity without drilling through at least
one 2x4.

FWIW, the 2x4 in the middle of the wall is a "firebreak", and does not
contribute any structural stability to the house load; you would be safe in
drilling through at least that one.

Jon