Vintage Cable Sourcing is 'Fun'
Posted by EsoTechTrix@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 7 comments
What's your strategy for sourcing old cables? I can't tell if I am happier when the jack is an 'Embrace and Extend" situation, or upset that it can lead to a "Sophie's Choice" type situation where you have to figure out if you need the cable, more than the tech.
There is the classic example that some older S-Video cables can work as ADB cables for Macs in a pinch (TEST the grounds are separated first kids) but I've also seen the same port all over. (The one above was an iPod dock, which I guess added 3 pins for audio.... meaning it has 3 grounds??) Some are harmless extensions, some are just blatant misuse because the jack was available and cheap.
This is marginally better than the items that have custom monstrosities. I've had to pay more for cables or adapters at times than the item itself. Any hacks out there for sourcing snowflake cables or adapters without breaking the bank folks have found?
What's the craziest adapter or cable you've had to bodge or try and source?
sputwiler@reddit
Thank god there's a store in town that stocks all manner of DIN and D-SUB connectors, but outside of that range I'm hosed.
Scoth42@reddit
I don't think I have anything that's too crazy or unusual. I did recently finally get around to getting the TTL RGB cable to allow me to connect my 1084s monitor to CGA, low-res EGA, and C128 but they're readily available and not that hard to find. I'd also like to get the little dongle that converts the video output on my IBM PC Convertible CGA slice to a standard 9 pin, it's the same adapter the PCjr used, but they're annoyingly expensive for what they are. I'm sure I could build one easily enough if I could be arsed, it's not that many pins.
I still have the drive but I've misplaced the cable that connects it to my Toshiba T200CS tablet PC thing, it's a weird thing that was specific to a handful of models of Toshiba and a lot of sellers don't specify what models the cable is. Hopefully I can dig up mine or find another since it makes it trickier to use.
Sirotaca@reddit
Took me a while to find an EIAJ-8 connector for the RGB input on my Sears LXI monitor.
berrmal64@reddit
Personally this is one of the few circumstances that'll lead me to mod a device, if the connector is rare or the cable is unobtainium
retardedboi1991@reddit
I usually just build a cable if it's possible, build is a strong word more like bodge together, if i actually use it then i'll splash out on a proper cable but sometimes it's just not worth it.
My latest bodge was a gameboy link cable to 5 dupont wires for transfering gameboy camera photos, it actually works great.
DecentlySpaghetti@reddit
Sun Microsystems keyboard and mouse. Use a Mini DIN-8. Barely managed to find one.
muse_head@reddit
Luckily most of the things I've needed a non-standard cable for still use standard DIN or DB25 connectors etc. So it's pretty easy and cheap to just make one.