First attempt at DIY Cable: Failed :(

NickSo · 02-02-2004, 01:10 PM

Well, i was plannin on making my own S-video cable to replace my 50' run of basic S-video i got from PCCables.com (i thought it seemed real flimsy) where i seperate the four pins into two seperate RG6 coaxial cables.

I went to home depot, and got RG6 cable. It was Belden 9116 RG6 Coaxial cable. And i also went to RadioShack, and picked up all the connectors needed.

It all went smoothly after a few minor setbacks making the S-video to 2xRCA connector.

I tested each individual cable out using them as cmoposite cables, they worked fine.

I hooked up the S-video connectors to them, and used them as S-video. PROBLEM!
The video had a bunch of noise all over the image on my projector (diagonal, wavy lines). I thought it was because I used audio splitter cables to get the Female RCA jacks, so i found some video ones, and tried them out. No luck.

Do you guys think it was the RG6 cable that i bought? I checked online, and realized they were 'CATV Coaxial cables'. Maybe they weren't shielded enough? Or not enough bandwidth for S-video?

Anyhow, im just gonna return the cable (if i can), and try it some other time.

KurtBJC · 02-02-2004, 01:54 PM

I'd probably do a continuity and short test, first, just to be sure that everything is wired up right. But the wavy lines sound like low-frequency noise (like 60-cycle hum), and that could either be because 9116 isn't all that well shielded (60% aluminum braid over aluminum foil, I think) or because you're getting a lot of loss in the 50-foot run which is making the hum relatively more prominent, or some combination thereof...for baseband video, you really should be using a coax with a solid copper center conductor rather than a copper-over-steel job like 9116.

My suspicion would be that it has something to do with connection quality, and that may come up on your continuity/short test. Are you sure you've got the pinout right? If you had the shields and signal pins reversed, that could account for getting hum pretty easily.

Just some thoughts...

Chu Gai · 02-02-2004, 01:55 PM

It's copper over steel and the wrong stuff. You need 100% copper, solid or stranded.

Bob McElfresh · 02-02-2004, 02:01 PM

Uhhhhh did you check with us before you tried this?

If so, I'm sorry I did not respond.

While making RCA cables is find for DIY, it is NOT recommended that you make your own SVideo cables.

There are some issues you need to be aware of with SVideo to maintain the shielding. It takes some really good skills to correctly attach the SVideo plug to SVideo cable. It takes something like master-level skills to use RG6 or RG59 and get things to fit into that tiny plug.

The custom cable sites that I know of use mini-coax to create a "Y" adaptor that terminate in BNC connectors. The RG6 then is used for the long runs.

And even with the mini-coax - you need to have some good skills to get things to fit. Thats why the "SVideo Breakout" cables run $50-$100 - lots of skill is needed.

Sorry you had such problems.

Luitz · 02-02-2004, 04:30 PM

I ran a 60 foot length solder it up no prb. Peice of cake.

Used this ADVANCED PERFORMANCE Series http://66.221.70.217/products/produc...?category=bai0

But it was on a 250ft spool at work

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