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PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:26 am 
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Hi cakalapati,thanks for your post. By the way,how much would be the shipping fee to guam if ever? is this available for purchase to guam? thanks!


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:46 am 
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Hello guys.

This weekend I managed to build my own vga cable.

Because I'm from Germany and I only needed a vga connection to install Ubuntu Server, I thought it would be much cheaper to build my own cable, although I'm not quite firm with building cables.

So, the overall costs for the cable were a about 20 € (I ordered 10 housings and 50 terminals from Farnell). It was not really hard to build the cable, but I had to be very patient because I don't have a crimping tool. I used a normal calliper instead. Getting the terminals to the conductors took about an hour. Putting the terminals into the housing another 5 mins.

For the right pin assignment I used the image of JRock, who posted it in the "mobo header" thread.

My cable is far away from professional work, but it works like a charm and it costs only one third of the cable built by Charles.

So, if you only need a VGA connection, Charles' cable is just an overkill, especially for Eurpeans who have to pay 29 dollars on shipping.
Relating to 1 housing and 15 terminals, my cable is even cheaper than 20 Euros.


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The following user would like to thank panicprone for this post
putzi
PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:52 pm 
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@bodyflesh: Shipping anywhere outside the USA is $29. This, in fact, is not my cost but the cost of the courier.

@panicprone: Congratulations on building your cable! I encourage anyone, if they posses the time, talent and tools, to build their own VGA cable. It's tinkerers like you that make this an amazing site. Well done, sir!

I would strongly suggest purchasing a good crimping tool. One of the lessons I've learned about this cable building service is that it's easy to ship a cable to a paying customer. It's hard to keep those paying customers happy when something goes wrong (and something will eventually go wrong). It's hard to get a customer to write a good review, but its easy to get an upset customer to post a bad or unpleasant review. No one likes to pay for a poorly constructed cable. No one likes to ship it back and have it replaced or repaired. I had some awesome tools when I built my Gen1 cables and I still suffered from a few quality issues (see the Gen1 forum thread) despite my thorough testing.

The Gen2 cables are little more expensive than the Gen1 cables, however, you get a bulletproof, professionally made cable. The pieces are modular and can be expanded in case of future need.

Your concern on shipping costs are valid. It's expensive to get anything shipped (reliably) outside the USA. You providing a service to the European market would be a great service to this site and that market segment. Rather than competing with one another, have you considered perhaps being a European distribution center? It would definitely help reduce some of the the high overseas shipping costs. If you are interested, email me and we can work something out. I welcome any suggestions.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:25 am 
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Good morning Charles.

A "European distribution center" sounds interesting.

BTW, I never wanted to build and sell my own cables, just wanted to try if it's hard to build one, and to save money :D

The only problem is: I'm from Germany, but I study in Austria at the moment. So, I travel a lot of times between those countries because I work in Germany at the weekends and therefore there could be a little delay in shipment. Maybe. :)

But, this could also be an advantage as I could supply both countries with your cables at low shipping costs.

Ok. Sounds good. What do you think?


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:33 am 
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Please send your current e-mail address, the one in your post is returned in error!


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:31 pm 
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@panicprone: I am willing to discuss the terms of a European distribution center to reduce shipping costs overseas, however, let's not talk about this here. I would prefer reserving this thread for questions, answers and comments from individuals who have bought a cable, or perhaps thinking about buying a cable.

@1baltsae: Strange. If that email address bounced back, there may be a problem with the yahoo servers. I just tested them and they seem to be working fine now. Can you resubmit your request? Sorry for any inconvenience.

Edit: panicprone has been unresponsive to personal messages. :cry:


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:42 pm 
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Gen2 VGA cable worked perfectly on my Acer H340. I just plugged my USB keyboard and mouse into the back of my media server and used this cable for my video. Boots up like a normal computer, and allowed me to get into the BIOS.
Anyone find an add-in to change the fan speed on the Acer H340 ?


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:45 am 
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How is it that Sony hasn't shut you down yet? :-k

BTW, check out http://HomeServerHacks.com shortly for an "Inside the new HP Data Vault" article where I show that your cable works fine with the new hardware.

Your http://www.vovtech.com company logo:
Image

SONY Vaio logo:
Image


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:14 pm 
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I’ve read the thread, but I can’t find what does the * refer to in the first post on the line
-- $90.00 USD for the VGA + PS2 Keyboard + PS2 Mouse + Serial* Assembly (The Complete Set)?

Is there some limitation to the serial port on the MSS?


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:04 pm 
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@davebc:
Quote:
I’ve read the thread, but I can’t find what does the * refer to in the first post on the line
-- $90.00 USD for the VGA + PS2 Keyboard + PS2 Mouse + Serial* Assembly (The Complete Set)?

Is there some limitation to the serial port on the MSS?

The star you are referring to is an artifact from the gen1 cable offering that mistakenly got copy-and-pasted over to the gen2 cable offering. Thanks for catching that. I have removed it to aleviate any confusion. There are no hidden limitations of the serial port.


@HomeServerHacks: Ah Donovan, trying to ruffle some feathers. Hope the Home Servidor business is doing well. Say, I see that you have trademarked the word "Home Servidor" yet I cannot find this trademark registered anywhere inside the United States Trademark Office. ;-)

I see no resemblance of that which you speak. I did notice that my logo is so much more beautiful though.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:54 pm 
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I don't have an MSS yet but is there space anywhere that one could mount an external port to plug the KVM connector device into? Perhaps surface mounted neatly with double-sided tape? The KVM device itself only needs to be connected intermittently. A cable with a male connector on one end and the surface-mounted female connector on the other could be mounted semi-permanently.


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:01 am 
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@chriscowles: The least abrasive (and recommended) mounting option is to simply use one of the spare hard drive drawers (as seen pictured on the first post of this thread). Other talented individuals have been successful on various mounting ideas. Jacmay had an amazing mod and I've seen a few pictures of individuals who carefully used a Dremel to carve out a mounting hole, similar to Diehard's Popcorn Hour mod.

Mounting options are a function of of how creative and skilled you are with tools, and how comfortable you are modifying your MediaSmart Server box. I recommend the "spare hard drive drawer" mount, as this is low risk and the least abrasive option.


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:32 pm 
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@cakalapati
This looks exactly what I'm looking for. Does your VGA + PS2 Keyboard + PS2 Mouse Assembly work with the new MSS EX495?


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:46 pm 
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The cable should work flawlessly with the MSS EX495 (as described here), however, I have not personally tested this, so technically, I cannot claim that it does. You will need to set a jumper on the MSS motherboard (as described here). If you are buying the cable for the MSS EX495, I would not recommend buying the VGA-Only cable, as some people have reported that a PS2 keyboard must be plugged-in for a USB keyboard to successfully enumerate. I'm hoping that someone out who owns an EX495 and a cable could better comment on this. Alex, any words or wisdom here?


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:16 pm 
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I have read the other reports, but I've had no issues with a USB keyboard on any MediaSmart Server.

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