Wednesday, September 5, 2007

VGA over Cat-5 ethernet cable

It's possible to send a VGA "video" signal down an ordinary Cat-5 ethernet cable. This is possible for two reasons: firstly, although VGA connectors have 15 (or 13) pins, only about 8 wires are actually necessary to send the VGA signal; and secondly, ethernet cable is twisted pair, and we can use the magic of twisted pair to push the analog VGA signal further than spec. The diagram above shows conversion from HD15 (VGA) to RJ45 (an ethernet socket). A similar adapter is used to convert back again. Connectors are shown from the solder side. This diagram assumes your Cat-5 cable is crimped in the standard way (not as a cross-over cable). Detail...
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