S-Video Cable failed- wiring diagram?

[Matt Irwin]

I have an S-Vid cable that just failed on both ends. I unscrewed the protector, and low and low and behold, the solders are covered in rubber. I know one of the wires is luma/ luma-ground and the other is chroma/ chroma-ground, but which one is which?!

Does anyone know of any diagrams out there? I'd rather try and fix it for a few dollars than spend another $70 on a new cable.
BTW the make is Syllax, if that makes any difference.

Here's a picture of the cable ends: *click*

Thanks

[Kyle Ringin]

A quick google for "s-video pinout" gets this http://www.proav.de/index.html?http&...o/s-video.html

[Glenn Chan]

Googled "S-video pinout"

First link:
http://www.proav.de/index.html?http&...o/s-video.html
That's more of less what you want. (EDIT: Kyle beat me to the punch...)

If S-video cabling is expensive, solder yourself S-video to BNC/RCA adapters and use co-axial (i.e. RG6).
cablewholesale.com sells the adapters I believe... I would save time and go with them. If your soldering skills are like mine, those cables will be a lot more reliable.

[Matt Irwin]

Thanks Glenn & Kyle. My soldering skills are nothing to rave about either. I think I will try to fix the cable anyway (if for nothing but practice), but the RG6 sounds like it's worth trying.

[Chris Hurd]

That must be one long cable if it's $70. Have you thought about having a qualified electrician do the repair for you at some local shop?

[Matt Irwin]

It's 25', but it's THICK.
I just might go to an electrician-- have him reenforce the plugs a bit...

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Matt, I'd caution you against trying to refit heads on S-Video cables. The wires and contacts inside are so tiny, it's very difficult to do properly. They have to be solidly soldered and then insulated from each other in cramped space. I once was partly successful in wiring up my own, but it wasn't worth the effort. Some of them went bad, despite my best attempts. I don't think that short-circuited connectors would do your equipment any good and even if no harm was done, if they came undone in the middle of a shoot, things could be unpleasant. Home-installed S-Video or FireWire connectors are just not dependable enough for serious video projects, in my mind. As I've said before, this type of assembly should be left to 10-year old girls, with tiny fingers, who work in sweatshops.

If only the industry had opted for full-sized DIN connectors, instead of the mini type. They're only about 50% bigger in diameter, but that extra space makes so much difference in how well you can wire them up. I'm sure that bit of extra size wouldn't have prevented them from fitting inside even the smaller camcorders. They've gone overboard in the attempt to miniaturize everything to the max.

[Matt Irwin]

Stephen, how right you are.
I tried to solder new plugs on, and... well... screw that noise. I think I'm just going to take the pain and buy a new cable.
Yes, I have issues with the S-Vid plug design too. It's great if it's plugged in and never touched again... but for production purposes it's a giant pain. I've always thought a twist-lock S-Vid plug (like BNC) would be great, but as you said, a DIN plug would be best.

I like your idea about the sweatshops. We should go into business... Asia? India? (c'mon.. everyones going to India!) We could call the company "Tiny Fingers Cable Co." or something. :-) heheheh

[Glenn Chan]

I don't think it's that hard to repair the S-video cable.
Cut whatever part is damaged.
Strip the outer rubber part about an inch and a half. Be careful not to knick the wires inside.
Strip the two wires, undo the shield and tie em together, and strip the wire inside.
Tin the wires with solder.
Solder the wires together.
Tape em up with electrical tape.
etc.

To get the S-video cable/head, get a cheap cable from somewhere like cablewholesale.com

2- What part of the cable broke by the way?

3- The cable might have a lifetime warranty, which may be worth looking into?

[Kyle Ringin]

They can be a bit tricky. You need one of these http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.st...uct/View/T5715

to hold it steady while you solder, otherwise you can get dry joints pretty easily by moving the wire as the solder cools.

[Sean McHenry]

Look at places like TecNec or Markertek for S-Video ends you can solder. They are made to be soldered by humans, those other pre-fab cables are likely done by machines, much like multi-pin camera cables.

For the record, I just spent about 3 days stripping and soldering a pair of multi-pin snake cables to some rather dense 26 pin connectors. Somewhere in Asia, a machine is laughing it's can off over the lousy job I did. I think it will hold but I won't be shaking it about.

The best advice so far is to use 2 BNC cables (better cables and also cheaper) and the BNC to S-Video adapters (not so cheap). As a BNC cable dies, order a new one or make them yourself. Try to keep the lengths exactly the same. You get phase issues if one is significantly shorter than the other.

Sean McHenry

[J. Stephen McDonald]

I once soldered some 32-pin A/V connectors to lead from a camera to a VTR.
To solidly stabilize these solder points, after I had tested the circuits for continuity and resistance, I filled-in the whole area on the back of the connectors with epoxy putty (JB-Weld type). I tapered it down at the back as it hardened and wrapped it behind that with professional rubber electrical tape, to support the bending point of the wires. It's worked without failure for many years in a standalone camera/VTR setup, that gets pulled around hard, whenever I use it.

[Greg Boston]

There's another wonderful product you guys should look into using, especially for insulating connections from each other in close quarters. It's called heat shrink tubing and is available in many sizes and a few different colors, but mainly black. Trying to wrap electrical tape around fragile connections usually results in breaking the connections.

-gb-

[Sean McHenry]

Yep. Used quite a lot of it on those recent connections. I too have filled connectors with things like rubber cement and epoxy.

Sean