"productized" VGA board

Werner Almesberger werner at almesberger.net
Wed May 4 13:09:48 EDT 2011


In private communication, Victor has also raised the question how to
turn ubb-vga into something a little neater.

I made a draft of how I imagine one could build a mechanically sound
connector that plugs into the Ben's 8:10 card slot. This is what the
front the PCB would look like:

http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ubb/vga/vga-ben-front.png
http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ubb/vga/vga-ben-back.png

The board outline is shown in yellow. The yellow rectangle in the
board is an opening. This is how a VGA cable would be attached:

http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ubb/vga/prod-assembly-draft.png

R, G, B, hsync, and vsync would connect at the top. The corresponding
ground wires (each signal has its own ground return) would go through
the opening and connect at the bottom. The shield could be soldered to
the large pads on the side (not shown).

The cable itself would be firmly attached to the PCB with a cable
binder (black striped). Then the whole thing could be sealed with
silicone, heat-shrink tubing, etc.


The idea is that this be as small a connector as possible, to keep it
from acting as too much of a lever on the Ben's 8:10 card slot. The
VGA cable is also able to carry quite some mechanical force, but at
least it's flexible.


The main problem is still the soldering of the cable, which is messy
work, as far as industrial production is concerned. The whole thing
could be efficiently produced as a kit for assembly by the user, but
many may bark at all the soldering.

A partially assembled board with all the SMT resistors soldered may
look less intimidating but would also be considerably more expensive.
And the cable would still have to be soldered.

Ideas ?

- Werner




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