Neck Ache: Part 1

When I stopped by the cable company QCM inc. and talked with one one of their very nice employees. Long story short, it was going to cost at least $100 for them to do it. However, due to the non-ribbon style cable that came in my new, new monitor, he said it should be easy enough to solder it myself and save myself the money. However, he was kind enough to demonstrate the proper technique and leave me with a bag of pre-cut shrink tubing.

With my knew knowledge, I sat down to make it all happen this morning. Five or so hours later, I've learned a lot, but haven't gotten very far.

I started out by dissecting the video cable that runs through the neck and discovered a few things about it. First off, taking the insulation off of the grey cable, there are 4 wire groups. Each group has 2 wires and one hidden wire: 2 hair thin wires and the shielding around these is the third.

As you can see, these wires all have golden ends. This is because I used an x-acto knife and pried up the little tabs on the on the plastic connector and gently pulled them out intact. This is a very smart thing to do.

Unfortunately I only had the brilliant insight to do this on the top. On the cable coming out the bottom, I cut it before having time to think about it. Please, this is a public service announcement: DON'T CUT THE EFFING CABLE!!! Sorry. I don't like when people use all caps, but seriously, this is important and I am very sorry that I cut the cable. Anyway, yes, if you don't cut the cable, use a small flathead screwdriver to peel back the steel cover.

You will then clearly see it's just another plastic connector with the little gold pins in it. Like before, grab the trusty x-acto knife and peel up those tabs. You'll be treated with this beautiful display of pretty gold bits!

Congratulations! You've just made your soldering life 400 billion trillion billion times easier! I on the other hand am going to suffer as a result of my incompetence. Aren't you glad I get to suffer for you? :)

Well now that that's done, we're still 1 wire short. The new, new monitor's cable requires 22 wires. The iMac's cable, despite the clever shielding trick, only has a total of 21 wires. So it's time to crack the neck and add a new cable. Heads up: this part sucked.

So I wrapped the neck up in an ethernet cable to ensure it didn't explode on me (Fun Fact: turns out they don't explode, they implode). Then using the fantastically made bits I had made, I unscrewed and removed the screws.

Now at this point, it's very important to know which way's up. I didn't know. Thus, as alluded to by my fun fact, it imploded. It wasn't really that bad, but it took blood, sweat, and tears (ok, not tears, but blood and sweat) to get it back. I didn't take any pictures of this due to extreme anger and frustration, but if this happens you to, find a small headed flathead screwdriver with a long, sturdy handle. Stick the blade of the driver into the hole on the back and use it as a lever to align the two holes. Make sure the two pieces click back into position, and you're good to go.

Ahem! So, when you remove the weird 3 pronged screws, underneath them, there are holes. Three of them have one hole. One of them has two. Make sure the one that has two holes is face up. That is the top. If you have it face down, you will have to go back and read the grey instructions above as to how to fix your imploded neck assembly. Two holes = face up.

Once it's all open, get comfy and begin attempting to thread your new wire. It's hard. I threaded a twisted pair of wires I scavenged from some spare ethernet cable I had laying around. The thinner the better, cuz it's a tight fit.

I started out by pushing the pair up through the bottom, and grabbing it with a pair of needle-nosed pliers and pulling them through. (again, sorry no pictures of this, I was still cooling off from my state of rage) That was pretty easy. Getting them through the top was a pain though.

First, unscrew the three screws.

Top View

Once the three screws are out, you can pull the end bit up, away from the neck to make it easier to thread the wires. (as much as I tried, I couldn't get it to actually come off, which is too bad because that would have made life easier, but oh well.) So take the new wires and push them down the hole where the other wires are going and pull them out with a pair of pliers.

Bottom View

Keeping the end bit separated from the neck as much as possible, bring the wire around and push it through the back. After trying a few (hundred) times, I finally got it. Pull the excess wire through and make sure it curls up nicely next to the other wires.

Then just snap the top bit back in place, re-screw the screws, put the neck back together and you're ready to get your solder on. However, I'm done for the day, but stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

Keep in mind, this whole wire-threading process took me about an hour and a half. This thing it built to withstand a nuclear blast and there's not a lot of extra room. Good luck.