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I can't find an answer to this anywhere so I thought I'd ask around here.

I need a cable with 13 or more wires in it, preferably with a DB-15 or DB-25 connector, but I can't find one anywhere. I grabbed some DB-25 serial cables but they only had 6 wires in them (not all pins are used), and I can't find a reliable way to discover how various cables are wired before I cut them in half and find out myself.

Anyone know a cheap source for 13+ wire cables? Preferably thin and black. I can also just get the cable and wire up D-sub terminals, but I wouldn't know where to start to look for this...

Any help or resources would be much appreciated, thanks.

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How about ribbon cable in DB25 connectors? search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/cable-assemblies/d-sub/… – kenny Apr 8 '12 at 16:15
Would do it in most circumstances but this is for a video game controller... ribbon is too ugly. I think this should work amazon.com/Belkin-Straight-Thru-Serial-DB25M/dp/B00004Z5MT/… – granto Apr 8 '12 at 18:03

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

A DB-25 cable with only 6 wires is probably configured as a nullmodem. Try to find a straight EIA-232 cable for connection between DCE (Data Communication Equipment, i.e. modem) and DTE (Data Terminal Equipment, aka PC), this should have all 25 pins connected.

A DB-15 VGA cable should also give you 13 wires, but return ground for red, blue and green may share the same wire (they shouldn't).

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Thanks, I'll look around. As far as I can tell most VGA cables I find are 12 wires: 8 signal + ground, and 3 RGB. Also, I need 13 wires with small diameter.... – granto Apr 8 '12 at 16:03
Also if you take a look at the cables I bought here, it seems to be a DCE to DTE, no? There's just something I'm not getting here. techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/… – granto Apr 8 '12 at 16:13
@granto - not clear from the description on the site. Anyway, a nullmodem cable is for connecting DTE to DTE (PC to PC). – stevenvh Apr 8 '12 at 16:16

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