Turn Your PS/2 Mouse Cord Into an S-Video to RCA Cable.

Ever wanted to see video from your computer in your TV but you don't have an S-Video to RCA cable? First I want to tell you - you can always buy one, they are really cheap but if you don’t want to buy one and you have a DIY spirit...

You’ll need:

Screwdriver
Old mouse
Needle-nose pliers
White glue
Wire (the one used for phones)
Soldering iron and solder (should I add soldering skills)
RCA connector (new or from old cable)
Multimeter (optional)
470pF ceramic capacitor (optional)

Step 1:

Open your mouse; it will probably have one or two screws (they may be under the sticker).
And cut the cable connector.

Step 2:

With the pliers break and remove the plastic tab and pins 1 & 2 in the PS/2 connector. It should look like the image:

You can also try to bend pin 1 towards pin 6 (then just solder a wire to pin 6) but the connector may loosen when you connect it to your computer port due to the depth of the connector.

Step 3:

Cut a small piece of wire, it should be large enough to reach pin 6 from pin 1.

Put a small amount of glue in the cable and paste it so it is on top of pin 1 and touches pin 6 like this:

Step 4:

Place the soldering iron tip in the middle of the wire and wait the plastic to melt so the wire stays safely placed in the connector. Don’t let the cable go too deep in the plastic so you can put a bit of solder between pin 6 and the cable. I recommend you to tin the tip of the solder first and then just rapidly touch the contact between the cable and pin 6.

The wire in pin 1 should make a good enough contact without the need of solder, if you have skills you can try to solder pin 1 to the cable but to avoid frustration I wouldn’t recommend you to do it ;)

Step 5: (optional)

Do a continuity test with a multimeter or a couple wires and a LED or lamp to test if pins 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all connected to their respective cables (the color codes may vary, check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_connector).

If pin 6 shows no connection put the tip of the solder in top of the cable at pin 1 until it makes contact.

Step 6:

Solder the mouse cable to the RCA connector, wires from pins 3 and 4 should go to RCA Ground, and wires from pins 5 and 6 should go to RCA Signal (additionally you can solder a 470pF ceramic capacitor between the cable from pin 6 and RCA Signal but it’s usually not necessary)

If you are using and old cable, do a continuity test to find which cable is RCA Ground and which cable is RCA Signal.

Step 7:

Test the cable.

The weak spot of this cable is the connection between pin 1 and 6, if you have any problem keep trying to connect them. I have had no problems with it yet.

If the cable works OK then just take a bit of white glue and pour it in the bottom of the PS/2 (AKA S-video :) ) connector with a toothpick so everything stays in place.

Remember that this cable only transports video data, if you want audio you'll need to connect other cable (Audio Jack to RCA maybe) or use your computer's sound.

For audio you can use the other part of your RCA cable and an Audio Jack to make other adapter (tip: 103pF ceramic capacitor), but that's another story...