My only concern is that someone will plug in a current hogging device. I’m not sure of the video card +5V protection circuitry, but using the port without some protection circuit on your end is a little stupid. At least put in a low wattage resistor that can blow. The +5 rail is rated for at least 300mA and upto 1A.

I found this from http://www.circuitprotection.com/04Databook/C17_video_(133).pdf :

“Devices that comply with the DDC host system standard typically provide supply voltage on pin #9 of the standard 15-pin VGA connector. The voltage is 5V ±5% and supplies a minimum of 300mA to a maximum of 1A.”

Posted at 11:56 am on Nov 26th, 2008 by ngth

I only thought one thing when I saw this. WHY?!

Posted at 12:02 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Spork

who here has unused VGA ports?

Posted at 12:16 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Elliott

Why? Because we can. The same question is applicable to most hacks shown here.

Really though, this adds an extra charging port to small netbooks and such which may only have two. Also is supposedly gives you more than the 500ma that you get from a normal USB port, so you can charge devices faster and such.

Posted at 12:18 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Mike

I would better do a Y-USB-Adapter
one female only connected to the power cords and the other straight thru to the host port
most usb ports offer slightly more than 500 mA, if more current is pulled, most of them just start pulsing instead of instantly shut down. the real shutdown of the port mostly is near 900 mA. at least on boards I’ve tested

Posted at 12:19 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Kiwisaft

@elliot

Pretty much everyone with a laptop does.

Posted at 12:19 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Mike

and I doubt that a VGA port gives you more than 500mA. imho USB is the port that provides most power on 5V, maybe firewire supplies more.
and of course USB 3.0 will give you 900mA on HighPower Ports ^^

Posted at 12:22 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Kiwisaft

i would like to make one purely to confuse the fuck out of people.

Posted at 12:24 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by dan

@spork

Comment post from author on http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/26/conceptually-simple-hack-turns-vga-port-into-power-only-usb-sock/:

gmgfarrand @ Nov 26th 2008 1:24PM

THANKS for the comments!!!
The main use was to be able to power my LENOVO DVD Burner which has the option not only to use a DC brick, or power from USB. So I power it from the VGA port and use only ONE of my USB ports for the data.

Or, since they hardly ever give you a power supply with a compact USB hub, I modded the power jack on it with a MALE USB plug so that I can power it off my VGA port. :)

BTW, there wasn’t alot of planning involved.
I just looked over at the EEEPC 1000H on my desk and thought “hmm… I wonder…”

Posted at 12:28 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Carl

“i would like to make one purely to confuse the fuck out of people.” -dan

You’re logic is what confuses me.

Posted at 12:49 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by jimmie

thats awsome! well done.

Posted at 1:06 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by jared

firewire gives 12V (not 5V)

Posted at 1:20 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by woodmouze

awesome idea. it’s great for netbooks and laptops, which looks like what it’s been designed for. Heck, I’ve got a 15″ MBP (last model pre-unibody) here that’s my main work computer, and I end up taking my iPhone charger around with me to LAN parties ’cause the darn thing has 2 USB ports, and I store my games and music on an external drive… which takes a USB port for power. And I need an external mouse… so yeah.

i would assume it does, but anybody know for certain if a dvi port has similar current available @ 5v? I’d even be willing to step down from a higher voltage via a 7805 just to be sure I’d have enough current available (I *do* use the port every once in a while, and I can’t afford frying anything). I’ll probably just have to look it up, plus my current configuration isn’t really that bad anyway… it’d just be nice to not have to plug into the wall for it.

Posted at 1:20 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Matt

@Matt:

Per the DVI spec R1.0, the “+5V signal is required in a DVI compliant system… the power pin must be able to supply a miniumum of 55mA and the monitor may not draw more than 50mA.”

To be on the safeside, don’t do this hack on your DVI port.

Posted at 2:29 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by ngth

@woodmouze Firewire is unregulated. It can be anywhere from 5 to 30 volts.

Posted at 2:46 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Jynx

carl and mike, some good points, guess I had already thought of that when I bought the lenovo, the model with an optical drive built in. (If you were worried about weight or power drain, you could remove it)

I was thinking about a desktop PC. Extra USB ports there are easy to come by.

Still, that was just my initial reaction.

Posted at 3:22 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Spork

I really like this hack, I’ve got two Eee’s, a year old 701 and a week old 900, along with a slimline USB DVD/CD burner which happily runs off one USB port when reading but needs 1.5A when burning, so I’ll have to give this a try to see if I can get one/both of my machines to burn a DVD without requiring a 1A+ 5V PSU plugged into the burner.

Posted at 4:53 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by Haku

@haku:

See the first comment that i posted today. I would not recommend it because it supports up to 1amp. You’re saying your burner requires 1.5A… do it at your own risk i guess.

Posted at 6:24 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by ngth

sweet stuff

Posted at 7:01 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by skullfire666

At last, a hack! :)
@Elliott, my video card has 2 output ports, so yes, this is indeed useful in a lot of circumstances. Now, I wonder if you could arbitrarily control the DDC channel from software and actually attach a smart device to the port. Why occupy one USB port when there’s a free DVI/VGA one.

Posted at 10:55 pm on Nov 26th, 2008 by ret784

you could use pin 12(I2C_DAT) and pin 15(I2C_CLOCK) for something smart ;)

Posted at 12:39 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by Kiwisaft

Sorry, I have 3 PCI-E video cards in my PC, and all the “VGA” ports are in use :P

(it is a $50 nforce4 board, nothing special, two of the cards run on PCI-e x1 with a simple physical mod)

Posted at 1:40 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by nubie

@ ret784, you can. The vga/dvi/hdmi uses the power pin along with ground and two i2c pins for communication. That i2c channel can be tapped. On some linux and macs, you can use the i2c yourself, but you need the correct settings.

check out http://www.paintyourdragon.com/uc/i2c/
and http://jaffar.cs.msu.su/oleg/ddcci/
and http://ddccontrol.sourceforge.net/

Posted at 1:59 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by cde

Good hack, with a little circuitry to protect (polyswitch-fuse) I’d consider this a last resort type of power-supply, but in deed it is one. Good thinking!

Posted at 5:44 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by Ragnar

Social order is scary. Makes me glad I have skills to compensate being a natural born reject.

Posted at 5:55 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by TJHooker

what about using the dcc (which is actually i2c) to connect an usbcontroller… so one could have a real additional usb port… :-O

Posted at 6:19 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by tom

The only thing that would make this better is some sort of fuse or protection of some kind.

Awesome idea.

Posted at 7:09 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by strider_mt2k

Everybody here likes recycling old gear so it should be said that in old VGA ports (not sure how old) pin 9 is a key pin and there is no power.

Posted at 8:51 am on Nov 27th, 2008 by chris

Hey GUYS!

I’ve been coming to this site for YEARS, and I am glad that my random act of boredom actually resulted in something useful. :)

I posted on the INSTRUCTABLES site that there will be a newer version in the next week or so that has protection on it, just in case.

Also, just for giggles, different colors of rubberized coating.

Thanx!!!

Posted at 7:34 am on Nov 29th, 2008 by GMGFARRAND

I am barack obama and I approve this article

Posted at 6:22 am on Nov 30th, 2008 by Obama

To Elliot, there only implying that the average user now uses DVI or HDMI to output video. Though I still use both in tandem for dual monitors.

Posted at 12:38 pm on Dec 8th, 2008 by blizzarddemon

Somewhere, I have a cable that draws +5v from the PS/2 port. It was to power a Xircom parallel port ethernet adapter.

A while back, I rescued a number of such devices, for grins, from otherwise being ground up, compacted, and sent to Africa or something. They make great little enclosures…but I’m going to hold on to one or two of them in case I ever need quick ethernet access to a junky old box.

I’ve had a bad mic fry the mic input on my motherboard (Just after I could have returned the board!), so in general I’m wary of doing something like this unless I know it’s safe… I’m far more likely to take a couple few minutes to build a +5v regulated power supply with a USB port output. But that’s just the geek in me. :P

Posted at 7:41 am on Dec 21st, 2008 by TheBakachan

Hello, tnx for your precious post about firewire usb hub, well done!

Posted at 9:51 am on Jul 24th, 2009 by Firewire Usb Hub