Comments on: USB power from your VGA port

By: Firewire Usb Hub

Firewire Usb Hub — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:51:02 +0000

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

By: TheBakachan

TheBakachan — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:41:30 +0000

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

By: blizzarddemon

blizzarddemon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:38:38 +0000

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.

By: Obama

Obama — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:22:25 +0000

I am barack obama and I approve this article

By: GMGFARRAND

GMGFARRAND — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:34:43 +0000

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!!!

By: chris

chris — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:51:51 +0000

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.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:09:42 +0000

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

Awesome idea.

By: tom

tom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:19:36 +0000

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

By: TJHooker

TJHooker — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:55:17 +0000

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

By: Ragnar

Ragnar — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:44:23 +0000

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!

By: cde

cde — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:59:52 +0000

@ 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/

By: nubie

nubie — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:40:06 +0000

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)

By: Kiwisaft

Kiwisaft — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:39:04 +0000

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

By: ret784

ret784 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:55:37 +0000

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.

By: skullfire666

skullfire666 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:01:00 +0000

sweet stuff