What kind of connector does the Gamecube use for its Digital A/V port?

June 23, 2010 10:40 AM

Help me, electrical engineers: What kind of connector does the Gamecube use for its Digital A/V port? How do I find out who made the connector for Nintendo?

I'm trying to make a custom cable that connects to the Digital A/V port on the back of the Nintendo Gamecube. The only official cables made for this port were the Component Video cable in the US and the D Video cable in Japan, and both are exceedingly rare (and expensive on eBay).

To make my own custom cable, I need to source the physical connector. It's hard to search for, because I'm not certain how to categorize it. Gamesx has a great page describing the pinout with pictures of the plug, and another page showing how to make an RGB cable from an official cable. However, there's no part number or manufacturer logo on any part of the connector.

It bears a very strong resemblance to a type-A HDMI connector, in that the plug side has two rows of contacts on a plastic tab, and the cable side has a metal shield with plastic filler and tiny square holes over each contact. What's the generic term for such a connector? How might I find out who made the connector for Nintendo?

Even if Nintendo invented a completely unique connector that no one used before or since, they must have hired one of the big connector manufacturers to make it for them.

I've searched through several connector manufacturer websites, including Tyco, FCI, Amphenol, Molex, and Hirose, to no avail.

posted by LightStruk to Technology (6 answers total)

This should help quite a bit, but be warned, there's a DAC in the component cable, which is why it was so expensive.
posted by Oktober at 10:54 AM on June 23, 2010

Response by poster: Burhanistan, there are two different jacks on the back of a gamecube - one for analog signals, and one for digital signals. The analog cables are very, very common, and the digital cables are very, very rare. I've already got a Gamecube and the analog cable that came with it.

Oktober, I know how the official component cable works; I'm trying to build my own cable, and to do that, I need the physical connector on the end of that cable. I'd prefer to get that connector straight from the manufacturer.
posted by LightStruk at 12:32 PM on June 23, 2010

My point is that (1) there were never any 3rd party component cables for the cube so (2) you're going to need to hack up an existing component cable to get the DAC and board from it, so if you're trying to do something unconventional, more power to you, but if you're just trying to avoid paying ebay prices for the cable, you're probably SOL.
posted by Oktober at 1:25 PM on June 23, 2010

I'm also thinking you might be SOL without that DAC chip. I searched to see if you could utilize the digital out directly but if anyone has successfully done so, I didn't find it. If it is possible you might have to open the unit up and solder wires to the board, and run a cable out through a hole or vent*.

This page has a description of the connector as well as the DAC chip, but unpromisingly says The DigitalAV connector carries digital sound and digital component video. Neither signal is useful by itself

*I have seen people do this with Dreamcasts to run a VGA out but the Dreamcast has native VGA support, unlike the GC, unfortunately.
posted by 6550 at 3:26 PM on June 23, 2010

Also, kind of a sideways option here, but you may want to consider a decently-speced PC with the dolphin emulator, you're getting a much, much higher image quality out of that than with an actual cube/wii.
posted by Oktober at 9:17 PM on June 23, 2010

If you want component out - I would just go with a Wii, plays GC games.
posted by wongcorgi at 10:21 PM on June 23, 2010