Repair a Hdmi Cable

Alright, here is the situation: you just installed a 5 meter Hdmi cable in the walls of your office. (or home) Then you come to the discovery that someone stepped on the Hdmi connector. Connector kaput....  What can you do?

- Well there is the option of breaking open the wall and replace the Hdmi cable. NOT... 
- Or pulling a new cable through the walls with the old one but this situation involves a corner,
  which makes that option impossible as well.

- Then there is the "getting a new connector and solder it on cable" option, unfortunately I could not find someone who did this before.

So here is my motivation to share my experience with you since this is my second time that I have done this....
Here goes....

This is what you need:
(give or take)

- Solder Iron
- Solder
- Desolder wire
- Second Hdmi cable (optional)
- Hdmi to hdmi connector (optional)
- Hdmi connector
- Tyraps
- Sissors
- Extra power cables
- Multi meter
- Aluminium  (optional)
- Crocodile clamp assist (thing)

2/3 hours...
Some soldering experience...

First we need to know which connection is going where, since both Hdmi internal connections are the same (no twisted wires or anything like ethernet patch cables) the pinout is very straight forward.
1 is going to 1
2 to 2
3 to 3
etc....

But ones the cable is cut you cannot measure which wire comes from which pin, so I used a multimeter to check which wire belongs to which pin. I used a little wire to make a connection with the end that was still working, the front of the Hdmi connector has little holes where you can push the test-wire into. (see photo) Thats the way to make contact with that end. (I used some tape to hold it in place, not professional but it works.

Next photo is the setup, I set my multimeter for 20K since I dont a have beeper mode on it.
It will only show that there is practically no resistance when you hit the right wire. (0,00)

You can use a wire diagram but I found out that many dont seem to be the same or are not the same as my Hdmi cable, so I recommend using this procedure because it should always be right!

Next: Peel of 2 cm from the cable and get some room between the wires....
As you can see we have a few wires (for display detection, 5 volt power, clock speed and data) in beautiful colors.
And 4x 2 pairs of wires in a colorfull metal shield, these are the data wires for the picture and sound.

Before you begin, slide the first part from the connector on, its a common mistake to have the connector in place and then realise that you needed to slide that one on first. Then strip down the metal shields of the wire pairs so they will be exposed, next remove about 3mm of the inner wires so the core will be exposed. (do this with all wires)

I used sissors to strip the cables but you can use any tool you like to strip the cable.

Next: try to line up the first pair of wires to the connector, first measure which one you need with the multimeter and then align them up to the connector. I used my crocodile clamp assist to keep things straight. (I used tape to protect the cable from the crocodile clamp)

First I did some solder on the contacts and on the wires.
After that you can hold them together and push them in place while heating the contact on the connector..
The 25 watt soldering iron was more then enough, (maybe to much) for the job...

Work from left to right (or right to left)
If you dont you could end up like photo 3, with to much sodler it will touch the contact next to it and change into one big solid lump.
This can be corrected by using desolder wire...

After a a few wires you could be in for a suprice, some of the wires can bearly make it to the contacts.
(going through all the other wires) This should not be a really big problem, just try to place the wires in the shortest way from cable to connector...

And done, I was left with two ground wires, which I cut off. The other end shoud still be connected to ground so that doesnt really matter. (I hope)

After searching on the internet for a Hdmi connector I found out that there wasnt anything with a cable strain relief.
Iam not sure why but do they think that 15 small wires are going to hold out?
I replaced another connector two months back because it malfunctioned after working for two months...

And for some reason my cable is a lot thinner then the exit hole in the back of the connector (of course there are many types of Hdmi cables out there but you would think they thought of that when they designed this connector) Not sure what to think of this...

And tata...  a fully functional connector, but we are not there yet...
Test one more time ALL connections to make sure you do not have any wires twisted or connected wrong.
You dont wanna blow the Hdmi connections on your computer or television.

Some additions:
I took some precaution and ordered a Hdmi to Hdmi connector and another 3 meter Hdmi cable.
The idea is that when the cables breaks down (again) the only thing you have to replace is the 3 Meter cable (which saves you a lot of trouble)

To hold it all together I used some tytrips and a alumilium strip.

Then we put the hole assembly into the wall, since the walls are hollow we have enough room to put it all in there without bending anything.
After closing it all up there is nothing to be seen, but if this cable breaks we can connect a new Hdmi cable within 10 minutes.  


And there you go, running a signal through a 5 meter long cable with a self-soldered connector, then through a Hdmi to Hdmi connector and then another 3 meters to the Imac with converter.
I tested it with a 1080P trailer and there was no scrambeld or strange picture to be seen, proves that Hdmi is a good and solid protocol.

Way to go Hdmi...

Bytheway a nice tip that I've got from from c0lin was to get one of these:
http://www.infinitecables.com/pop/wpk-hd1-d.htm

And I have seen comments about using glue as a strain relief, I have something to say about it: DONT DO IT!
It didnt work with any glue I used (including hot glue) and I ended up doing al this a second time.
The cable itself and the connectors are so smooth that any glue you would use has trouble sticking on to it.
That is why I left it out and used the aluminium and Tyraps approach.

For more tips (untested) look at the comments below (first page)