Turn your VGA port into a powered USB
This little project over at Instructables is right up the alley of netbook owners. I love how every netbook I can think of offers a VGA port so you can make use of a larger, external monitor when the need arises. Let’s face it though: when you’re mobile with a netbook (isn’t that why you bought it?), you’re not getting anything of value from the VGA jack. Why let it lie peacefully sleeping while you and the USB ports are toiling away when a little bit of elbow grease and soldering can turn this into an extra, powered USB port? The short process looks relatively painless, even for a soldering n00b like myself.
is it really a USB port, or simply a 5 volt out port in the shape of USB? Sorry, too lazy to read orig article on iPhone right now
Oliver, as I read my post, it’s not very clear… my apologies. I took this to be a way to provide power to a USB device, not a way to pass data.
I would assume that it could be used to power some eSATA drives. For example, if I gut my WD Passport’s 2.5″ drive from its USB enclosure I will have an SATA drive that was formerly powered by USB (along with the USB converter). Of course, SATA drives can use 3.3v, 5v, or 12v, so I don’t know how easy it would be to get it working.