Serial seat power?

[aviationteacher]

Hi everyone--first post for me, so here goes.

I recently came into possession of a pair of ex-Northwest Airlines business class seats from a DC-10. One in the pair has a video monitor that comes out of the armrest. The monitor is labeled "Northwest Worldlink", a defunct system aboard early 90s long-haul NW airplanes. There is also a remote control on the side which has several buttons like flight attendant call, light, and video selecting/game controls -- but I believe that feature was long turned off/disabled.

Coming out from below the seats are three cables: an electrical (black)-wrapped 9 pin male serial cable, a soft sided silver wrapped wire containing nine very small thin cables, and a red/white cable which I believe is for the headphone jack.

Any thoughts on which is the power and which is the remote? How was it powered? And, if possible, can I get it running again or send a signal to the monitor?

Thanks! See attached photo of the serial cable and wrapped wire.

UPDATE: I found the US Patent and electrical designs...hopefully someone can decode it for me.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US5311302.pdf

 

[Gryd3]

Hi everyone--first post for me, so here goes.

I recently came into possession of a pair of ex-Northwest Airlines business class seats from a DC-10. One in the pair has a video monitor that comes out of the armrest. The monitor is labeled "Northwest Worldlink", a defunct system aboard early 90s long-haul NW airplanes. There is also a remote control on the side which has several buttons like flight attendant call, light, and video selecting/game controls -- but I believe that feature was long turned off/disabled.

Coming out from below the seats are three cables: an electrical (black)-wrapped 9 pin male serial cable, a soft sided silver wrapped wire containing nine very small thin cables, and a red/white cable which I believe is for the headphone jack.

Any thoughts on which is the power and which is the remote? How was it powered? And, if possible, can I get it running again or send a signal to the monitor?

Thanks! See attached photo of the serial cable and wrapped wire.

Assume it's wired to the same standard as the RS-232 and possibly cook something...
Or take it apart enough to find the main-board those cables go to.
Lots of hints on the actual board to determine what may connect to what.

Keep in mind... that is may not be serial. It could just be using the connector.
If you are lucky, someone with experience with those seats might swing by.

 

[kellys_eye]

The pdf doesn't show any indication for power lines which must be 'assumed' ..... (I presume). Nothing for it other than to pull it apart!