[sdiy] Exposing traces in ribbon connectors

[The Peasant]

Hi Steve,

I have done extensive repair of this type of ribbon, but I have access to an 
excellent backlit binocular microscope, which helps a lot. I carefully scrape 
the coating off of one side with a scalpel or very sharp exacto knife, with the 
blade at about 90 degrees to the ribbon. The ribbon should be braced from 
behind with a hard flat surface. I then solder wires to the traces with paste 
type solder and a very fine iron tip at low heat. Application of a conformal 
coating completes the repair.

Take care,
Doug
______________________
The Electronic Peasant

www.electronicpeasant.com


Quoting Steve Begin <trypannon at hotmail.com>:

> I'm not sure if i'm using the right term here...but I'm referring to those
> flat plastic interconnects that are typically yellow-brown and are
> essentially a very thin strip of metal surrounded by plastic.
> 
> Does anybody know of a way to expose the traces?  I was thinking of trying
> some very fine grit sandpaper, or ideally a solvent that dissolves plastic
> but not copper.
> 
> Hopefully some of you nice fellows will have some experience in this matter,
> 
> Thanks,
> Steve