[sdiy] newbie questions: ribbon cables

[harrybissell]

Hi Juju

Are those the type of ribbon cables with the DIP socket ends ???

If so you can buy cable assemblies from Digi-Key pre assembled in
various lengths. I'd recommend those. They cost a little bit, but ribbon

cable is hard to work with unless you have the proper tools.

The foil shield may have been to prevent RFI from getting out, ie to
get agency (FCC) approval.  In a "one-off" especially in a metal box
you may not need it.

I'd unsolder the ribbon cable connectors from the board and replace
them.
I'd consider mating sockets, but that may be hard to do ???

H^) harry

juju selwyn wrote:

> (advance apologies for cross-posting in all relevant forums I
> subscribe to)
>
> Could anyone offer some advice on working cleanly with ribbon cables?
> The last hitch in my current project (see below) is an essential
> existing ribbon cable that connects one PCB to another. It's much too
> short to incorporate into the design. Given that this isn't a $3
> thrift toy, the cable goes into the main PCB very close to some
> essential IC's, and I don't have a lot of existing cable to work with,
> I'd like to do as clean and minimal of a job as possible. I'm trying
> to find out as much as I can, and I'll probably hack up some old IDE
> cables later today for practice. What kind of tool should I use to
> strip the ribbon?
>
> The project is a new housing and modifications to an Alesis SR16 drum
> machine. I have an additional one with a fried power section to
> cannibalize, but it's been pretty unnecessary. However, this one
> connects the ribbon cable using a socket on the bottom board and a
> chip-like interface at the end of the cable - I haven't been able to
> test it yet, but in theory the top part of the assembly of the dead
> one should still work, so I'm considering using that. The functional
> unit has a fixed interface of some kind. I've made a crappy scan of it
> that you can find at the URL below:
>
> http://www.misterkargill.com/sr16ribbon.jpg
>
> Note that the cable has some kind of shielding. Although they are
> essentially the same in design and both marked Revision F, the
> functional, the functional unit was manufactured about five years
> after the non-functioning unit with the socket design. My guess is
> that this change was made for both cost efficiency and reduction of RF
> - I've heard of socket-based designs causing problems because of the
> later. SO, if I'm able to extend the length of this cable (hopefully
> by about, say, 8-10") I'm guessing that I will need to extend the
> shielding somehow as well.
>
> If you were able to bear with me here and have anything to contribute,
> I offer my most sincere thanks in advance.
>