I've hit a dead end in my mod. On the lcd screen, an old kogi, there is a little brown "ribbon" type cable with about 21 wires in it. (I was a bit tired, I'll do a better count later) It connects the bottom vertical controller board to the horizontal controller board, but the wire is only about 1 inch and I need to make it about 6 inches.

Is there any simple extender that I can buy? Or am I stuck with making my own? Will just any type of wire be sufficient, or is there a place to buy some already made ribbon cable that I can just solder on? I have never really soldered much before, so for something this small would a 15W iron be sufficient, or something more? Thanks in advance.

I'm willing to bet that you won't find a simple solution to this one. I'd fabricate my own. Before you attempt it tho, call kogi http://www.4kogi.com and speak to one of their technicians. You may have some luck getting a little info out of them.

Post edited by: krusher117, at: 2004/12/19 00:19

Well, slight problem there is that Kogi no longer is in business, it was bought out by GVision a few years ago, and unfortunately all Kogi stuff has been discontinued.

As far as fabricating one: is a 15W iron sufficient? Any suggestions as far as that goes? Thanks.

Post edited by: tjh, at: 2004/12/19 00:40

Anything that will melt the sauder to the contact points and wire should be enough. You really don't need a higher wattage iron for what you are doing anyways, because you could damage the board or ribbon.

Though if you find that it doesn't stick, try using a knife and scratch the top of the contact. Just barely enough, but it can help if you get a point where it just does not want to stick.

My suggestion is to take the ribbon out of the equation if you can and use wire strait from board to board. The ribbons are hard to come by and in case something happens, you will have the backup.

Did a bit of practice soldering on an old ethernet card. But when I finally brought the lcd over to use I realized that there is no way that I'm gonna be able to solder onto the tiny, and very close together, leads. I think my best bet is gonna be to cut the ribbon in half, and splice in some other wires. So my next question is: how the heck do you get to the wires in this stuff? seems the plastic has a very high melting point and it makes it very hard to access the wires. What's the best way to get at those little copper wires inside? Any ideas? Thanks.

Are you referring to the video feed ribbon cable?
Is there a strip connector on the end?
Just get some ethernet cable strip it and shove it into both connectors before you start cutting things up.
I do not have a picture in my mind of what the Mod is that you are working on.
But it is my practice to do none destructive investigation first, see if it works then make the permanent modification that will fit into the design.
Joseph

Agreed, I haven't cut anything on the lcd yet, just playing around with some ribbon cable from an old PB that is extra. Not sure what you mean by the video feed cable, or a strip connector. The cable is a flat, brown, somewhat see-through cable with 20 copper (2 millimeter wide) wires in it. The connection on the end is a bunch of silver flat connections which plug into a little clip that is manually closed on the other side. I'll see if I can't get some pics up in a bit.

Edit: here are the links to the pics (didn't want to embed for people on dialup etc.)

http://members.cox.net/tj53/wire%20and%20connector.jpg

http://members.cox.net/tj53/ribbon%20wire.jpg

http://members.cox.net/tj53/connector.jpg

http://members.cox.net/tj53/solder.jpg

Post edited by: tjh, at: 2004/12/19 08:35

I've seen people do it before. It's possible, but you may need to practice some more, and possibly get a finer tip for your saudering iron to do the job.

It would be my thought that if you cut the ribbon then take some new wire that you have melted the smallest bit of solder to the ends of, you could piggyback the extension wire onto the preexisting connector.
You would then do the same thing to the other side.
Make sense?
Also here is a link to a company that sells ribbon and connectors you could probably just go out and buy a longer one, as an option, (not as much fun).
http://www.fujikura.co.jp/elect_material/frame_h_e.htm

photo- thats what I was thinking as far as splicing goes. big problem there though is that the copper wire inside is very brittle and the plastic, or whatever it is, on the outside is ridiculously durable, and I haven't yet figured out a decent way to get it off while keeping the wire intact.

whitlock- as far as soldering goes thats what I think I'm going to try first, as it would be the least destructive. But just wondering what you would suggest as a tip, or place to get a better one. The one I currently have is small, but certainly not small enough.

Post edited by: tjh, at: 2004/12/19 09:56

I am assuming you are referring to the ethernet cable (cat. 5)
If that is to much of a pain get a firewire cable, cut the casing off and use the internal wire.
As far as a soldering iron goes, just take the tip and file it down until you get the right size, don't forget to re-tin the tip after filing.

Well, I haven't tried the cat. 5 idea yet, but I was referring to the ribbon cable, as it is near to impossible, as far as I can tell, to reliably splice the ribbon cable to get a good connection.

Great idea with the filing down of the tip, hadn't thought of that.

Post edited by: tjh, at: 2004/12/19 10:38

If your piggybacking the new wire to the connector you don't have to "splice" into the ribbon cable

What the ribbon cable allows is to have wires come from one board to another in a very narrow passage. If your mod will not have a narrow passage, just take wires from one board to the other. Remove the ribbon cable if you can. If your mod still requires a narrow space, then work with it, but if not go with straight wire, and no splicing required.

It should not be too hard, and I would suggest getting a 'solder sucker' that is meant to remove solder. Well, technically it's called a Vacuum Desoldering tool. Kind of looks like a syringe that you point at it and when you hit a button, pulls the hot solder into it. It's like $8 at Radio Shack. It will make removing the cable and ZIF connectors pretty easy. The part number is 64-2098 if you need it.

Don't forget you can always cannibalize a ribbon cable from something elise.
Even if it is a 30 wire ribbon, cut off the ones you don't need, or gang 2 10 together, to make do.