Ribbon cable repair?

[Jam]

Is there a way to repair a ribbon cable? Do you just solder in new wires? Thanks for anyinfo

[nosaj]

Is there a way to repair a ribbon cable? Do you just solder in new wires? Thanks for anyinfo

Can you elaborate more? there are several types of ribbon cables some I would attempt repair of and others not.

Got a pic and what it is from?

nosaj

[Enzo]

Yes, tell us more. There are several kinds of ribbons, and they do various jobs. Some amps run the heater current through ribbons, and the two pins with that burn up, but the other 8 pins are fine. In those cases I just snip of the burnt part and hard wire the two boards. SOmetimes rewiring is the answer, many people have replaced the soldred ribbons on Fender Hot Rods with discrete wires.

There are ribbon connectors wher the gray ribbon is pressed down into grooves that grip the wires. These are hard to repair. There are others where pins are crimped onto wire ends and inserted into plastic housings.

[Mick Bailey]

And there's the worst of all (IMHO) - those brown mylar ribbons with etched tracks that are pushed into headers. Solder them at regular soldering temperatures and they curl up, like those fortune-telling fish you used to get at funfairs. Well, at least we did over here in England.

[Enzo]

I have never soldered a fish, but I suspect you are correct. Yes, there is no repairing those things. I have a collection of them saved up from various scrappings, you never know when you need one.

[Mick Bailey]

Here's a link to the 'Fortune telling fish';
http://http://thescienceofreality.tu...h-a-blast-from
And I thought it really was a miracle. Damn the internet.

[Enzo]

Bad link, but I have seen in person, a tic-tac-toe playing chicken.

[Dave H]

Fortune telling fish

[Timpanogos Slim]

And there's the worst of all (IMHO) - those brown mylar ribbons with etched tracks that are pushed into headers. Solder them at regular soldering temperatures and they curl up, like those fortune-telling fish you used to get at funfairs. Well, at least we did over here in England.

"brown mylar" should actually be polyimide aka kapton, which is a lot more temperature stable than polyester/mylar.

I've soldered thin wires and even smt resistors to them at ~315c after carefully cleaning the tracks and applying good RMA flux. Takes a quick hand. But yeah I'd rather not.