My Cable Extension

[elstcb]

We used a 24 way straight connector - ref 459-6634

We did indeed put two cables into one connector which when closed neatly pushed all the wires on the FFC together, it was a bit awkward to do but didn't require soldering / glueing. The join was nice and firm and despite removing the screen from our box several times has never fallen apart.

If you go down this route then it probably doesn't matter which sort you get as the pins are never used on the socket, it acts as a clamp and nothing more. I've attached a photo - sorry about the quality, I'd have taken a new one but I can't find the FFC leads to do it.

We used a type A cable so that when the contacts were squeezed together in the clamp/socket it didn't invert the order of the wires when plugged back into the PCB.

Counting the number of wires in the lead that you need to extend can be tricky (as some wires account for more than one connection), I seem to recall we took a very close up photo of the socket on the PCB and counted the solder joints along it.

From the looks of the other photos posted in this thread it seems other people are using the straight sockets with their glueing / clamping methods so using this sort means you have a few alternative approaches if you decide against clamping two cables into one socket.

HTH,

Steve

[eilz]

I will order the components and try, thanks a million for yours and everyone help on this.

[eilz]

One last thing, If I connect to two FCC Cables together like you did, then at the free-end of the FCC cable would have contacts changed round.

E.G

Pins 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20

XXXXXXXXXX (connector with two FCC Cables put in together)
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (FCC cable 1)
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (FCC Cable 2)
1..............20 (Pins)
**********
********** (FCC Cable Wire)
**********
**********
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII (final extended FCC Cable)
20............1 (Pins as it now upside down)

XXXXXXXXXX
1..............20

With two FCC cables connected into one connector would make the free end of the FCC cable

Pins 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-0-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

And so If I tried to put in back into the Connector it would be WRONG NO?,
q1 : Can I put the cable in in any direction on the Connector, or can it only fit in with either contact up or down.
q2 : Does the FCC cable have the 20 contacts on both sides or just one.

If q2 is both then I do not have the problem

If q1 is yes then I do not have the problem

I hope this makes sense.

I will order the components and try, thanks a million for yours and everyone help on this.

[elstcb]

I chose a type-A cable so that the pin order remained the same afterwards, I am not sure how the pin order would change if you clamped two sockets together though. Hopefully someone else here can shed some light on this?

The FFC cables only have their pins exposed in one side, they can also only be put in to the connector in one direction, so to answer your questions:
q1 - one direction only
q2 - no, just one

If you do find you get a reversed output then you can always extend it twice to reverse them back again to their correct order. Messy but at least it will work!

[eilz]

Yes, brill I never though of doing it twice to reverse it back.

Thanks

Eilz