the cable was too short for the DIY projector, so i cut it in half, tried to reconnect it, with no luck. so i took the entire thing off, and saw that the numbers matched on both sides, so i very carefully soldered small thin wires, connecting each coresponding number on each board, and im still getting nothing. when i short a couple of wires, the screen goes black, but it does nothing besides that.
any body know if theres any special qualities to the foil cables that i cant do with regular thin plastic coated wire? if not, im assuming there must be another problem, but it did work fine, before i cut the thing.
thanks
-Mike
any body know if theres any special qualities to the foil cables that i cant do with regular thin plastic coated wire? if not, im assuming there must be another problem, but it did work fine, before i cut the thing.
thanks
-Mike
The thin foil ribbon cables are just about impossible to put back togather, accidentally breaking them is the bane of DIY projection. You can't solder the cables directly, the leads are too small.
Whether you can solder new wires on at the source, I don't know.
Whether you can solder new wires on at the source, I don't know.
FFC cables
I don't think FFC cables have any special quality that would make replacement with wire impossible. Some of the signals might be a bit noisier just by being closer to another signal wire without a ground trace inbetween. I think it would still work most of the time. You probably just don't have them connected in the same order. Of course, it's possible that some permanent damage has been done to one or both of the boards. So even if you did connect it correctly, it still might not work.
Just for future reference, instead of cutting an FFC, see if one side goes into a socket. FFC sockets are usually Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) types. Some have a plastic bar that is pushed down into the socket along with the cable to lock it in place. You need to find the release mechanism to pull it back out. The other kind use a hinged flap that closes down onto the cable to lock it in. Find the release mechanism to let it open at the cable end.
Once you get the cable end loose, you can use an FFC cable extender to make the whole thing long enough to rotate the circuit boards up and away from the LCD. No soldering needed. You can get FFC cable extenders from lumenlab, diybuildergroup, mouser.com, or digikey.com in the US. There are other sources in EU, asia, Austrialia, etc.
I don't think FFC cables have any special quality that would make replacement with wire impossible. Some of the signals might be a bit noisier just by being closer to another signal wire without a ground trace inbetween. I think it would still work most of the time. You probably just don't have them connected in the same order. Of course, it's possible that some permanent damage has been done to one or both of the boards. So even if you did connect it correctly, it still might not work.
Just for future reference, instead of cutting an FFC, see if one side goes into a socket. FFC sockets are usually Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) types. Some have a plastic bar that is pushed down into the socket along with the cable to lock it in place. You need to find the release mechanism to pull it back out. The other kind use a hinged flap that closes down onto the cable to lock it in. Find the release mechanism to let it open at the cable end.
Once you get the cable end loose, you can use an FFC cable extender to make the whole thing long enough to rotate the circuit boards up and away from the LCD. No soldering needed. You can get FFC cable extenders from lumenlab, diybuildergroup, mouser.com, or digikey.com in the US. There are other sources in EU, asia, Austrialia, etc.
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