Ribbon cable not long enough!

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

How would i go about making this ribbon cable longer or replacing it with something at least 3x the length? Soldering it is out of the question, the pins are far too small for my unsteady hands. Any bright ideas?
image

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

anyone?

 

[Slick5150]

edit: Nevermind, I didn't look at the picture first. No clue

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

one last bump

 

[Mrvile]

Wow that looks tricky, I don't even know what part of the comp that is.

 

[Rike]

What are you working on? I've only seen ribbon cables like that when I open things like a CD drive. Did you take something apart and it's not going back together? If you post a pic that shows the bigger picture of what you are working on, there is a remote chance I could help. No promises though.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Wow that looks tricky, I don't even know what part of the comp that is.

Maybe the guts of an LCD display?

Sorry, no idea. Looks like some sort of custom connector.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

its an LCD panel i took apart, i just want the LCD itself, no back lighting or anything. in order to use it i need to extend the cable between those PCBs that plug into two sides of the LCD in order to swing them apart and out of the way so i can use a new light source un-obstructed.

 

[Rike]

Sound like your work on the Tomshardware LCD projector project. Am I right?

The insert point at the white connector looks like a pretty standard connection, I've seen lots like them before. Your best bet is going to be to try to extend the existing cable. If I can I'll try to find out what the cable is called and if it can be extended. It may take me a couple of days, I'm pretty busy this time of year.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

thats exactly what i'm doing, thanks for any help you can offer. i'm going to work on finding a nice solding iron with a narrow tip to try doing this myself.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

that being said, can anyone give me some pointers on how to solder such small contacts, if its even advisable? i'm actually a 2nd year electrical engineer major but i've only been doing easy logic stuff on breadboards thus far.

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy
that being said, can anyone give me some pointers on how to solder such small contacts, if its even advisable? i'm actually a 2nd year electrical engineer major but i've only been doing easy logic stuff on breadboards thus far.

http://warmcat.com/milksop/soldering.html that may help....smd are small too..

 

[Rike]

Nice link TechoKid! AWhack if you can find a cable that's long enough, the technique on that link might just work if your handy with an iron. I'll still look to see if I can find anything.