Torn Flat Ribbon Cable - Can Anything Be Done?

[Paralel]

I have one of those awful orange, semi-transparent flat ribbon cables that were used for interfacing hard drives and floppy drives back in the early 90's laptops. Looks like this:



The damn thing tore on me, and I'll be damned if I can think of anyway to repair the stupid thing. I'm hoping someone else has run across this before and knows of a way to fix it. Unfortunately, it happens to be a custom cable for a laptop, and the laptop itself happens to be a rather uncommon model, so buying another one just isn't an option.

 

[Malc]

Search for " Flexible Flat Cable " on ebah or google it, I hate those type of cables, Had lots fail years ago in old laptops, They tend to go brittle with heat and age.

 

[Paralel]

Unfortunately, it isn't the same on both ends, the contacts are spaced out on one end, but they are bunched together and smaller on the other end. No stock cable would work.

 

[eeguru]

If you have a pair of calibers, it would be a pretty straight forward project to translate the design into an EDA tool (like the FOSS KiCad). iTead will make flex circuits up to 10 cm for a pretty reasonable cost.

 

[bladamson]

Can you desolder the connectors on both ends, replace with single pin headers, and use one of those rainbow cables with dupont connectors?

 

[modem7]

I have had to do repairs like this in vintage keyboards. For each damaged track, I would use a scalpel (fitted with a curve edge blade) to slowly scrape away the track coating on both sides of the crack (to expose the copper). Then I would bridge the crack by soldering on a small length of wire-wrap wire (insulation completely removed).

 

[Paralel]

Can you desolder the connectors on both ends, replace with single pin headers, and use one of those rainbow cables with dupont connectors?

I wish, but unfortunately, they picked flat ribbon cable because it is in an exceptionally small space.

I have had to do repairs like this in vintage keyboards. For each damaged track, I would use a scalpel (fitted with a curve edge blade) to slowly scrape away the track coating on both sides of the crack (to expose the copper). Then I would bridge the crack by soldering on a small length of wire-wrap wire (insulation completely removed).

This is what I am hoping I can avoid, if at all possible. However, it may well come to this.