I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the LCD
screen (this cable also serves as the substrate for the row decoder/driver
IC). It is a relatively fine pitch cable; I would estimate that there are
about 20 conductors in a 3 or 4mm wide piece of this cable. You can see a
magnified view of the damage at http://nedkonz.dhs.org:8080/Ned/48 .

Although I have a good soldering station (a Metcal with a variety of tips),
I am at a loss as to how to fix this. Note that the end of a small sewing
needle looks large in comparison to these traces, and my smallest soldering
iron tip is at least as large as 3 of the traces.

I could probably stabilize the back side of the ribbon using epoxy or Kapton
tape, but then I still don't know how I'd actually do the connection. I
don't think that conductive epoxy would work here, as it would be hard to
avoid bridges.

Does anyone know if this kind of damage is repairable? If it takes more than
about 2 hours to fix, I would be better off buying a used PDA on eBay...

Thanks,
Ned Konz

"Ned Konz" wrote in message
...
| I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the
LCD
....
| Does anyone know if this kind of damage is repairable? If it takes more
than
| about 2 hours to fix, I would be better off buying a used PDA on eBay...

That one's a bitch. Can you send the Clie back for refund? Can you buy a
whole cable as a spare part?

N

NSM wrote:


"Ned Konz" wrote in message
...
| I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the
LCD
...
| Does anyone know if this kind of damage is repairable? If it takes more
than
| about 2 hours to fix, I would be better off buying a used PDA on eBay...

That one's a bitch. Can you send the Clie back for refund?

No. I got one from my brother after he broke the LCD, and bought another on
eBay knowing that some rows were out. Only paid $20 for it, though, and got
a case that was worth that much that I can use with another PDA.

Luckily, the two (intact) digitizers are probably worth $20 each to people
who broke *those*.

Can you buy a
whole cable as a spare part?

No, the cable is bonded to the LCD glass, and also contains the driver
electronics. Then the cable is soldered to a PC board with more
electronics. Unsoldering the end of the ribbon was easy with the Metcal
knife tip (unsoldered all the connections at once), but this isn't going to
be easy to repair.

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 21:52:35 -0700, Ned Konz
wrote:

I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the LCD
screen (this cable also serves as the substrate for the row decoder/driver
IC). It is a relatively fine pitch cable; I would estimate that there are
about 20 conductors in a 3 or 4mm wide piece of this cable. You can see a
magnified view of the damage at http://nedkonz.dhs.org:8080/Ned/48 .

Although I have a good soldering station (a Metcal with a variety of tips),
I am at a loss as to how to fix this. Note that the end of a small sewing
needle looks large in comparison to these traces, and my smallest soldering
iron tip is at least as large as 3 of the traces.

I could probably stabilize the back side of the ribbon using epoxy or Kapton
tape, but then I still don't know how I'd actually do the connection. I
don't think that conductive epoxy would work here, as it would be hard to
avoid bridges.

Does anyone know if this kind of damage is repairable? If it takes more than
about 2 hours to fix, I would be better off buying a used PDA on eBay...

Well, I used to have such problems with a similar type of cable,
only more in the 'visible range' :-)

The solution I came up with:
Take an appropriately fine needle. Solder a small wire with one
end to the needle and the other end to the appropriate contact on
the stationary connector.

Pierce the needle through the insulation, through the center of
the flexible connector. Test for proper conductivity and fixate
it with araldite or the like.

Good luck !

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

"Ned Konz" wrote...
I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the
LCD
screen


You could buy a new screen:
http://www.gethightech.com/

-Ed


--
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.brighthand.com
News, Views, and "Hands-On" Reviews of Handhelds of All Types

"Ned Konz" wrote in message
news
| No. I got one from my brother after he broke the LCD, and bought another
on
| eBay knowing that some rows were out. Only paid $20 for it, though, and
got
| a case that was worth that much that I can use with another PDA.
|
| Luckily, the two (intact) digitizers are probably worth $20 each to people
| who broke *those*.
|
| Can you buy a
| whole cable as a spare part?
|
| No, the cable is bonded to the LCD glass, and also contains the driver
| electronics. Then the cable is soldered to a PC board with more
| electronics. Unsoldering the end of the ribbon was easy with the Metcal
| knife tip (unsoldered all the connections at once), but this isn't going
to
| be easy to repair.

Wow. I like to say that I can solder anything from Litz wire to a copper
busbar (and have) but this one is a bitch. All I can suggest is to cut the
cable and solder the two cut ends to something manageable. I'd even consider
etching a one off PCB with tiny strips, but perhaps there is also no room
for this.

N

Ed Hardy wrote:

"Ned Konz" wrote...
I have a Sony Clie PDA with a tear in the ribbon cable that goes to the
LCD
screen


You could buy a new screen:
http://www.gethightech.com/

They only have digitizers; I already have two of those that are in good
condition. It's the LCD that I need.

I've repaired a similar problem on other electronics. I picked up some
standard ribbon cable at the local electronics store. The stuff that looks
like a bunch of regular insulated wires all stuck together in a row. I
didn't actually use the ribbon, but stripped off individual wires. The only
reason for not using regular wire was that I couldn't find any in the really
small gage like the ribbon cable has.

I tracked the attach points of the broken connections and sometimes found it
easier to attach the new wires to locations further away from the cable
attach point and routing the wires around things. In order to solder the
very fine points I took a short piece of 12 gage solid copper wire from
standard house wiring and clipped the end at an angle. I tied the copper
wire to the soldering iron with some more copper wire to create a very fine
point soldering iron.

"joeengineer" wrote in message
news:NAo9d.4480$_g6.1901@okepread03...
| I've repaired a similar problem on other electronics. I picked up some
| standard ribbon cable at the local electronics store. The stuff that
looks
| like a bunch of regular insulated wires all stuck together in a row. I
| didn't actually use the ribbon, but stripped off individual wires. The
only
| reason for not using regular wire was that I couldn't find any in the
really
| small gage like the ribbon cable has.
|
| I tracked the attach points of the broken connections and sometimes found
it
| easier to attach the new wires to locations further away from the cable
| attach point and routing the wires around things. In order to solder the
| very fine points I took a short piece of 12 gage solid copper wire from
| standard house wiring and clipped the end at an angle. I tied the copper
| wire to the soldering iron with some more copper wire to create a very
fine
| point soldering iron.

Heathkit had a trick of wrapping a piece of copper wire around an iron tip
to make a very small iron. You could also drill a hole in a standard tip and
drive a piece of wire into it.

NM