28 Jun
2012
28 Jun
'12
4:50 p.m.
On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Rob Jarratt
<robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
What I think you are suggesting is to make up a replacement ribbon cable
with the more usual edge connectors. That is a great idea, but if I am not
mistaken, tooling up to create your own custom ribbon cables can be
expensive, or it might have been that you couldn't easily buy smallish
quantities of ribbon cable. I can't remember for sure now. Still, it
definitely a much better idea than my original one!
As in a lot of situations using the proper tools makes the job much
easier, although the proper tools can be crazy expensive if you buy
them at new list prices.
For assembling ribbon cables I picked up a 3M Scotchflex press setup
from eBay. The Mouser or Digi-Key list prices are
something like
this:
3316 Universal Press, $1976
3458 Locator Plate Riser Block, $735
3443-94 Locater Plate, $741
I forget how much I paid for this setup. Probably somewhere around $75-$100.
My first attempts at building 50-conductor cables with header
connectors on one end and card edge connectors on the other to
interface between a Pertec tape drive and controller resulted in a few
broken connectors before I gave up and bought a proper press.
Ribbon cable is also expensive if you buy it at new list prices. I've
bought new 100 foot boxes of 3M 1700 (rainbow twist), 3302 (rainbow
straight), and 3365 (grey) on eBay at prices I considered reasonable
per foot. If you only need to build a single cable that would be
expensive.
-Glen