Interfacing with plastic flex cable

Archiver

Hi all,

I wondering if anyone has any tips for making electrical
connections to that plastic flex cable that seems to be all over
the place these days. It appears to be laminated plastic with
conductor traces inside.

How can one tap into the traces in this stuff? Anybody been
experimenting or have any tips. So far I've come up empty on this.

Thanks,

Michael Burr

Archiver

I had a printer head cable once, of the 'flex' type,
which I wanted to solder wires to. This can be done.

First, you have to get to the bare copper inside the
flex ribbon. I did this by removing some of the
flex insulation with sand-paper, until I saw bright
copper. (This probably won't work with carbon
traces, BTW)

Next, you need to 'tin' the copper. I used my
'standard' 30 watt iron, with fine solder, and went
as quick as I could -- don't want to heat the trace
any longer than you have to.

Next, you 'tin' the end of the wires you want to
connect. Next, one at a time you hold each wire
against the tinned place on the flex cable, and
heat the wire until the solder melts. Immediately
remove the iron, but hold the wire in position
until the solder cools.

This solution was ugly, but very effective. I
got a set of wires that could have crimp terminals
added, so I could build a single row connector
with them. Once successfully soldered, you can
use hot-glue to improve the physical strength of
the connection, and to insulate it.

--- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, Michael Burr <mburr@b...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I wondering if anyone has any tips for making electrical
> connections to that plastic flex cable that seems to be all over
> the place these days. It appears to be laminated plastic with
> conductor traces inside.
>
> How can one tap into the traces in this stuff? Anybody been
> experimenting or have any tips. So far I've come up empty on this.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Michael Burr

Archiver

Allan Lane wrote:

> First, you have to get to the bare copper inside the
> flex ribbon. I did this by removing some of the
> flex insulation with sand-paper, until I saw bright
> copper. (This probably won't work with carbon
> traces, BTW)

Sand-paper... of course! Thanks Allen thats a good tip I hadn't
thought of.

Michael Burr