Camcorder cable extension for sculpture

Thread Starter

Vashember

Joined Jun 4, 2008
1
I wonder if you could advise me on how I can create a flexible cable so that I can move the screen away from the body of a RCA VHS-C Auto Shot 400x Digital Zoom camcorder. I am building a interactive sculpture and would like to move the screen about 6’ feet away from the camera. I took the unit apart and there is flat flexible printed circuit cable connecting the unit and the 2 ½’ screen. The 3/8” transparent plastic cable has about 20 tiny printed circutes going into flat mini connectors.

Is it possible to purchase lengths of such cables and connectors or
make a flexible cable with the printed circuit?

Or, just finding another unit and take the male and female connectors and somehow adding fine copper wires to make a long enough cable. Of course I am worried that the extra wire lengths will create too much resistance to transmit to the screen 6’ away. Also, soldering the copper wire into such fine mini connectors seems pretty difficult.

Looking for any ideas, thanks Vashember
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
What you want is called a "ribbon cable." You'll need to know the exact number of conductors, not merely an estimate. And yes, soldering the thing will require quite a bit of skill.

Resistance of the #24 wire found in ribbon cable is around 1.2 Ohms per thousand feet. Six feet would have a resistance of around 7.2 milliOhms, which would be negligible. Copper is an extremely good conductor.
 
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