Need help identifying trace

Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
Hey guys, I dont know much about this stuff and Im looking for a little help.

I want to have a small quantity of tiny chips/boards made to trigger button on a previous existing board. Its the button in red. I guess Im having a hard time tracing it out. Im not sure what the black stuff is that the trace runs into. Is it just where a bunch of traces run together? Or is there some type of controller in there?

My ideal plan was to make the chip connect of the other end of the cable. Im having a hard time making the trace since I can't see under the black area. If there is some sort of control in there I dont think I would be able to grab it from the far end of the cable then.

Any help would be great.
 

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Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
Yeah thats the stuff. So if there is a controller in there I can't grab control of the buttom from the far side of the cable like in the other photo, right?
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi,
The switch pad you have circled, is just an normal open switch contact.
The wide copper track looks like the 0V/Gnd trace.
So if you attach another mechanical push button switch from the narrow trace to 0v, it should mimic the PCB switch.
Is this what you are asking.??
E
 

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Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
My goal is to make a chip that will trip ("press") the button when the board the button is on sees power. I don't want to mechanically press the button. Just curious if this is actually possible. I was hoping the control of the button could be grabbed from the far end of the cable.
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi.
Checking that 14 pin connector and ribbon cable, I do not see any spare pads/tracks.
One way way to do what you want is to add a thin wires that run along side the ribbon cable and remote connector.
How do you plan to control the remote switching.?? eg: logic level, etc ????
E
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
That button pad tracking is a simple switch, when the button for that pad is pressed, the pin its connected too on that MCU is pulled down to 0V, the MCU detects this grounding of the switch and the MCU carries out the programmed action.
 

Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
Im not sure what that means exactly. I dont really know about a lot of this stuff. I wanted to make a small chip that would take power from the cable. When my new chips sees power, it would trip (electronically press) the button.

confused enough.jpg
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
OK, I know its not easy to follow, so lets try it a different way
Can you find a direct connection from the switch pad, you have ringed in Red' that connects to that flexi ribbon cable and the other end that connects to the 14Way edge connector.?

BTW: what is this controller PCB designed to do.?

As a note: the MCU black chip will be preprogrammed to carry out specific actions, you cannot change the programming.

Update:
I guess you realise it not easy to see the PCB tracking on those images, if I was looking over your shoulder, I am sure we could crack it a minute..;)
 

Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
It controls functions on a camera. When the power gets turned on, I want it to trip the button automatically. The board which is shown sends a signal through the cable once the button is pressed and the camera sees the press and makes the adjustment.
 

Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
Im trying to send my own signal that the button is being pressed, when it sees power, but I want to do it at the end of the cable if possible.
 

LesJones

Joined Jan 8, 2017
4,174
I think to be able to do that you would have to reverse engineer the communications protocol between the MCU on the button board and the board that it communicates with. I think that would be a VERY difficult task. Why can't you do it like your picture in post #15 ? You have the power wires to both power your extra circuit and trigger it. You could make it very small using a surface mount microcontroller (And very little else.) such as a PIC12F1840 or ATtiny13A (Or probably also one of the 6 pin devices in those device families.)

Les.
 

Thread Starter

torqueflight

Joined Dec 8, 2019
14
I guess I could do it like post 15. It would have to be very small since I dont have much space there. Thats why I wanted to move it to the far end but ill settle for whatever works. I just need to figure out where the power comes in down the cable (negative and positive).

Now that we have that figured, I need the new chip/pcb/controller to press the button twice when it sees power. Not sure yet but it might even have to wait 1 or 2 seconds once it sees power to make the 2 button presses. Not sure on that one yet.

How small do you think this could be? I only have like 1/4in by 1/4in space.
 
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