Re-soldering very small wires

Thread Starter

boonxiong

Joined Oct 17, 2011
52
Hi everyone,

I think my picture should better explain what I'm trying to do.

This is from a Kodak Zi8.

I would like to extend the display(shown in the Red Box) to say... x amount of length.

In the Blue Boxes, these two parts goes together. I would like to also extend them so I can move the camera around.

Has anyone done something like this? I do have a microscope at 4000x, but it seems even at that magnification, it's still very hard to even attempt to splice the individual wires.

any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You
 

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WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
It's doable, but not easy. You stand a very good chance of messing up something in a non-repairable (or at least not practically repairable) way at some point. Also, you may not be able to extend the length of the connect very far before you start exceeding the capabilities of the interface.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Can you get some better pictures. As those you have now is to dark. But I agree with the last speaker. May be a very hard task to accomplish.
 

John P

Joined Oct 14, 2008
2,025
If the flex cable isn't permanently fixed at either end, you could try looking for a longer one of the same type (same number of conductors and spacing) to replace it. Or you could un-solder the connector from the board and attach wires between the pins of the connector and its pads on the board. That sounds like a job for a brain surgeon!
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Also, you may not be able to extend the length of the connect very far before you start exceeding the capabilities of the interface.

I completely agree with this. We have tried to extend some cables like this for a temporary change and the signal fell apart. Not even High Speed signals in some cases. Some ribbon cables are selected to perform within a few inches of their capabilities. Also, any little solder balls you might leave at the interfaces cause capacitances and attenuate the signal. I had a "brain surgeon of soldering" fail with an SD card cable extension, the extra half-meter of cable length just allowed too much interference. Some devices are designed to work as built, nothing more.
 

PackratKing

Joined Jul 13, 2008
847
I do high-end 35mm SLR and larger format film camera repairs, starting into digital SLR , and routinely solder 32 and smaller Ga. wire,, chips, and others

Trouble being, they keep making this stuff ever smaller, so hand-soldering tools have limitations. Some SMD components on a 10 YO Palm Pilot, are on par w/ a grain of sand... How in blazes a pick-and-place machine can deal w/ them is beyond me !!

Can you post a pic. w/ a machinist' scale - 1/64 " and smaller ? to indicate what you are up against...

This is cakewalk for me, so best I can help with, is how to make solder tips small enough to do the deed...
 
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#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Third testimony about length: The day I calculated the length that an amplifier could drive an audio signal through a cable is the day I realized that all signals have a distance limit compared to the impedance of what is driving them. With todays computer aided designs removing every excess micron of quality out of the products, you can pretty much bet that the signal you are trying to access won't go a foot from the circuit board.
 

Metalmann

Joined Dec 8, 2012
703
...32 and smaller Ga. wire,, chips, and others

Trouble being, they keep making this stuff ever smaller, so hand-soldering tools have limitations. Some SMD components on a 10 YO Palm Pilot, are on par w/ a grain of sand... How in blazes a pick-and-place machine can deal w/ them is beyond me !!

Can you post a pic. w/ a machinist' scale - 1/64 " and smaller ? to indicate what you are up against...


I have designed a few machines to handle very small parts, but that was before all the CAM features were initiated. Manufacturing has really miniaturized, since I retired. Always amazed me how fast they could make those babies run. Without dropping the parts.

I think OP needs some digital dial calipers.;)

Even the cheap, (Less than $10.00), Chinese calipers, aren't too bad these days.

A guy tore the umbilical cord off a large lathe one day, and I had to rewire, solder all those connections back together.
It took 6+ hours to get everything prepared, put into position, solder and then test it.
Had also to fabricate some of the specialized posts. Probably 50 or so tiny wires in that mess. Even a few wires can take a lot of time.

If he has a lot of patience, he'll be OK.:cool:
 
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