Topic: Ribbon Cable Repair?

[Steve]

I had to take apart one of our toughbooks (our CF-18) and the "metal" at the tip of the secondary keyboard ribbon flaked off when it was removed. Can i "cut" the tibbon and re-expose metal? Or repair it somehow?

[Rob]

I had to take apart one of our toughbooks (our CF-18) and the "metal" at the tip of the secondary keyboard ribbon flaked off when it was removed. Can i "cut" the tibbon and re-expose metal? Or repair it somehow?

You can usually get away with cutting it and re-exposing the metal, depending on the type of cable. If there's some metal left at the tip you can also cut the end off so that the exposed metal reaches to the tip. I know I haven't explained that well...

[Steve]

It's just a keyboard ribbon, but it wont type properly without it. So can i cut it and then use a razor blade to expose the metal? The damn cable is so short to begin with.....

I'll take a pic real fast

[Steve]

http://www.acebailbondsmi.com/images/ribbon.jpg

[Rob]

http://www.acebailbondsmi.com/images/ribbon.jpg

Oh shit. That doesn't look good. Sorry. You could try and solder some thin wires on to what's left, but I've tried that in the past, and it's too easy to melt the ribbon. I think you'll find that on that type of ribbon you can't expose metal by scraping too.

Can you get another keyboard?

[Rob]

By the way, you didn't try and jam it in with a shim or something, did you?

[Steve]

By the way, you didn't try and jam it in with a shim or something, did you?

and there in lies the issue. The only untough thing on these stupid models is the retainer lever and they break constantly. The fix is to slide the cable into place, slide the shim under the table, and then tape it down. The thing had started to scrape a tiny bit when i removed it so i was careful, but it didnt matter. I could get a keyboard, but they are f'n expensive. About 1/3 of what a whole new toughbook would cost....

[hans]

By the way, you didn't try and jam it in with a shim or something, did you?

and there in lies the issue. The only untough thing on these stupid models is the retainer lever and they break constantly. The fix is to slide the cable into place, slide the shim under the table, and then tape it down. The thing had started to scrape a tiny bit when i removed it so i was careful, but it didnt matter. I could get a keyboard, but they are f'n expensive. About 1/3 of what a whole new toughbook would cost....

I believe you were supposed to answer "no" to that question.

[Steve]

Well i didnt try and jam it at all, but i did try and use a shim per the long standing success of other TB users doing it lol

[Steve]

fuck it she's already screwed so im gonna go for it and see what i can do

[Steve]

i made it worse. lucked into a good deal on a keyboard for it though, $15 shipped. Gotta be much more careful with the next shimming.