Trying to solder the ribbon cable on the display ended up breaking the ribbon cable. The cable looks like it’s a bit corroded inside anyway. Is there any reason I can’t just solder 30 tiny wires of appropriate length to the display pins and also to the pins on the ribbon cable slot? It won’t be pretty, but is there any good reason why it wouldn’t work?

If they are $10 for a set, I will buy at least 10 sets. Are you on the PVB Discord server? Way more activity there, I am a 100% sure that if you post there, you could get enough interest for at least 30 sets or more.

Wouldn’t surprise me if you get enough interest for a 100 sets though.

hello,
just what the force81 says iff you can drop the price to around 10 $ for a set
I also will take atleast 10 sets

greetings

i am sorry i whas tinking that this cables where almost ready for plug and play ( but after talking i hear that it need still soldering )
i need to cancel then ( i am not that good in soldering )

mawa wrote:
hello,
just what the force81 says iff you can drop the price to around 10 $ for a set
I also will take atleast 10 sets

greetings

mawa wrote:
i am sorry i whas tinking that this cables where almost ready for plug and play ( but after talking i hear that it need still soldering )
i need to cancel then ( i am not that good in soldering )

mawa wrote:
hello,
just what the force81 says iff you can drop the price to around 10 $ for a set
I also will take atleast 10 sets

greetings

…You do realize that there will never be a non soldered solution for this unless someone produces a new, compatible LED board, right? My aim is to make the tough part of VB restoration as easy and painless as feasible as possible.

Besides, my fourth iteration for this is in my head and will get underway when I get home in a few hours.

…You do realize that there will never be a non soldered solution for this unless someone produces a new, compatible LED board, right? My aim is to make the tough part of VB restoration as easy and painless as feasible as possible.

Besides, my fourth iteration for this is in my head and will get underway when I get home in a few hours.

I considered asking if it makes sense to fit the LED boards with ZIF sockets, but that didn’t really make any sense; if you have to get in there and do soldering anyway, just make a permanent connection; it’s going to be just as difficult, if not moreso, to retrofit a socket.

And, as nice as it would be to have readily-available replacement cables, until, as you said, someone starts producing replacement LED boards, I think the only market for these will be people who screwed up their originals during a repair job.

nmalinoski wrote:
I considered asking if it makes sense to fit the LED boards with ZIF sockets, but that didn’t really make any sense; if you have to get in there and do soldering anyway, just make a permanent connection; it’s going to be just as difficult, if not moreso, to retrofit a socket.

And, as nice as it would be to have readily-available replacement cables, until, as you said, someone starts producing replacement LED boards, I think the only market for these will be people who screwed up their originals during a repair job.

Not necessarily. When I added an RGB out to my VB, I noticed that the original cables were starting to crack and decay, something that I also verified with my other VB consoles. The cables are the main point of failure in this console, and I like making PCB layouts, so I figured “Why not?”.

Alright, just finished my fourth (and ostensibly final) workup of the VirtualCable. I absolutely loathed EAGLE at first – now, I kinda love it.

Now to wait for the fab houses I contacted to get back to me for a prototype run.

Attachments:

1. 

   virtualcable-2.png
   

Wow cool. RetroDan is back! Nice job on the flex cable.

I can’t do the work, but I know someone who does them as a cheap fix the current way ($10 an eye) right now. He has come across a few failed heating method fixes that wrecked the ribbons and left him with spare bits and pieces. This would be very welcome. I think in general they probably would be a wise investment as the old ribbons aren’t exactly real high gauge thick stuff like old IDE PC ribbon cables by any means.

[RetroDan]

I’ve found a fab house, and…

YES. I can manage $10-ish per pair. Obviously, this does not include shipping, but within the US, that shouldn’t be expensive at all.

Now, before I get ahead of myself, obviously, I still have to order prototypes, but if the prototypes work out well (which they SHOULD), then I’d like to place an order for at least 50 sets (100 cables).

Cross your fingers.

EDIT: Prototypes ordered!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by RetroDan.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by RetroDan.

I’d be interested in a few pairs!

Finally!

My left eye has had broken scanlines for years now. They don’t seem to corrode symmetrically at all as the right eye is still pristine… but for how much longer?

LOL, Eagle has a learning curve alright. You could always try DesignSpark so you don’t have to have Autodesk installed.

If you’re selling, I’m buying 😀

Just got word that my prototypes are slated for production on March 12th. I’m also finishing up with some fine tuning on the design c/o the fab house I’ve picked.

Everyone is being added to a prospective buyer’s list. Once I’ve verified the prototype and tested them, I’ll send out blanket PMs.

Also, for dedicated repair guys – if you buy 15 sets or more, you get a 15% discount (not including shipping).

I will use the cheapest SAFE method of shipping, which for most people will be Priority Flat Rate boxes at about $7.25 or so. International shipping will be per country with an eye to costs and protection.

nmalinoski wrote:
I considered asking if it makes sense to fit the LED boards with ZIF sockets, but that didn’t really make any sense; if you have to get in there and do soldering anyway, just make a permanent connection; it’s going to be just as difficult, if not moreso, to retrofit a socket.

You know, I looked into this, but dismissed it. The reason why is simple:

The LED board contact pitch is decidedly non-standard – no off-the-shelf ZIF connector that I can find uses such an oddball size. To take advantage of this, you would have to go through the entire manufacturing process for a unique ZIF connector, which is STUPIDLY expensive. Like, on the order of tens of thousands of dollars expensive.

Otherwise, that would actually be a brilliant idea.

I would love to buy a pair once everything gets going. Would love to finally play my VB!

So glad to see this Dan. You can add me to the prospective buyer’s list too (2 sets).

and just an FYI if you buy these and dont want to risk damaging your displays installing them just PM me. i can install them for you. ive fixed over 200 VB consoles.

btw id also like to pre order these so add me to the list. thank you 😛

Please add me to the list (3 sets)

Yikes. I just got a quote back from one of my many potential fab houses (the last and latest one to reply). They want to charge me $2000 for fucking TOOLING.

NOT. A. CHANCE. I don’t care if they make the cables out of liquid diamond – they can go suck a bag of dicks! Definitely not going to be using THEM.

Nes Freak wrote:
and just an FYI if you buy these and dont want to risk damaging your displays installing them just PM me. i can install them for you. ive fixed over 200 VB consoles.

btw id also like to pre order these so add me to the list. thank you 😛

How many are you interested in?