Finally got my cable prototypes! As you can see, this is v1.3, whereas I am on v1.6, with a v1.7 being a possibility. Nothing changed, functionally-speaking, between iterations, only some ease-of-use features and a few aesthetic issues.
Initial Thoughts:
Initial tests look pretty good – everything lines up, continuity is there.
Prototypes don’t come with a stiffener, but some 0.15mm thick painter’s tape brought the thickness up to spec. The actual run will have a proper stiffener.
The material used in the prototypes is less malleable and tougher to work with than the FR-4 I’ll use in the finished project, making soldering a bit of a challenge. That’s fine; nothing unexpected there. The bend radius is pretty awful, though, again, this has already been addressed in the final.
I’m currently working on a few projects and waiting for about half of the people interested in this project to get back with details, but after that, we should be off to the races!
Attachments:
I have been wondering why several of the prospective buyers haven’t responded. I’m only now realizing that, somehow, I never actually PM’d some of them.
Derp! Mea culpa; PMs have been sent out.
In addition, I’m planning on adjusting the order and sending it in by the end of May at the latest, with an estimated in-hand time of the second week of June. Of course, if enough people respond sooner, I can send the order in sooner, and get the parts in quicker.
So here’s how this is going to go down:
When I put in the order, I’ll shoot PMs and emails to those who have indicated interest. Now, I’m not going to demand payment before I send the order in, but it would definitely help. I’m dropping quite a bit on this project up-front, and between this and my recent 3D printer purchase, I’m not going to be buying model paints for a bit. Obviously, I will require payment before shipping.
Looking forward to seeing this through!
EDIT: If you’re interested, but didn’t PM me or get a PM, there’s still time to be added to the list! You have until May 31st to let me know your shipping address and how many pairs of cables you’d like. Orders close on June 1st, 17:00 US Central Time. Cost is $11/pair, with $7.90 shipping in the US, and exact shipping per-destination outside of the US.
As of right now, the five users who still have not responded to my followup interest check have been dropped from the list. Sorry, gents – poor communication makes me uncomfortable as a seller.
Fish17 wrote:
Dan,I signed up but no longer need one as I had NESfreak do his welding fix.
Just wanted to give you a heads up.
Best Regards,
Fish1717
That’s perfectly alright. Not to disparage NESfreak’s work at all, but he is working with 23 year old cables. Time will get to them eventually, no matter how excellent his work. My project is oriented towards a slightly different solution – new cables, installed correctly this time around, which should add another quarter-century onto the VB’s lifespan, or just about the time that the chips on the VB start failing due to age.
Okay a quick update:
I’m putting the order in at the end of May, so any changes to quantity or new orders need to be in to me by 17:00 US Central Time on June 1st. Estimated time for production and shipping to me is about ten days (I love DHL).
I’m thinking of making a slight modification to the design, based on my experiences with the prototypes. First, I’m considering adding a strip of 3M tape under the solder end to assist with stabilization and to help protect against pull damage. If I did this, though, the cost would go up yet another dollar per pair, so I’d like buyer’s inputs on that.
Secondly, I’m trying to see if I can get castellated holes at the solder end of each cable for ease-of-installation. The prototypes’ main problem was that they were very thick, being almost 0.25mm thick at the solder end, which is almost double what they should be. In addition, the solder ends terminated on the top layer, leaving a barrier of polyamide between the pads of the cable and the pads of the board. This made installation extremely difficult and time-consuming. By ending in castellated holes, there will be direct metal-to-metal contact for a solid solder bond, eliminating this issue. I’ve sent a potential revision including this off to my fab house for pricing.
Alternately, I could design an alternate version as a single-layer cable. In this option, the LED board and cable pads would be pre-tinned by the user and pressed together, held by 3M tape, and then soldered by pressing a wide solder tip to the back of the polyamide. This would be more difficult to pull off for the end user, but would provide an amazingly strong connection.
Let me know what you think!
