Help Needed

[FuntimePhil]

hiya guys, i brought a is200 stereo off eBay for 99p, guy said it was err3. as i fixed mine before i thought if i could fix this one i could resell and make a tidy profit. Well, when opening the stereo i noticed the orange ribbon strip has snapped, i would imagine this is what is causing the stereo to not work. my question is, what is this thing actually called, can it be fixed, or can i buy a new one? see pics below

Thanks in advance

[Neil Hunter]

that would be called a ribbon cable. I doubt you'd fix it (may be possible if you extremely good with a soldering iron!)

Could be a good idea to find another broken stereo and swap them over.

[fjcfarrar]

Easy to fix by anybody in electronics who uses a soldering iron. So ask around your friends.

[Fugu]

Yeah this should be easy, there are only about 6 breaks!

first thing you need to do is support the break for the back, some hard clear plastic would suffice.

Once supported above and below the break, look at melting the ribbon cover slightly with a soldering iron so you bare the metal, then you have 2 choices you can either piggy back a cable or you can use liquid metal.

[fjcfarrar]

Yeah this should be easy, there are only about 6 breaks!

first thing you need to do is support the break for the back, some hard clear plastic would suffice.

Once supported above and below the break, look at melting the ribbon cover slightly with a soldering iron so you bare the metal, then you have 2 choices you can either piggy back a cable or you can use liquid metal.

Don't expose the metal by melting - that probabaly won't work. Nor will liquid metal which isn't conductive. Scrape to expose clean metal "strips" with a scalpel. Then solder on lengths of very thin, flexible insulated wire to bridge each of the gaps. The wires have to be long enough to allow for any folding the ribbon cable needs when installed in the stereo and also stay separate. Use a small low-power soldering iron with a small bit (2-3mm) and thin, flux-cored solder and do it quickly to avoid melting more of the "Backing" than you have to. You can get all you need from Maplin's. If you haven't any soldering skills, you will probably wreck it. After the electrical repair, hold it together & insulate the lot with thin flexible tape - brown, wide parcel tape is good for this. Sounds complicated but only takes a few minutes to do this.

Don't get your hopes up. The ribbon cable was probably damaged when someone tried to investigate why the stereo didn't work in the first place. Best of luck.