That's a heck of an idea. I'd like it to be hidden when the car is parked.

No problem. I appreciate your trying to help.

 

MSEE from Purdue myself... Go Boilers!
<edit> I take that back, it's an MSECE... the bastards change the designation one semester before I graduated and forgot to "grandfather" me in under the old degree title. There's no such thing as an "electrical engineer" from Purdue anymore



Yep, those are typical zebra strips. You can't solder to them or the the LCD plate. Your best bet (but not necessarily least expensive) would be to have a PCB made that was just large enough to transplant the LCD and zebra strips onto, then run a ribbon cable from the new board to the old, soldering pin to pin.

 

Digging up an old thread for more help.

I've finally found a multimeter with the same type of temp probe attachment. This one has a display that come with a ribbon cable from the circuit board to a DETACHABLE LCD DISPLAY. I can take the display out of the multimeter but the ribbon cable is very short (a couple inches maybe).

How can I extend this ribbon cable? Can it be done without having the "extension" be of ribbon cable (so I can route it easier through and under things)? It looks like a 3 digit display and the ribbon looks like it's about 2" wide. I didn't count how many wires are inside but looks like quite a few. Is it possible to just cut this cable in the middle and solder a bunch of "normal" thin insulated wires to connect the cut ends. Then the normal wires can be bunched up into a bundle. Can you see what I'm getting at?

 

If the ribbon cable is what I think it is, it'll be hard and expensive to replace. Rick did a thread back where he relocated a display from a Streetpilot GPS to the sun visor area and there was a description of a ribbon cable that may work for you.

 

rworne, ur signature rocks! LOL LOL!

 

xv, any pics of the cable? I'm sure I could answer your ? with a good pic...

 

Here's one side (back):


Here's the other side (front):


Am I correct to say that there are 20 wires inside that ribbon? I'm under the impression that each number was created by 7 "dashes". How do you power 21 dashes with only 20 wires?

 

Yep, 20 lines... looks like a carbon deposition cable. You could use just about any other cable and it would be fine... CD cables are fairly high resistance compared to copper. They get away with it because it's such a short run.

Either you're not using all "dashes" in the digits (such as the leading number only being a zero or 1... no need for the center "dash"), or they're multiplexing. At least one of those lines is going to be common power and/or ground, so you actually have no more than 19 wires for use as digits.

They could also have deposited a strip on either side of the plastic for doubled runs, but I kind of doubt it. I'd have to see it in person to make sure.

Regardless, there's no reason why you can't replace it with some IDC cable... pick some up at Radio Shack... they generally have it in blue or gray, 25-conductor. Reasonably thin, and just peel off the conductors you don't use.

Oh, I should also add.... replace the cable completely, you won't be able to solder directly to it.

 

Is IDC cable also a ribbon type? It's a lot harder to run and hide this sort of thing through the interior.

I should add that on each end of this cable (both in the display and on the circuit board), exists those same pin, spongy, rubbery strips that the ribbon gets squished on top of.

 

Yep, same thing. What else are you looking for? If you're placing wires, the thinner the better, and it doesn't get much thinner than IDC (without some big bucks). I used cable similar to what you have, only using copper rather than carbon deposit, for other projects, but in the end it still takes up space. It's your choice... it either takes up space as a round cable, or it takes up space as a wide flat one.

You won't be able to solder directly to the same spots as the zebra stripes sit. Depends on how they manufactured the board, but you can either scrape off the carbon on the PCB where the zebras sit (if they have bare copper underneath), or you'll have to backtrack a few millimeters and scrape off the soldermask on the traces leading up to the pads. A couple of minutes with a sharp X-acto knife will allow you to scrape away the soldermask and expose the bare copper trace underneath. Solder to that, but watch the amount of heat... too much and the trace will separate from the board.

If you have too many problems, I may just have you send the board to me and I'll fix it up for you.