Question DVD drive extension cables?

[emberwolf]

Hello. I'm working on designing my case for my GCp project. I'd like to slightly relocate the disc drive but I'll have to extend the ribbon cables. I recall seeing someone doing it years ago on either a mod retro or benheck post. I found ribbon extenders for the white 10 pin, but I can't find one for the yellow cable. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Stitches]

IIRC the GC disc drive FFC is a 0.5mm pitch 32pin cable. Any cable matching those specifications with the same contact faces will work, but don't use one that's absurdly long or you'll run into interference problems

I am special, ignore that

 

[emberwolf]

There are two ribbon cables on the DVD drive. The white one is a 12 pin (sorry not 10) with a wider pitch that I think is 0.5 and the amber one is a 20 pin with a finer pitch that I can't get a definitive answer on to figure out what extension for it.

 

[Stitches]

My bad, somehow I confused the Wii drive with the GC drive.

As for finding out the pitch of the second cable: The pitch for an FFC is the distance in millimetres between the center points of two neighbouring contacts, so you can measure the pitch if you have a submillimetre ruler or set of calipers

 

[emberwolf]

Thanks. I'll have to replace the battery in my calipers but I'll get to measuring tomorrow and report back just in case anyone in future has the same dumb idea. I'm sure when I update my work log, I'll give Shank a bit of a headache

 

[Stitches]

If you have a (digital) microscope or even just a high zoom phone camera able to focus on close objects, it'll make getting the precise position of the caliper arms a bit easier

 

[XsunaTera66]

Might be worth investing in a heat gun if you haven’t already my dude.

 

[emberwolf]

I have one. Not sure how that helps in this instance. I don't want to chance melting the cables.

 

[Stitches]

I have one. Not sure how that helps in this instance. I don't want to chance melting the cables.

Yeah, don't use a heat gun. A Hot Air Rework Station can be a useful soldering tool, but it serves no purpose in regards to the current objective

 

[emberwolf]

Ok. Update. The pitch for the white cable is 1mm 12 pin and the yellow cable is 0.5mm 20 pin. I'll be ordering some extensions. I'm only doing a couple inches so I shouldn't have to worry about signal issues especially on the laser.