Flex cables: solder or adapter?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I'm looking to buy a graphic LCD display, but the one I want to buy has a 'flex' cable. Can you solder those things? Or are there any flex-to-pin adapters on the market? I did some googling, but I didn't seem to find it...

2

If you're talking about some kind of flexible plastic substrate that has "etched" leads to the display, most likely not; they are designed to use a special connector (but I don't know exactly what they are called either). If the pitch isn't too fine, you might be able to use some fine wire and conductive epoxy (applied with a needle?) to bond some wires to the end, but that may or may not work, and would likely be fragile anyhow. Where/who are you buying this LCD from, do you have a link/pic?

3

I have seen them called FFC abd FPC (which I believe is
Flat Felxible Cable and Flat PC Cable). Not sure which one you
have.You don't want to attempt to solder to those.

I built a board the had a 30pin 1mm pitch connector on it.
Here are a couple of part numbers from my notes --

FCI HLW30R-2C7LF CONN FPC/FFC 30POS 1MM R/A PCB
FCI SFW30R-1STE1LF CONN FPC/FFC 30POS 1MM R/A SMD ZIF
Hirose FH21-30S-1DS CONN FPC/FFC 30POS 1MM R/A PCB ZIF

Molex also makes these.

(* jcl *)

www: http://www.wiblocks.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/wiblocks
blog: http://luciani.org

4

I have soldered to it successfully* but its no fun at all considering your trying to solder plastic backed foil, and its fragile as all get out

*sorta

5

Here I have some pictures from the ebay supplier description:

And of the touch screen:

The URL is http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Graphic-LCD-Display-w-4-wire-Touch-Screen-IDW-TFS-/160414152399?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item25596db6cf.

The pitch of the flex cable isn't named, what is not a surprise with ebay sellers.

6

You may be able to solder the touch connecter but I think the pitch of the glcd display connector is too fine.

But your bigger problem is how to drive these. I don't think they actually have a high level controller that can be easily driven by an arduino.

Do you have any information about how to drive these?
Interfacing to the chips mentioned on that ebay page would not be easy.

7

Yeah, you're right... Hadn't thought about that yet...

8

The touchscreen though could definitely be used with arduino. Those i've gotten away with just using 4-wire ribbon cable taped to connector.