Open the little brown clamp on the zif that comes with the kit.

Put the cable you want to extend, and the cable that came with the kit, face to face so that the contacts are touching. (You might want to reinforce the cable you're extending, often they are very weak FPCs. Hot glue on the cable/circuit board interface will anchor it there, and tape can be used on the FPC cable to help prevent it from tearing.)

Put both cables in the zif and clamp the zif clamp back down. (It may be a little
hard to get them both in there but you can do it. Make sure they are perfectly aligned.)

If you have a hot glue gun, go over the exposed metal contacts on the zifs with the glue
to keep them from shorting out. If not, tape them. (Actually if you do this step first you'll save yourself some puncture wounds from the litttle sharp contacts on the zifs.)

Plug the newly extended cable into the zif on the circuit board. Mind the orientation of the cable (pins); it should be the same as the original cable.

A pic showing the FFC extention in place. Note the contacts on the back of the zif have been gone over with hot glue to prevent shorting.

so basically the short FPCs cable is in the yellow square and there looks to be like a gray line where the hot glue gun went and then on the other side is a FFC extention so basically what you are are doing is your taking the short FPCs cable and the FFC extention cable glueing both cables together and piecing it together . bty where you glued it are you glueing the FPCs cable and the FFC extention cable on both sides of the cable that way on the bottom of the cable so can stick to the metal contacts. so in easy terms for me your glueing both sides and inside the yellow square there is hot glue on the bottom of the cable that way it sticks to the metal contacts and make sure it is lined up then you clamp it down then on the other side of the ffc cable your making sure the pins match up right did i get this right

Well not quite right. The two cables are clamped together with the little brown clamp and the hot glue is just to cover the exposed contacts on the clamps. Really it is best for a new guy to find a monitor that has no FFC issue. It will be much easier for you to work with if you don't have to worry about this. There are some monitors out there that have none of these problems and they strip relatively easy. Check out the compatible list and you will see that some of the Benq and Samsung monitors are pretty easy among others.

Of interest to anyone extending the FFC on a Liquid Video A150X1 / CMV 1512, since the monitor uses an 11 contact cable and the extension available from LL is 12 contacts, as Brain said, make sure it is PERFECTLY aligned in the connector that comes with the kit.

I installed mine and it's a tight fit getting both cables in the connector and takes some force. When mine finally went in I looked at it real close and it was almost perfectly aligned. I could envision ripping the entire cable off if I tried it again to get it perfect and like I said it was so close I didn't think it would matter.

Made a funny smell when I powered it up :angry: I pulled the power and figured it would be a waste of time to try it again but I did and it still worked. Lucked out for now so remember, PERFECTLY ALIGNED

Hey guys,
I have an ffc question for you. When I took my monitor apart I found it had a 10 pin ffc in it.
Click to view attachment
One of the other members suggested I buy a 20 pin cable and cut it down the middle to make a 2x10 pin cables. http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9688
I got the 20 pin cable from lumen lab and I have not cut it yet, but I'm wondering if I will need a 10 pin connector or can I use the 20 pin connector and set the wires to one side?
I've been trying to research this issue but have not found much on a 10 pin ffc.
If you could shed some light on the subjec that would be great,
Will

Is it a .5mm pitch or 1mm pitch cable?

The cable i bought from lumenlab is .5 mm pitch.
I'm not sure what the pitch is on the lcd cable. How do i tell the difference?

10 wide on .5mm would put the cable just over 5mm (Or just over 3/16")wide.
10 wide on 1mm would be 10mm (Just over 3/8") wide.

I just measured the 10 pin on the lcd. It was 5mm wide. Looks like they are same pitch.
Thanks for the heads up, I never even thought to look at that. It is going to be a tough wire to cut right down the middle. I just hope it all lines up correctly in the zif connector.

I have cut down the FFC's in the past by just cutting where it plugs into the connectors. Trying to cut the full length is a risky task that may leave you with a cable that cannot be used.

Yeah someone else had suggested that as well. I think i'm just going to cut the ends.

I just tried and failed an FFC mod.

Rather than extending the original cable as mentioned by Brainchild i replaced a short 20 pin FFC with a longer one.

Should this work? or is there another reason to clamp the 2 together.(besides the obvious of slightly extra length using short ffc plus extension)

Little help here would be much appreciated as im kinda upset about the pressure marks i just put on my touch screen (clumsy oaf)

I guess if one end of the FFC is hardwired onto the PC board you wouldn't have a choice but to use the existing cable and extend it as described above (too hard to try a micro-soldering experiment). Otherwise, I can't see why you wouldn't just be able to use a longer FFC between 2 ZIF sockets, as long as they're oriented correctly. That's what I'm hoping to do with my Hyundai board.

GENE

Electronic companies like Digikey (www.digikey.com) sell all sorts of FFC cables for pretty good pricing. I'm getting a 10 pin FFC cable along with two connectors because I have the same problem as SPK. I'm going to try to solder the two connectors together to make a FFC cable extender, since Lumenlabs doesn't sell 10 pin FFCs.

Update:
Attempts to solder connectors have all failed. I eventually resorted to tracing out the vias and soldering individual wires under a miscrosope. Problem has been solved

hey, i'm a greenhorn to the diy projectors, and i haven't even seen the inside of an LCD monitor, but will there ever be a time when there will not be a ZIF socket for either board?

Hey! I got the same problem! I had posted this in another area, but think I will move it here, since it's more of an FFC problem - thing..


I bought a Haier HLH15BB Lcd TV at Pamida the other day for 160 bucks. Took cover off, and it appears strippable/useable
15"
400:1
16ms
1024*768
component, composite, VGA, antenna inputs
remote
etc..

Here's a quickie pic
(EDIT!): It may have an FFC issue.. I'll see after I drink some liquid courage, and try to tear the connector apart..(/EDIT!) [/font]

I have the same issue. My problem is that I believe I have found the cable but no way to join them together. I spoke with a tech at mouser.com and they say that this cable http://www.mouser.com/search/Refine.aspx?N...ouser_Wildcards
is the one we need for my 10 pin extension. the issue is now how the heck do we extend this with a Zif end??

Any ideas??

When you are at that mouser page that you linked to, click on the blue underlined "Page 1197". That will take you to the PDF catalog page that has all of the connectors and jumpers on it.

Since you will be using this cable as an extension, any connector with the same number of pins (used for alignment) will work as an extension connector. To use the connector; unlock the connector, put the end of the board FFC and an end of the extension FFC together face to face (contacts touching), insert them into the connector and re-lock it.

All of the connectors on that page have some kind of clamping or locking feature on it, you'll figure it out. Just be gentle, they break easily.


Tgreenwood

If you have struggled, hour upon hour and can't get the FFCs to properly align, there is an alternate solution.

Purchase a Dual FFC Jumper, and a FFC Extension. It is quick and easy. It took me a total of 10 seconds to install it and get my LCD up and running. It was a piece of cake!

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

As far as I know DIY-Beamer.com is the only place that sells this jumper. However, I think it would be a great add if LL decided to provide it as well.

There are several different sizes available, so chances are that they will have the size you need, and it is fairly inexpensive.

Cheers!

Fulcrum

Here are some pictures that I posted elsewhere that I thought would be helpful.


All of the LL FFCs are "same side" style, meaning that when you lay the FFC out flat the contacts on the ends are both on the same side of the cable.
Click to view attachment


"Opposite side" FFCs have the contacts on the topside on one end and on the opposite side on the other end.
Click to view attachment

If the original was opposite side, the LL FFC won't work as a replacement, but will work as an extension.


Also, make sure that you have unlocked the ZIF connector when you remove or insert an FFC cable. A lot of people don't know that these connectors have a locking feature on them, and the FFCs get damaged trying to pull them out or put them back into a connector that is locked.


pull-out type



flip-up type
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Tgreenwood

I have a question about counting the contact points. I saw on a different forum that if you have 2 doubly thick contact points on the edges (one on each edge) that they each count as 2 contacts. Also, I measured the entire with of the copper ribbon and got 7/16" (around 11 millimeters, probably actually ten, but not using a terribly accurate ruler). According to my understanding of pitch, you divide the width by the number of contacts (10 or 11 mm by 16 or 20) giving me a pitch of .5mm for 20 and a .69mm for 16. I guess that means I must have 20 contacts right?

since no one has responded to this question i have decided to see if i could get an answer here as well. I have mine all apart and setting bare and currently i dont have any kind of magnifying glass to look at this...but i atempted to count the copper wires within the ribbon and i counted 12 on mine.

now, does this mean i have a 12 pin? will the 16pin that lumenlab sells still work? or will i need to order from one of the other places inorder to get a 12 pin?

i tried taking a picture with both my camcorder and my digital camera and am having a hard time zooming in and still getting a focus. so sorry for now pics.

Using the macro feature will help if your camera has it.

As for the FCC, if it's 12 pin, it's best to get a 12 pin. If you get a 16 pin one, it will work, but you will need to cut the extra 4 pins off the ends so that it will fit into the LCD's connectors.

They dont list a 10 pin, which is what I need. this really is a pain trying to find the right one in these online catalogs...

Hey all, about a month ago I came across the nifty projects on the internet to combine an OHP and an LCD monitor / screen to make an LCD projector. I was in a tinkering mood... so now I have three LCDs strewn across my room (all free), and a 3M 9750 sitting on my floor :-)

The first LCD is cracked and has FFC problems, not worth fixing. The second LCD, for the life of me I can't figure out what's wrong with it. Tried powering it off of a computer's power supply, that didn't help... it doesn't have a cracked LCD or anything; just won't turn on.

So this third one I just got today, and couldn't wait to rip it open... er... take it apart. It's a Dell 1503FP, which according to the list of monitors on LumenLab has no FFC issues - except that mine does. I'm trying to figure out how to extend it, and only have a semi-decent steady soldering hand. Can anyone help me figure out what I need? I measured the cables... it's 20 pins on the larger board side, 16 on the smaller, and the pins are 0.5 mm apart (20 pins take up 1 cm width). Attached are pictures - if anyone can point me in the right direction for what I need to fix the FFC problem and get the boards out of the way, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance, and keep up the awesome work, all! DIY for life ;-P

I scaled these down by a factor of 100, btw, so if you need to see higher res, let me know

Here's what you need :

Here

Should be perfect... I just hope I don't mess it up once it comes (I didn't realize this connector had a lift-up tab, so when I tried pulling it directly off... yeah...)

Thanks!

Oops gave you the wrong link but I updated it with the right one.

Being new to this and obviously a bit stupid, the first thing I did was to take apart my LCD, possibly one of the trickiest parts to the project and I did it without reading many forums, especially not this one. Anyway, I just gently but firmly pulled the FFC plug, not knowing anything about locking mechanisms.
I'm pretty sure I have (or should I say, had) an FFC with a "Flip up type" connector as shown above by tgreenwood. I can't be sure because the darker brown piece (or pieces) of my connector broke into several pieces.
The following two pictures show what I am left with. Hopefully the quality is good enough for someone to tell me if I've just wrecked my trusty old LCD or if I can proceed with an FFC extension. I'm pretty sure the FFC itself is undamaged.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I broke my clamp to on the board and all I did was get the ffc lined up and in place then hot glued it, seems to work fine As long as the ffcs along that bottom or side and the actual extended ffc isnt damaged, you should be able to get it working easiloy

Thanks, good to know I'm not the only one who's made this mistake! I need an FFC extension cable anyway, does anyone know if the extension comes with a new connector or if its possible to buy a new connector? Can anyone tell me what size/no of pins I have from the above pics?

Can anyone tell me if the cable pictured above can be connected to the LL 20 pin FFC?

I doubt that it can.

Perhaps if you can provide the make and model number of your LCD panel (not just the monitor it came in), somebody might have had some experience with that model - or they might at least be able to point you in the right direction.

Hi thanks for that, I was starting to get a bit frustrated but just found a full kit (lenses, light, ballast and an LCD with no FFC issues) at a good price on an online auction. Guess I'll have to put this one back together and return it to normality.

I have a laptop Lcd sharp LQ141F1LH52 that i am experiencing ffc problems with. This is my first projector so i have never dealt with this before. I have read through forums about this topic but can not really find anything: how can i tell what type of connector i have and therefore whether i need to "unlock" it or not? also, will the lumenlab ffc extension cable work with my setup. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All you need is the correct FFC extension and a coupler.

You can determine what type of FFC you need like this:



Measure the width in millimeters and count the number of wire leads. On the FFC above, you can see that it's 10mm wide and has 20 wires.

Next, you have to measure to find out what pitch they are, 0.5mm or 1.0mm.
Measure the width of the cable and then count the number of contacts. Divide the width of the cable by the number of contacts. If the result is close to 0.5mm (.020 inches) then you have the 0.5mm pitch FFC cables.

You can read more about that here:
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22508

If LL's FFC extension doesn't work for you, you can search Google for online sellers.

Thanks for all the info quasi mojo. I managed to get the ffc unclamped and then proceeded to count and measure. I have got 30 pins at 15 mm so the pitch is .5 mm but i am having a bit of trouble finding what i need online. whenever i find something that looks like what i need, the smallest increment you can buy it in is 10' or something.

http://www.diy-beamer.com/EN/store/comersu...sp?idProduct=90

I ran into the same problem about not finding the one that I needed. My solution was to order the 20 pin connector and extension, then on the end that I needed to fit I just cut it carefully with scissors to the right number of pins. You just have to make sure that you order the right pin pitch. You only have to cut one end and then just make sure that you slide the smaller FFC into the correct side of the connector to complete your circuits. I had zero problems with mine when I did this.

Cheers

edit: scratch that, I misread the post. I thought you were looking for a 10 pin extension. What I said does work if you need to cut down an FFC to the right size.

I ahve a ten in lcd that needs an ffc extension and i know ive seen the link on here a million times, but i dont remember where to buy it and my google search skills are not pro. SO if you (all of you) dont mind, WHere can i find an ffc extension? Thanks a bundle peoples



I ahve a ten in lcd that needs an ffc extension and i know ive seen the link on here a million times, but i dont remember where to buy it and my google search skills are not pro. SO if you (all of you) dont mind, WHere can i find an ffc extension? Thanks a bundle peoples

I purchased an FFC extender from LL and found out that, it was way too short. The guts have to stand vertically in order for it to connect. But here's the kicker: The pins align perfectly, as they should, but I just cant get both of the pieces of the FFC to fit into that brown clamp. It's really a pain in the...neck, considering that's what ends up ostriching the most, and it seems like only one can only go in there. Once one goes in, the other one just doesnt have room. If all it does is clamp them together, then why are there pins in the brown clamp itself? And furthermore, is there a need for it altogether, can I just elect. tape them to each other? What happens if the pins are misaligned? Could it hurt the circuitry?

I'm really tempted to get that coupler, just dont know if I want to throw down the $20, I'm a student on a student budget....

Sometimes you have to sand down the ffc's to get them to fit in together.

And yes you need the pins to align perfectly or you can blow up the Lcd.

"Sand Down"?

Yes as in "use sandpaper" and sand down the plastic on the backs to make them thinner.

That simple, huh. Well, I'll give it a go.

I'm working on a project where the 40-pin 0.5mm FFC extension (in particular, the clamp) could come in handy, and I stumbled across this site. The project involves replacing the hard drive in an MP3 player with not a lot of room to spare, so the usefulness of the clamp for me depends on its thickness. What are the clamp's dimensions, in mm? And does anybody have good photos of the clamp by itself?

Here's the part that has the FFC I need to extend, and I need to add about 10-12cm to it.

Thanks!