via Noiseconformist:
"The entire weight and force on this cable connection is put on 6 small solder joints of the USB socket. That's it! The main part has to be taken by two slightly bigger joints which connect to signal ground. If they break, the signal is lost and the ribbon controller is dead as a doornail. Eventually the synthesizer probably goes berserk (what happend to me). This joint would have broken soon (red pointer)."
The bottom shot is Jean-Michel Jarre's ribbon controller with some Gaffer Tape. Could be to remedy this problem or it could be to keep the cable attached, or both of course.Update: bottom two pics: a solution via Noiseconformist:
"Quick and dirty solution:
Aluminium profile, some holes, cable ties - voilà.
The profile is attached via the ribbon bar's original screws (two on the side).
Note that the supplied cable is pretty stiff and short and that this doesn't relief all the strain from the socket and PCB.
Eventually I'll have to replace the entire socket, I'm afraid.
On a side note: If the delivered 'USB'-cable was flexible, I mean really flexible, much of the mechanical stress wouldn't occur."
Update2: See the comments section at the bottom of this post for additional updates.
I did a quick and dirty fix by attaching an aluminium profile, drilling holes and using cable ties.
ReplyDeleteThat should do it for a while.
The PCB's end is not supported by the ribbon's steel bar and is attached with just a double sided sticky tape (that itself is not necessarily a bad thing) therefore it might bend as well.
Eventually, at some point, I'll have to replace the entire cable interface part with something much more robust.
I did some photos to illustrate this.
Michael (a.k.a. Noiseconformist).
Update, 8 years later: despite the "temporarily" installed strain relief the solder joints holding the usb jack in place broke another three times.
ReplyDeleteThe ribbon surface shows some wear (it comes around quite a lot) but it still works and feels nice to play.
The plan is to finally replace the metall cover with something being able to house a sturdy XLR connector to replace the entire connection cable.
(Why on earth someone wants USB cables laying on stage?)
Let's see ...