Trying to find a cable?

I spent last week trying to figure out the wiring on my Enco retro-fit to CNC. My controller has 3 boards. One has the Gecko 201's mounted on it, with a 34 wire flat cable with edge of card connection. The second has an RS232 cable, and another 34 wire flat cable with edge of card connection. And the third is the main voltage board with bridge rectifier, etc. It also has the 34 wire flat cable with edge of card connection. If I can "breakout" the few wires I need for stepand direction, I can leave everything else intact, I think.

I want to replace the card with the RS232 cable and use the 5I25 and 7I76 combo. My problem is "breaking" the wires out of the 34 wire flat cable. I can't find anything on the internet that indicates a "male" plug that I can plug into the "female" edge of card socket on the flat wire cable. I've been to Radio Shack and the local Tiger Direct (Comp USA) and the tech's look at me like I'm crazy when I show them the cable. This controller was probably built in 2001-2002, and from what I've been able to find on the internet, it appears that the cables were used for floppy drives?

The cable looks like this one and if you zoom in you can see the "edge of card" feature instead of round pin holes.

www.trademoon.com/product.asp?itemid=146...7l1lucfqsynqodtuiaxq

I'm beginning to think I might just have to order a longer cable and cut out and strip the wires I need so that I can terminate them on the blocks on the 5I25/7I76 card. I need some younger eyes and steadier hands and a real sharp exacto knife.

Anyone else see any other option available? I also was wondering if someone might make a 34 pin card with terminal blocks, that I could use to "breakout" the wires I needed. I looked on the Mesa site to see if maybe they had something but didn't see anything.

thanks in advance,
Ken

John:

The 201's are mounted onto terminals than mount onto pins on the board. I don't think there is room to insert a wire also, along side the pin? I've also been wondering if I might possibly "wrap" the wire around the correct pins. 30+ years ago I used to install Crossbar #5 in central telephone offices. It was all 24gauge wire wrapped around a square pin for connection. Wish I still had a wire wrap tool. Everything was color coded. (blue, orange, green, brown, slate and single, pair, or triple bands, of blue, orange, green, brown, slate. And then wrapped in fabric of the same colors. Can't remember if they used to be up to 250 or 500 leads in a cable. Funny what you remember.)

If I pull the 201's off of the board and remount them to heatsinks. I'll wind up running 36+ wires instead of breaking out the 6 or 8 I need. Plus loosing all the fuses, circuits, capacitors, etc. Just trying to find a short cut if possible.

thanks,
Ken

is this what you need?
I searched google for 34 pin idc breakout board
www.winfordeng.com/products/brk2x17.php

Alan:

I may be able to make that work. The board appears to have male round pins, instead of "edge of card". I might be able to get a cable with 2 edge of card connectors on either end and a 3rd connector with female round pin connection.

I did several google searches, but did not add the "idc", and came up empty.

thanks,
Ken

Just went online and looked for a "wire wrap tool". Found that Radio Shack still carries such an item. I think first try I'll see if I can run straight to the 201 pins if I can wrap the wires properly and get good connections.

thanks
Ken

sorry I didnt catch the end of card part.

check this out.
compare.ebay.com/like/300841981656?var=l...ceItemTypes&var=sbar

John:

Yes, I'm only trying to run wiring from the new 7I76 card to the step and dir on the 201's. The rest of the wiring I'm refering to is the 70V from the other card, and the wiring going to the steppers, and the large "surge" capacitor that was on the 201 board.

Not trying to reinvent the wheel, but hoping to use the some of the existing parts.

I've got other questions that maybe you or Andy can help me with, but I'll put up another post for those.

thanks,
Ken