HELP: Ribbon cable different size to IDC headers

[jwillans]

Hello,

I am in the process of midifying my church organ. I've wired the organ using the following type of cable:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-10M-40-WAY-Flat-Color-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-wire-Z-/150526530670?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230c14946e

Expecting that I'll be able to crimp IDC headers to the ends which will then plug into the DIN/DOUT. When I did this I noticed I was getting the same note played on different keys. Further investigations uncovered that the ribbon is slightly smaller than conventional cable (I did a side by side comparison with regular grey cable) and the crimped header was misaligned with the wires and therefore shorting some of them. As you can imagine after wiring 250+ switches I am a little annoyed that I cannot connect the cable to the midibox, Does the cable linked above conform to a different IDC standard? If so where can I find headers that for that?

Many thanks,

James

[jwillans]

Here is a (unfortunately poor quality) photo to illustrate the size differential:

Thoughts?

James

[TK.]

Ooof! :-(

I'm not aware of a different standard, and I fear that there won't be special IDC sockets available which adapt to the correct size.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Wilba]

Since the cable is less width than normal, you should be able to separate the wires using a craft knife and push them individually into the "fork" contacts of the IDC header, maybe just enough so they are all lightly gripped by the "forks" and nicely aligned, and then clamp them in properly with the other part of the header.

In other words, space out the wires to suit the standard IDC header. If you then fold the cable around and use the "stress relief" clamping part as well, then there should be no problem with wires moving.

Slightly off-topic: I vaguely recall seeing a fat ribbon cable between two IDC headers that had one pair of wires split from the rest and twisted around. Maybe it was inside an old PC or something.

[bilderbuchi]

Slightly off-topic: I vaguely recall seeing a fat ribbon cable between two IDC headers that had one pair of wires split from the rest and twisted around. Maybe it was inside an old PC or something.

Wasn't that the one used with old floppy disk drives?