ribbon cable/flat cable for cheap?

bluej774 · Post by **bluej774** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:36 pm

Does anyone know where I can get a good length of flat cable for cheap? I'd need it to be at least 10 ft. and have at least 36 conductors unshielded. I figure no more than 50 conductors and no more than 25 ft. to keep it cheap. Any ideas?

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:54 pm

That sounds like something you would need to special order from an electronics site or something. I doubt many people have ribbon cable laying around in lengths over a couple feet. I would check around online.

Here is some from digikey, but you have to call for a price.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 3:08 pm

Jameco.

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:25 pm

Why so long with so many cables? Any way you could use a serial de/multiplexer set to condense the lines?

You might be able to find a long old parallel port or SCSI cable.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:04 pm

After 10 feet of copper, have fun recovering any kind of analog signal without significant quality loss.

Think of all the interference and signal fading! For an analog video signal, for example, you'd barely get anything out the other en.d

bluej774 · Post by **bluej774** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:10 pm

Let me explain a little. First off, Kurt, I'm not going to be using it in one straight shot. My god, what would I be thinking of connecting ten feet away with ribbon cable? I want that amount because I have multiple jobs do to and I'm still a bit n00bish so I'm kinda prone to screw-ups. So far, I've tried eBay without luck and I've looked at Mouser and Digikey. The latter two were still a bit expensive. Also, hacking up IDE cables and SCSI cables can get expensive quickly, too.

What I'm using it for are some NES and Genesis cart slot mods. I find that ribbon cables are cleaner to work with than a bunch of loose wires inside a console case. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any deals since I've found some other deals from the knowledgeable members around here.

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:41 pm

Oh, that explains it. You should definitely check into old IDE cables. They are worth little to nothing, and most of us types have access to all sorts of goods like that. Also it would probably be a lot cheaper to buy 10 one foot cables than to buy 1 ten foot cable. I found a huge box FULL of ribbon cable and graphics cards at a yard sale one time. I got it for $2.50. Sweet deal.

bluej774 · Post by **bluej774** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:13 am

Just so you know, I decided to go with this item from mouser. It's 10 ft. and has 88 conductors. Looks solid to me. I think it may also be the same cable as I found inside a Chinese famiclone I cracked open recently.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:28 pm

If I recall, that stuff is crap. Very un-flexible, and tends to break very easily.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:31 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:If I recall, that stuff is crap. Very un-flexible, and tends to break very easily.

yes that stuff is crap. bluej774, just look around for thrown out computers and get the ribbon cables from them.