A cable broke in my Playstation Move controller. It's a ribbon cable with four wires, and they and their contact patches are just about thick enough to solder, I think. But it's going to be hard to strip the insulation off without damaging them.
So can I use acetone or something to melt the insulation? Is there some other trick that I don't know about?
The acetone is highly unlikely to strip the insulation of the wires so probably isn't worth the effort of trying. It's difficult to give advice on what to do without more detail (or a good picture) but if this is a traditional ribbon cable (four "round" wire sections bunched together like the picture below) then I would carefully run a scalpel across the top and bottom of the ribbon then just try and pull the stripped section off.
If it is a different type of cable more information would be handy to advise further.
Edit: for removing insulation on very fine wires (think < 0.1 mm in diameter) we would often expect our suppliers to use an acid bath to dissolve the insulation but I suspect this might not be worth the risk/effort of setting up at home to repair a play station controller)
I just grab it between finger nails and pull.
Having a look on the ifixit page for the move controller it looks like you have a FFC (flat flex cable) in there to connect the LED. I'm guessing this must be the ribbon you're after fixing as it doesn't look like there is anything else in there.
Unfortunately these are normally covered with polyester which potentially means something like nitric acid if you want to chemically remove the insulation. So taking a scalpel to it is probably still your best bet. If you are lucky you might be able to get the edge between the insulation layers to separate it that way, otherwise there will need to be quite a bit of careful cutting/scraping.
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Whole cable is 6mm wide for reference.
Stripping with a blade is what I'd normally do but it's quite destructive as there's a lot of plastic to remove here.
Thanks for the chemistry check @bigginge. It is that exact cable yes.
And it's not *just* a Playstation controller. For starters, Sony ones aren't cheap items anyway, but this is a PS Move controller and they are quite hard to get now.
One side appears quite thin though so I may be able to scrape one side off and then peel the other back and trim it.
what are you actually trying to do, repair the cable? Can you just remove it & replace it entirely, or even better - solder some edge connectors in at either end & just fit a new cable (which would then be easily replaceable!)
That looks slightly unusual for a ribbon cable - the one in the pic bigginge posted is more common. Those are usually connected with an IDC connector which is pressed through the cable to make contact: no stripping required. If you can find an appropriate one, and there's space for it, you might be able to use it to avoid the need to strip it entirely.
Otherwise, use heat.
what are you actually trying to do, repair the cable?
I need to fix the cable back onto the board. It's broken off right where it was soldered on directly to the PCB.
Those are usually connected with an IDC connector which is pressed through the cable to make contact: no stripping required.
This one was soldered directly to the board as you can see in the pic which has led to its untimely demise I am sure. I'll have to try heat. I've ordered a new soldering iron with a temperature control and a needle tip, wish me luck. My daughter cannot play Job Simulator with only one move controller.
@thenorthwind does make a good point. Just because that FFC is currently attached it doesn’t mean you need to stick with it if you’re going to repair this. You could fit a section of “normal” ribbon cable in place of this or just solder in four individual pieces of wire of an appropriate size in. Might make the job a lot easier than trying to strip the broken end.
Paint stripper?
Not sure you can get hold of dmso or dmf?
I can't replace the whole cable, the other end disappears into the moulded housing for the LED thing. Would be difficult.
Maybe a hot knife would be good. Soften it and scrape at the same time.
You might be able to get at the other end.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/PlayStation+Move+LED+Light+Replacement/74579#s150625
Can you get an IDC connector that connects to the cable, then connect suitable wires to that connector, and solder the other end of them?
Maybe but I'd have no idea where to look. It sounds difficult.
