Roland Fantom X Ribbon Cable Repair

I need to replace the 20 pin flat ribbon cable that goes from the Fantom X screen to the main circuit board. If they are no longer available or discontinued, does anyone have suggestions on clipping off the ‘bad end’ where the break is and stripping it back to make it fit the connection on the circuit board? Very fine work, to say the least!
There are similar cables on the internet for sale with 20 pins and pitch of 0.50mm. However none of them are long enough, as the original from Roland is 320mm, or about 12.5". There are shorter ones available at 200mm that meet the specs. Any thoughts on affixing two ends together to make one longer one?
Thanks for any suggestions!

Hello! My experience with ribbon cables tells me they’re not twisted. You should be able to use an exacto knife or maybe acetone to strip away the rubber shielding a bit to expose the tiny tiny cable. I’d recommend going to a computer shop, buying a few cables and perform the actions you described. Good news you might be able to spin up a new cable and test it. I do not recommend modifying your existing cable as it’s the only one you have!

In a past life I used a fiberglass brush to scrape off the protective coating from strain gages for doing test & instrumentation on big yellow tractors. You might be able to cut off the damaged end and expose the conductors underneath by carefully scraping away the top insulator with a fiberglass brush.

Regarding your second point about joining two shorter cables together, it looks like you can buy “extension” adapters online, which are basically just PCBs that have two of the proper connectors used to join two flat ribbon cables together: https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Extension-Connector-Aapter-Extend/dp/B07RVD2Y2F

Let us know if you find a solution!

ChaFred & vanwerk,
Thank you both for the replies and info. I searched and searched and searched…….
Finally found almost the EXACT ribbon cable replacement. Just about 3/4" shorter, but will do the job.
Ordered yesterday and just came in today…WOW!
Now off to repair it and bring it back to life.
Thank you!

1 Like

Hi,
I am looking for the same cable for my XR. Which alternative did you find?

Thanks,
Temple