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I have a tiny ribbon cable inside a MIDI device. It looks something like this:



The ribbon got pinched by a screw interrupting the path of two of the conductors. I checked each conductor with a continuity tester to see what was still working. All are, but the odd thing is that each conductor seems to have a path to the one next to it. So while putting one end of the tester on conductor #7, it shows as continuous with conductors 6, 7 and 8.

What's up? This was working fine before the cable got a pinch.

:twisted:

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New cable exhibits the same behavior, but the device is 100% working now. Not sure if the pinch in the old one was actually causing it to fail, but it works now so I'm happy.

Connect an arc welder to opposite pins and see where the smoke escapes from...

:shock:

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

I will never forget the first time I was told to "blow out" a fault in old school security system window foil (remember that stuff?) by connecting each end of the (closed) foil lood to 110VAC, and plugging it in

:shock:

I said something about blowing the foil right off the windows, and he said "no, NO, you just plug it in for like a HALF a second..."

I have met many over the years who actually did this.
I never had the balls.

If the ribbon cable was still attatched to the device on one end the connection of 6,7 & 8 may have been internal on the MIDI device. Sometimes this is done in order to be able to handle a larger current to be sent thru the ribbon cable than one trace will handle. Maybe a common ground?

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" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Made to Government Specs:
1) Measured with a micrometer.
2) Marked with a chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

No, I pulled it out completely and was using the leads from my multimeter to test each conductor. But 7 would be continuous with 6, 7, and 8; 1 with 1 and 2, 9 with 8, 9 and 10...
every single one was continuous to its adjacent leads. And it wasn't me touching the wrong things; I had each lead from the multimeter on opposite sides of the cable.

Very strange :roll:

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" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Made to Government Specs:
1) Measured with a micrometer.
2) Marked with a chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

Perhaps he was using a fat probe. :bowrofl:

The tip fit well inside each contact without touching the plastic boundaries.

I'm not even going to touch this one....











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I haven't heard that since Thailand.

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

I don't even want to know.

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