Mini-Tip: Flat Flex Cable Adapter

For controlling the oscillator modules I got for the wine glass project, a rotary encoder is a great choice.  I salvaged a nice encoder from a VCR.  The center part is a knob for the rotary encoder that rotates continuously.  The outer ring can rotate right of left by about  ¼ turn.  I may be able to use it for reset or some other function.

The downside of this salvaged encoder is that it has a flat flex cable (FFC) connection with 0.05" pitch.  I could have soldered wires to the FFC, but this doesn't always work very well or provide reliable connections.

I had a sudden inspiration.  The pitch of the FFC is the same as the pic of an SOIC chip.  I have some SOIC adapters from Sure Electronics that I might be able to press into service to make a working adapter.

The pitch of the SOIC adapter lines up perfectly with the FFC conductors.

I tinned the SOIC adapter pads by dragging a wetted soldering iron tip across the pads.  You don't need much solder.

I applied flux to the solder coated pads, lined up the cable with the conductor side again the pads and quickly heated each pad by touching the soldering iron to the back side of the cable.

The result isn't too pretty, but it's serviceable as shown below.  All I have to do is add a row of header pins and I've have a user-friendly encoder.