Newmarket said:
It seems I've had more joy with 'DIY' IDC cables than yourself. But it does take practice and attention to detail.
Where we do them at my work I did the drawings and prototypes but a member of the production staff turn out the 'real' ones.
It's quite low volume for industrial analysis instruments so that helps with the attention to detail I think.
Having said that I'd still rather use a good supplier with the production tooling - properly calibrated / maintained of course - but we've brought costs in house where possible as it makes more csense commercially in this instance.
I'll also add in that it's very adviseable to use a cable connector with an effective strain relief - some connectors don't have this.
I just do not encourage this for casual DIY
Out of interest - was the mobility scooter connector in 'gel' - automotive style - to protect it ? I know that these can eventually dry out and give problems.
There was no evidence of gel.... but plenty dust and dirt... The connector looked like a healthy current multi pin molex or similar, but was apparently not completely sealed from environment. It was feeding the brake solenoid (brake is automatically engaged when throttle is idled). The scooter has a smart microprocessor self-diagnostic code that declared the brake connection was not found. Later models had a microswitch to detect if mechanical clutch is engaged in this same multi-pin cable but this older model has no micro switch. Lots of guesswork making repairs from a newer service manual (I found on the WWW).
Connector was pretty robust but many years hanging underneath the scooter (being used outdoors) took it's toll.
IPA (as in Ispopropyl Alcohol - not India Pale Ale
is my favourite cleaning thing - non corrosive to skin (the worst it will do is dry it out) and residue free - just don't drink it !
I don't drink either one (I prefer a hearty dark stout).
I usually think of IPA to degrease and Caig DeOxit to get rid of oxidisation - though I know some people reckon DeOxit can give issues with residue in the long term...
Rubbing alcohol and q-tips is all I had in my bathroom cabinet. Glad it worked...and I was able to get my 89 YO neighbor mobile again, on the cheap***.
JR
*** This is the third time I have repaired this same scooter.
1- was the battery charger not charging, and I had to reverse engineer the circuit to find a faulty resistor. I never encountered a 1/4w resistor that failed like that before, but it was cheap chinese crap, too cheap to keep working. The repair cost me a couple cent resistor, not counting my free labor.
2- next fix was after he left it out in the rain, and rainwater mixed with dirt to corrupt some electrical connections going into the smart microprocessor. It thought the forward/back control was not centered, but actually conductive mud was altering the electrical circuit. Again a zero cost repair, aided by rubbing alcohol, not counting my free labor.
3- most recent repair was made harder by my neighbor's attempt to fix it himself. At his age he is not as handy as he thinks he is and I found wires cut and reconnected incorrectly. Luckily the design is pretty robust, and nothing was blown up. I was able to finally suss out where all the random wires were supposed to connect. I rather strongly advised him to just call me next time and never try to repair it himself again.