Oh flat ribbon cable is EUR 680.00. Wait, WHAT?!?

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Ordering parts for the SEQ. Little surprise when loading the BOM in the basket. I’m not paying the price of the Essentials Kit again for the rest of the parts. What’s more, for just a piece of ribbon cable.

What’s wrong here? Can you please help?

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My goodness prices for 16 conductor with those specs are through the roof! This is a showstopper… what is wrong here? Any other way to source this? How much of it is actually needed for the build?

EDIT: I know some of those are for hundreds of feet of cable. But as these are minimum quantities, the result is the same — it’s crazy expensive.

EDIT2: I could actually order more of the 10-conductor and rip 6 lines off it to make 2-ribbon 16-conductor cables… not very nice, but hey. Question is: how much of them is needed in feet or centimeters? It’s not clear to me how it’s packaged at Mouser.

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@Eamoex oh snap - Mouser has changed the product type and price - be assured that your SEQ v4+ does not need an investment of 680€ in ribbon wires 🙂 - we’ll adjust the BOM and report back.

Best regards,
Peter

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Hahah! 😁 Good, I’m relieved. Thanks for coming back here on a Sunday. Will wait for the updated BOM. Have a nice evening.

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Strange! The price for the other 10/26-conductor wires are normal, so it must be a mistake on their part. As this cable should generally work well, I would suggest to order the 26-wire cable and strip off 10 wires. I just changed that in the BOM.

Of course, “any” ribbon should work, but I have tried to substitute with different cable in the past when the 3M stuff went out of stock and people complained about it!

You’ll also notice that 10+16=26, so in theory you could aggregate the total lengths and just order 26-conductor stuff 😀

Best,
Andy

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You can also see the required lengths (in cm) on the BOM page. They depend on which version you build (LH/RH). Mouser still uses feet for ordering, but it works!

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Thanks for your replies and information. So, just so I’m clear:

all ribbon cables are in 1.27mm pitch
10-conductor totals 157.5 cm
16-conductor totals 95 cm
26-conductor totals 35 cm
in theory 200 cm of 26-conductor should cover all ribbon cable needs if I split most of it into 10- and 16-conductor bits

Is all this right?

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All are standard IDC connectors (except one micromatch*, which still uses the same ribbon), so yes, 1.27mm (50 mil) is correct for the ribbon wire.

The BOM calls for 2 feet each of 10-, 16- and 24-wire ribbon (6 feet/ca. 1.8m). In theory, it would do to order 4 feet of 26 and split accordingly. Note that you’ll miss the red wire this way! Or just simply grab 6 feet of 26-wire and have some to spare.

Best regards,
Andy

*MPE 371-1-010 is a part on Reichelt, seeing as the Mouser part will be out of stock for a few months more.
Also just replaced the (very standard!) USB B socket that was also listed as out of stock.

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Thanks a bunch for all the precisions. Order placed 😀

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I’ve ripped ribbon cables apart before. If the marking is lost, what I usually do is take a Sharpie (or Edding if you’re in Europe) and run the tip along one of the edges of the ribbon. It’s all that is needed to recognize “line 1”. You may even use a red-ink one if you’re fancy.