How to solder to a 26 way ffc connector

[HomerA]

Hi all,
I am on a project trying to create a ipad footswitch page turner. I am using a bluetooth keyboard and I am trying to solder cable(wires) to the 26 way ffc connector on the circuit board of the bluetooth keyboard. I soon realised this was not a good connect, so I bough a 10cm piece of 26way 1mm pitch FFC and a secondary surface mount connector to solder my wires onto. The new connector is still quit small and I am struggling to connect the wires in a robust way. Is there an alternative? Am I missing the obvious?

Thanks in advance :-)

[David_AVD]

Maybe check eBay for a small FFC breakout board?

[janekm]

Yes you are missing the obvious: http://www.adafruit.com/product/1535
(In my view, in prototyping the aim is not to make your life as difficult as possible, but rather to take the shortest, most efficient route to allowing you to test out your concept).

Soldering wires to a surface mount FFC connector is not a practical proposition. You'd need a breakout board as David suggested.

[dferyance]

I have done something similar on a 10-pin flat flex and it was a real pain. Adafruit has breakout boards for flat-flex that might meet your needs. If you still want to solder it, be careful to use only a small amount of solder, have a good flux paste that you use liberally, and a magnifying lens. If you pull it off, be sure to add some epoxy as it will be easy for the wires to come loose and you have to re-do it all again. It helps if the wires combined with the insulator line up to match your pin-pitch. So getting the right gauge wire can help.

[HomerA]

Thanks for the responses guys. The problem I have is I was given a BT keyboard to start with and I might only ever make one, or maybe 3 of them. I just wanted an easy way to solder to the FFC connector, as it is sooo tiny. I think the adafruit board would be the way to go, janekm, but haven't really got funds to spend on new bits (this project is for a church) so will have to stick with what . Thanks for the advice dferyance, I will probs go down this route for now. And thnaks for the input David_AVD.

I thought there might be a circuit board that would allow me to solder the FFC connector to it and give larger points to solder to. But perhaps not.

Anyway, I will press on and if I Come up with a good technique I will feed back on this post. :-)

Thanks again all.

[Psi]

To solder lots of wires onto tiny connector or IC pins the best way i found is to hotglue the wires in position first.
Use solid core wire and, once glued, bend the wire end until it naturally wants to sit right at the position you want to solder it to.
Then add some flux and touch it with the iron to make the joint and move onto the next wire.
Once you have all wires glued and soldered add some more glue a bit closer to provide some additional protection.

[HomerA]

thanks Psi, I think thats what I am going to do. need to stick the solid core principle.