I received a Futaba T14-SG 14-channel RC Transmitter to repair.

It had a damaged LCD display ribbon cable and damaged ribbon connector on the main board. The result of an accidental slip while tightening a internal nut that came loose. It can happen to any one.

The customer supplied a replacement LCD kit from Futaba which included mountings and a new front bezel/window.

The ribbon cable and connector.

The ribbon has 4 cores cut on the right side. The connector is missing the locking tab.

Removing the old connector

The first step was to remove the old connector from the board without lifting any tracks or damaging the board. I carefully broke up the end plastic to remove the large solder tabs and then ran a heavy bead of solder along the pins. The connector came away easily. The board was cleaned with wick and meths on a tissue.

The new connectors came in a pack of 5 from RS Components.

Soldering the fine pitch pins was very tricky. Solder paste flux helps the solder flow, but you have to have just the right amount of solder, evenly distributed along the length.

I used a USB microscope to closely inspect the soldering and repeatedly touch it up until all pins were soldered and there were no shorts between pins. This took a long time as shorts were easy and the pins did not all want to sit in contact with the board all at once.

All Fixed

All back together and tested before applying the new bezel. A bit of meths on a tissue helped clean up the old sticky tape that hold the bezel in place.