GH3 Came 7800 - I broke it.

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d1rockwild

Well-known member
Well I'll be the first to point out my idiocy. I'm an idiot. At the same time, I'm not sure my Came 7800 came with enough wire slack to adjust my GH3 on it properly.

image1.jpg

The female 3 wire ribbon connector broke off the male ends in the female end (ouch). I was trying to slide the carbon fiber rod over to balance the GH3 from left to right, but since this 3 wire connector wire is so short, I pulled on it and it apparently broke off...

I emailed Came-TV but they are on vacation until the 27th.

(big sigh) Anyway, any help would be MUCH appreciated. Identifying what this connection actually is, finding these parts, where I could get replacements, etc. would be very helpful. I think the male ends need to be resoldered to the board it's connected to, but, I'm not sure, and more importantly, am not skilled enough to re-solder it myself.

I live in Los Angeles so if anyone at least knows a shop that would at least be able to advise, and at most, be able to repair it would be again, very very helpful.
 
It looks like your standard PCB connector/header/jumper that Harwin and other's make. Google Harwin headers and see if that gets you in the right direction.
 
Thanks so much, XcYZ. I'm looking into what you've told me, so that's in progress at the moment. CAME also got back to me which I thought was fantastic considering they are on vacation. They advised to to cut the female connector completely and just solder the three wires to the remains of the male pins, which I thought, was nifty enough advice. So I'll be looking more into soldering, as my only experience is with speaker wires which, is obviously much easier to solder than circuit boards.

But the last thing is, I still need to have more slack on this wire as I can't balance my GH3 properly without enough slack. Would you happen to know what type of 3 ribbon wiring this is so I can buy more of it to extend? Thanks again.

edit: Perhaps this? http://www.moddiy.com/products/Corsair-Style-3-Conductor-Flat-Ribbon-Cable-Wire-(18AWG-Black).html

or

http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Board-...qid=1424323357&sr=8-3&keywords=pcb+3+pin+wire


Not sure how to tell which wire goes where. On the original 3 pin wire, two are black and the third is black with a grey strip. There are no markings on the connector or wire...
 
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I got your PM. Glad you're moving ahead.

My first thought is that if you can get a replacement part, that is definitely the way to go. Now, as far as repairing it yourself... extending the harness is no big deal, you can use any small gauge wire. You could use single conductors, you don't need a ribbon. When extending, you'll need to solder and shrink wrap each conductor anyway. When it comes to soldering wire to the snapped off pins, you're going to have problems. The iron will melt the plastic that surrounds what's left of the pins. You're going to need a magnifying glass, a very fine tip iron (like 1/16 or smaller) and the pins need to be tinned before attempting to solder the conductors to them. Looking at the picture that you posted, perhaps you could solder pigtails to what looks like the 3 rings. Those rings are generally 'plate through' areas of a circuit board - how traces on a circuit board get their signal through it to the other side. Again, it appears that way in the picture. I would see if you can find a friend, a friend of a friend, a relative, someone, who has experience with soldering very fine parts. Melting what is left of the connector and having it fall apart is going to be your number one concern.

EDIT: if you know anyone at a high end hobby shop that sells good RC planes and cars, I would bring it in and show them what you have. The wire for servos would probably work well, and RC guys love doing this small work and engineering things themselves.
 
Good to hear about the wiring. And honestly, damn annoying that I have to do this at all. Yeah as for as soldering around the plastics, definitely doesn't seem like a good idea. Taking it to an RC shop sounds like a really, really good idea. I can't thank ya enough for throwing that out as I couldn't imagine where the hell I could actually take this thing to get fixed, so thank you so much for that. Found what seems to be a really good RC repair shop here in Los Angeles. I'll be taking it there tomorrow.

I have no doubt that the shop can probably handle the replacement and re-soldering of everything. The problem I'm thinking they MIGHT have is accessing the board that the pins are soldered to. The board is in the ball bearing motor and there are no screws to get it open. So I have no idea how to get it open (I have been looking online and will continue to do so) and my only concern is the shop may not know either. I guess I'll have to see tomorrow. I messaged Came again basically saying "Tell me how you're suppose to open this!"

So between your, seriously, seriously, super clutch advice, the RC shop and Came, I hope this gimbal will be able to work again. It has to.

Thanks.
 
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