tried to replace the optical assembly in our psx and we somehow managed to slice one of the flexpcbs clear in half.... so now it's time to kitbash some lasers i guess
@patchwork Oh dear. Just a flat flex cable, or something more complicated? (the former can usually be repaired with wire wrap wire and careful application of a knife and a soldering iron. Nail polish makes an acceptable, though not ideal, substitute for soldermask to coat the exposed bits)
-F
@patchwork I've seen people meticulously match the color of nail polish to the PCB's soldermask before, to try to make a repair (on an otherwise-in-good-condition TRS-80, i believe) as unobtrusive as possible
you probably don't need to do that though.
I've never seen it used on flex pcbs though. Dunno how flexible dried nail polish is; try putting some on a ziplock bag and see that flexing doesn't cause it to break apart. Bits of nail polish dust in there would probably make things worse
-F
@Felthry it was a longer pcb with some bits and bobs at the proximal end but the part that was sliced was just a bunch of parallel traces so for current purposes it might as well just be a flex cable. i have the original assembly, though, and from what i'm seeing i should be able to swap in the motors and optics from the new unit into the old one with a few screws and a little bit of desoldering/resoldering. but if that fails i may have to try something like that... good to know about the nail polish :33