Looking for a cable connector

[A. W. Dunstan]

I need to replace a cable connector on the control panel of a HP psc 750xi
printer. The control panel pops off the rest of the printer fairly easily,
and is connected to the rest of the printer by a ten-conductor ribbon cable.
The cable slides into a connector on the control panel's circuit board -
kind of like a card-edge connector, only with a ribbon cable instead of the
card edge. Given the arrangement of the PCB connector I assume there are
traces on both sides of the cable.

The socket on the PCB was broken when I dropped the printer (I'll never buy
another particle board desk again). I don't know if the printer still
works, but I can't turn it on to find out until I get the control panel
hooked back up. As it fell the corner with the control panel hit something,
causing it to pop off and mangle to connector. The rest of the printer got
caught before it hit anything very hard, so I'm hopeful that it still
functions.

I've looked in a few online catalogs but the sheer number of available items
is overwhelming. The connector is 3/32" by 7/16", 5/32" high. There are 10
wires coming out the bottom with the wires in two rows of five, staggered
(one row offset from the other by half the distance between wires:

. . . . .
.. . . . .

and not
.. . . . .
.. . . . .

I'm not an electronics expert but do know which end of the soldering iron to
grab hold of (when deciding what to study in college EE came in 2nd to
software).

If anyone could provide a hint as to what I should be looking for I'd be
most grateful. TIA!

Al

 

[Rich Webb]

If anyone could provide a hint as to what I should be looking for I'd be
most grateful. TIA!

WRT hints ... Could you post a picture (preferably something like a
plan, elevation, and oblique) of the connector, its mate, and a small
ruler alongside for scale?

If you're not already using a hosting service, Imageshack provides a
free-as-in-beer site that's handy for things like this -- and there are
several others, this is just one that I've used.
http://imageshack.us/

You could also try drilling down at Digikey. Their online search is
pretty well organized. OTOH, there are a gazillion rectangular
connectors, aren't there?

 

[A. W. Dunstan]

WRT hints ... Could you post a picture (preferably something like a
plan, elevation, and oblique) of the connector, its mate, and a small
ruler alongside for scale?

If you're not already using a hosting service, Imageshack provides a
free-as-in-beer site that's handy for things like this -- and there are
several others, this is just one that I've used.
http://imageshack.us/

You could also try drilling down at Digikey. Their online search is
pretty well organized. OTOH, there are a gazillion rectangular
connectors, aren't there?

It took me a while to get a tolerable image - the part in question is fairly
small, and my camera won't zoom in as far as I'd like. It's at
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1073/dscf0001co6.th.jpg

The slightly mangled pins on the side of the gray panel stuck up through the
small black rectangular piece (shown standing all by itself). The flat
ribbon cable (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cablecroppedzf2.jpg)
fits into the top of this last piece (i.e. 'is shoved into').

It doesn't matter to me if I replace this piece with something just like it
or not - any method of connecting the ribbon cable to the control panel will
do.

Thanks!