D70 IR mod; how to work the ribbon cables

Took a look into modifying my D70 for IR. I got stuck in detaching the ribbon

cable that connects the PCB with the sensor to the rest of the stuff, see this

http://www.lifepixel.com/ir-tutorials/nikon-d70-digital-infrared-conversion-instructions.htm

and from that more specifically this

http://www.lifepixel.com/images/tutorials/d70/d70_7.jpg

I don't have much experience of ribbon cables this size, so could you give me

some advice on how to detach the connector without breaking anything? I tried a

little bit with a screwdriver, but the edge of the connector started to crack.

The Lifepixel image suggests tweezers, but I'm afraid that something will break

if I squeeze the cable with tweezers while pulling the PCB.

I did get the camera assembled and everything working, so things don't look bad :-)

Hi Oskar,

I did this without removing the ribbon. Just undo the 4 big flat screws and fold the sensor supporting plate back. It helps to have some handy blocks to rest the various parts on.

Best of luck

If Vivek does not directly respond to this you could try and contact him directly via email. I think he knows how to do the IR modification with and without braking the D70 :-)

By the way the link looks like a neat instruction.

Clive, I tried that, but the sensor PCB didn't fold out enough for me to start unscrewing the retainers. Did you just bend it more and then try to fiddle the scrwes of the retainer off?

Walter, I'm probably going to study the matter a bit before contacting anyone directly. Although I suspect Vivek might give a hint...

Well it was about a year ago now but I don't recall any lack of slack ..... and I DEFINATELY didn't remove the ribbon.

Sorry I can't elaborate further but the camera was in one piece during the op. Except for the bottom and back covers of course.

Heh,

just did this a few days ago. The ribbon cable connector has a locking lever (black) on top which you can lift gently with a small flat-tipped screwdriver, or maybe with a fingernail, and then the cable just slides out. See the closeup picture in the tutorial! Remember to lock the cable in place when reassembling.

IMPORTANT: before you unscrew the sensor board, mark the position of the board! Otherwise you might end up with a tilted sensor when reassembling. Lifepixel instructions don't mention this detail.

I'm completely hamfisted (broken tools, doorhandles, etc. without even trying) but did the conversion succesfully in an hour; taking a break when impatience struck helped a lot :)

I tried again and the connector would lift upp, which didn't actually release the cable, but gave enough room to move that I didn't investigate releasing it further. There's definitely not enough slack to move the PCB so that the sensor can be accessed without releasing the connector. Also, the spot for the sensor PCB seems to be tight enough that it can't get significantly out of alignment when reassembling. Your comments and some others I've seen make me think that Nikon slightly tweaks the assembly from time to time. OTOH, there could be a simpler explanation, this is the first D70 I disassemble.

Thanks for the comments, I believe we got into some valuable info on this thread. FWIW, I measured the filter in the D70 to be 25.25 x 29.5 mm in size.

Interesting. Have you had a look whether you can disconnect the other end of the cable (if I recall correctly, the cable you're having trouble with connects the sensor PCB to the bottom PCB)?

See also whether this link is helpful: http://www.irphotography.org/index.ir?showtopic=248