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Electronics => Repair => Topic started by: perdrix on October 06, 2023, 12:23:22 pm

Title: IBM PS2 keyboard cable - replacement of 6 way SDL connector.
Post by: perdrix on October 06, 2023, 12:23:22 pm
I have an original "buckling spring" IBM PS2 keyboard with an SDL socket for the keyboard cable.  The original cable is now intermittent and I am sure that this can be fixed by cutting off the original connector with an inch or so of cable and fitting a replacement connector.

The problem is that I suspect these can only be crimped with the very expensive TE crimp tool.  Has anyone replaced these connectors successfully without using the special crimping tool?

Alternatively does anyone (in UK/Europe ideally) have a known good 6 way SDL to PS2 cable that they would part with for not much money?

Thanks
David
Title: Re: IBM PS2 keyboard cable - replacement of 6 way SDL connector.
Post by: aeg on October 06, 2023, 11:03:54 pm
You may already know this but Unicomp sells the cables.

https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/1398094 (https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/1398094)

Not in the UK and might be more than you wanted to spend, however.
Title: Re: IBM PS2 keyboard cable - replacement of 6 way SDL connector.
Post by: pandrew on October 07, 2023, 12:34:50 pm
I've done that, with a thin flat head but heavy duty screw driver, it had the same width as the pin itself, but was heavy duty enough that I probably put something like a quarter to a half of my body weight onto it, and I also added a little bit of longitudinal rocking motion to make it fully enter. Be very careful not to allow the screwdriver to slip, or it will deform the connector, and you may even hurt yourself. What may be even more finicky than the pins is the strain relief plastic which is supposed to click into place. But to be honest if that one won't click it's not the end of the world cause the main strain relief comes from crimping metal around the cable. And the metal crimping can be done with any generic hexagonal crimper tool.

Now all that being said, it doesn't make financial sense to do this, the connector is made out of:

And you need to buy all of these separately.

You can probably skip the ferrule, and use some more improvised piece of metal and some heat-shrink instead, for a slightly less solid result.

The last I looked the sum of these components was more than the cost of an entire cable from Unicomp.

I guess maybe it makes some sense if you want to make your own custom cable that is somehow different, and don't want cut up a Unicomp cable to do it.






Title: Re: IBM PS2 keyboard cable - replacement of 6 way SDL connector.
Post by: perdrix on October 09, 2023, 07:26:20 am
I managed to cut the ferrule and salvage the top and bottom shields.  I ordered a replacement plug and ferrule direct from TE (less than 10 dollars in total).

All the necessary parts except the bottom shield can be ordered in qty. 1.  Sadly the MOQ for the bottom shield is 2000 :(

I've contacted TE to see if that MOQ restriction can be lifted.

Thanks
David