Help identifying connector into circuitboard of Wacom Intuos3 6x11 tablet

[funnybunny]

I have, at this moment, reached the end of my rope. I've spent the last month and a half trying to get my tablet back into working order following damage to the usb cable. The Wacom repair tech told me that it would fairly simple for someone with electronic experience to solder the end of the cable that goes into the tablet onto a new USB, but I dont' possess the know-how to do this. Neither, apparently, does any repair shop in a ten mile radius of this town. Someone I know was kind enough to find and solder the damaged bit of cable onto a healthier part of the current cable, a repair that worked for about a week. Now I've decided that this whole soldering thing is too iffy, and I'm going to try to build a new cable using a standard USB and a new connector to the wacom's circuitboard.

The problem? I have no idea what the connector, and Wacom's understandably mum about any information that would help me as far as that goes. The ideal outcome to this whole mess would be discovering that it's a connector I could find a pre-existing cable that I could simply plug into my wacom and be happy. Sadly, it's looking like that won't be the case.

If anyone has any idea what this part is, I'd be endlessly appreciative.

The absolute worst-case scenario would be me sending it back to Wacom and ponying up $80+ dollars for them to do what I could do perfectly well myself if they hadn't stopped selling replacement cables for my model.

 

[betwixt]

Its a standard 5-pin crimp shell.
Thay are made in different sizes so measure the pin pitch (center to center of the pin entry holes) before searching. Not knowing where you are it's difficult to suggest a supplier but a search for crimp connectors and "PCB connectors" should turn up something nearby.

Brian.

 

[funnybunny]

Thanks betwixt!

Edit: I measured the distance between the outermost pins; it falls just shy of .4mm, so I roughed it out to .39. That gives me a pitch of .0975mm, correct? I'm afraid I'm not having much luck finding any crimp shells or connectors with that size in Google; perhaps I'm not using the right terms.

I'm in the US, Maryland to be specific. I don't suppose Radioshack is a good place to look? Google's not showing me any stores.

 

[betwixt]

Those sizes look wrong. 0.4mm isn't much wider than a strand of hair. There are two 'standard' pitches, one is 2.5mm and the other is 2.54mm (0.1 inch). Over a limited number of pins it is possibe to fit one into the other although it wouldn't be considered good practise.

Look at: JST (JAPAN SOLDERLESS TERMINALS)|XHP-5|CONNECTOR HOUSING, 5WAY | Farnell United Kingdom It looks like the one you photographed.

Their US destributor is Newark electronics. US - Electronic Components Distributor | Newark.com

Brian.

 

[funnybunny]

Thanks to some help, I think I've successfully identified the connector as this one, available from Molex. Do you know of any existing USB cables that use this connector? Now that I know what I'm looking for and I've been able to do more research, I have a feeling that making this thing from scratch is going to be worlds more expensive and difficult than it would be if I sent it back to the company, much though the thought irks me.

 

[Mattylad]

Tyco mini CT connector.

Replacing that should be a 10 minute job.

You could even simply solder a cable onto the pins on the tablet.

By the way - what is wrong with that one? it looks fine in the pictures.

---------- Post added at 19:01 ---------- Previous post was at 18:58 ----------

Is your problem that you do not know which pin goes to the USB connector on the other end of the cable?

 

[betwixt]

Fitting those connectors is easy, especially if you have the proper crimping tool. All you need to do is trim about 3mm if insulation off the end of each wire, feed the wire into the crimp tag and squeeze hard. The crimp tag slides into the plastic shell and snaps into place. The proper tool may be expensive, especially if you are only making one plug but you can use pliers or even solder it if you are very careful.

Brian.

 

[funnybunny]

@mattylad-- Yes; the initial problem was that I couldn't identify the white connector going into my tablet. Now that I've found it I was hoping to find a USB cable that used that connector, but the only one I found comes in minimum quantities of 25-- certainly more than I need!

@betwixt-- Thanks so much for your help so far. My main problems with re-wiring the connector are:
1) Figuring out how to get the existing crimps out of the connector without the proper tools.
2) Figuring out where to purchase the crimp bits in any quantity that doesn't require me to open a store to get rid of the extras. Same with the connector itself. Home Depot and Lowes are about my only options in this town; there aren't really any specialty stores in my area, at least none that advertise anywhere I've seen.

 

[betwixt]

I have the same problem with 'local' stores, my nearest is 60 miles away and it's stock is almost nothing. I rely on mail order but there are usually minimum order charges.
If you look carefully at the plastic shell, you will see it is possible to release the metal tags. They have a 'barb' on them that hooks over a plastic lip, if you use a small 'jewelers' screwdriver you can gently push it back and pull the tage free, Tou can even push the barb out again and re-insert it in a shell again although it may weaken the metal somewhat. A new shell and the tags cost pennies anyway so it may not be worth trying to recover the old one.

Brian.

 

[Mattylad]

Funybunny - what is wrong with the connector you have?

It looks OK in the photos.

You could get a ordinary USB cable and solder the end of that to the older cable - about an inch from the connector - sleeve the joints and keep them inside the tablet
where they are secure.