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I've an Microsoft Natural keyboard, which has an almost broken cable. The cables outer isolation broke right outside the casing. Now I wanted to cut that part of the cable and simply solder the cable to the board (As I thought is was fixed that way).

But as I opened the keyboard I saw, that there is a connector which looks quite like this oneenter image description here:

Now I have a few questions. What are connectors like this called. I need the name to buy the right crimp tool. The housing of the connector could be reused, thus I only need the inner metallic parts for crimping. As this would have a very small diameter my question is if this might be the right tool?

enter image description here

A friend has this crimp tool but it would probably be of no use, as it is only for bigger cables. This one is here:

enter image description here

Has anyone any experience with this stuff? Or any suggestions of a nice and clean solution without a crimp tool? I'd be happy for any suggestions. If nothing works, I could still solder the cable to the board, but a connector is in my opinion the prettier solution.

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I would solder it before I'd buy a crimping tool I'm likely to never use again, but that's me. – Shinrai Feb 22 '11 at 0:05
@Shinrai The tool would be about 18 bucks (I'd buy a cheap one not the one from the post g). That is cheaper than a new keyboard and i have missed the tool a few times before. I think it won't be the last time i use it. – Darokthar Feb 22 '11 at 0:16

1 Answer

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It looks like a pretty standard 4 pin polarized molex interconnect. I do not think one actually crimps the connector, but rather crimps these contacts to the wires and slides them into the housing. I agree with Shinrai that it would be easier to splice in, and solder to the exposed wires in the picture.

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I worked with similar connectors before and this is the correct answer! Just be sure to orient the cables correctly before connecting the metal pieces. – AndrejaKo Feb 22 '11 at 0:43
@AndrejaKo thanks for the advise. Be sure, this is not the first time i mess around with cables and hardware. I just used soldering before but this time I'm really considering buying the crimp tool. – Darokthar Feb 22 '11 at 20:53

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