Arguably the greatest strength of the Raspberry Pi is the ecosystem — it’s well-supported by its creators and the aftermarket. At the same time, the proliferation of different boards has made things more complicated over the years. Thankfully, though, the community is always standing by to help fix any problems. [Rastersoft] has stepped up in this regard, solving an issue with the Raspberry Pi 5 and DSI screen cables.
The root cause is that the DSI cable used on the Raspberry Pi 5 has changed relative to earlier boards. This means that if you use the Pi 5 with many existing screens and DSI cables, you’ll find your flat ribbon cable gets an ugly twist in it. This can be particularly problematic when using the cables in tight cases, where they may end up folded, crushed, or damaged.
[Rastersoft] got around this by designing a new cable that avoided the problem. It not only solves the twist issue, but frees up space around the CPU if you wish to use a cooler. Thanks to modern PCB houses embracing flexible boards, it’s easy to get it produced, too.
This is a great example of the democratization of PCB and electronics production in general. 20 years ago, you wouldn’t be able to make a flex cable like this without ordering 10,000 of them. Today, you can order a handful for your own personal use, and share the design with strangers on a whim. Easy, huh? It’s a beautiful world we live in.
unfortunately no mention of which PCB house produced it or how much it costed
I used JLCPCB, and the price was 8,08 euros including sending fees for five cables.
So us non kicad capable users could have make use of this cable would you mind making like a few variations of it like in length and offset. I for one enjoy building Cyberdecks and reached this article looking for info about dsi max res and frame rate for a pi5 and trying to find a 1080p/90 display like 7.5 – 9.0″ to use with it.
But, AFAIK, the more common PCBWAY will do it too.
Is that a hole in the ground plane I see?
I like the idea though. I wish there was a service to make custom made flat cables without having to make a full pcb layout.
It is a via to connect the grounds in both sides.
(unless you mean that white spot near the screen connector… that is just that: a painting white spot).
As a community supportes platform, Raspberry Pi is a roaring success. But as a platform with any longevity, it is a hot mess.