When i finished this tutorial i realized im terrible at explaining things. basically repeating what i said in the rest of the thread. Im sorry but i think this will be of little help. The only way i can do better is if someone films me making one.
From now on chopsado3 will be just chopsado.
heres the best i can do.
First you need some ribbon. The best source is old scanners and old cd players that you put in entertainment centers. The pins on the end of the ribbon have to be as close as possible to the width of the pins on a hucard.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/variousribbon.jpgThere are numbers and serials on the ribbons but i found them to be useless as a ribbon with the same serial can still have a different pitch. The long white ribbon you see the pic was from a old samsung dsl box and is the perfect pitch and spacing but the ribbon is a bit to thick possiblly for higher volatge. Need to use as thin as possible.
The ribbon i have chosen is from a cd player. Once the pins get passed 5 it starts to overlap over another pin on a hucard so i cut it at 5 and 4 pins. Finding a perfect spaced pitch or pins to a hucard means that the ribbon only needs to be cut in 2 pieces,front and back. I wish i had some "perfect" ribbon.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/ccc.jpga little over 2 inches in length. I'm sure you can cut the length shorter and to your liking but im happy with 2 inches
On the end of the ribbon is a hard plastic connector that was used to hold it firmly in its device. this will be removed later. Again this is my choice you can cut the ribbon pieces from the middle and not use the ends with the plastic connectors but then you will have to scrape both ends. This is just a time saving measure for me. Yup im lazy.
The 4 pieces have a natural curve to them and you want to make sure that the curve is up against the hucard when its all completed. like a curve of a hill on a flat plain. This is hard for me to explain but you will understand when cutting. This helps so that the ribbon will stay flat against the pins and not stick out. But even if the curve was reversed it wont matter with the tape on the bottom holding the pins. This is just my preference.
Now start scraping the insulation from the 4 pieces of the ends on one side only. I scraped about half a centimeter.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/razorscrape.jpgDon't scrape between the pins. Ive made many mistakes here.
Now that thats done remove the plastic ends carefully:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/pullplastic.jpgand cut the exposed ribbon about 3 mm or to a comfortable length that you can solder on to.
Now cut 8 or 9 wires a little over an inch long. I used kynar wire from radio shack 30 awg. Its very thin. Again its my preference you can use other gauges of wire and length.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/cutwires.jpgNow the pin layout is a difficult one to explain. Ive done it so many times its burned in my soul. I can wire the chopsado or a region switch in my sleep. I just remember it as numbers. the hucard slot or the hucard is from right to left,looking straight at it is 1 thru 38. you want to change pins 15 thru 17 and 19 thru 23. leave pin 18 alone. Im sure you can find the diagram that all modders use either on this site or the web. if not heres a crude pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/pinsdiagram.jpgFor the chopsado you have the set of 4 and 5 piece of ribbon on the hucard for a total of 9 and you have the other pieces of 4 and 5 that will be reversed on top of it. It will be crystal clear when you have the pieces in front of you.
Lets start soldering the wires. I placed the 5 count ribbon with the scraped off parts facing up and soldered to the cut ends:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/solderingthestrips.jpgsolder the wire to its opposite end to the 4 count ribbon.
front pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/bridgeingthe4pieces.jpgback pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/otherside.jpgyou can see where i scraped away some insulation for the 18th pin. Again this is my preference. You can solder the 18th pin wire just like all the rest or have it exposed with no insulation like on here so it makes full contact with the other one or completely cut it off leaving a small gap. Do what you like.
Soldering can be difficult. I used a small piece of foil to protect the other ends when i was soldering:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/morewelds.jpgMy method of soldering is probably different from yours. I would place the ribbon flat and put the foil seperator and use a toothpick to apply a tiny amount of this soldering paste to the ribbon and wire:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/wires.jpgIt helps make the solder flow to exactly where i want it to. All i have to do is melt a tiny bit of solder on the iron and place over the wire and the ribbon and like magic it forms a weld thats super strong.
Once all the wires have been soldered it should look like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/morepic.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/morepics2.jpgagain you can solder the 18th wire of not.
the top part is the jap side and the bottom part is the usa side.
here you can see that curve a bit i mentioned earlier:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/curvesontheribbon.jpgNow bend that mother! right in the middle so it reaches the other end. Make sure the scraped pins are outwards. Only the insulated ends will be back to back. Add a bit of electrical tape in between the soldering:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/tapejob.jpgAnd use scotch tape to make the cut ribbon merge nice and together and your done.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/alldone.jpgI did this one today as some of you on the shout box heard me complaining. Total hours to make was 2. I was distracted by escape from new york and other shows on tv
I hope this explained a bit. let me know if you have any questions.
