Smol 36mm cable

SPARK-X
1

Hello,

I am a massive fan of your Smol product line. I use one specific device, the smôl ZOE-M8Q, where I purchase it and integrate it into a small-QTY production product. See attached image for general reference.

I did so by means of your (now-retired) 36mm cable, to an FFC connector on my main board. Only to find that it is now retired.

Of course, since the gerbers are available, I can go get my own flex circuits made. Or find a compatible FFC cable, like this [this or [this, which I think are close enough to work electrically but not the same overall length.

Is there any chance of un-retiring this component in the long run? After I went to the trouble of figuring out how to mount the smol GPS, I found the smol family very useful - and this cable was the way I integrated it with the rest of my system. I’d hate to have to go through that process again.

Please see attached to see my current implementation of mounting the smol GPS - sorry, had to blur out some parts of the PCB.

Thank you!](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/0150200161/2972276?s=N4IgTCBcDaIIwFYAMYlLgNjiAugXyA)](https://www.digikey.in/en/products/detail/molex/0150200163/2972278)

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20240224_214208.jpg4032×3024 1.5 MB

2

Hi @ 11douglash,

Thank you for your interest in the Smôl boards! Unfortunately they weren’t big sellers and we are in the process of retiring all of them. We don’t plan to make any more. Sorry about that.

Ways we can help:

The GitHub repo should contain everything you need to order your own FPCs: https://github.com/sparkfunX/SparkX_smo … 6-way_36mm

We ordered ours from PCBWay: 36x8.5mm, polyimide flex, 1 layer, thickness 0.1mm, finished copper: 1oz, surface finish: immersion gold (ENIG), stiffener polyimide 0.2mm as per the BOT layer.

It looks like you have room to fit a MAX-M10S on there. Much easier to solder than the ZOE! You could raid our breakout board design for the footprint: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18037 . You will find the u.FL footprint in our Eagle libraries.

Thanks again for the interest, and apologies again for these being EOL.

Best wishes,

Paul