Terminator assembly

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention improves upon the prior art by providing an optimally simple and reliable assembly and a method for attaching a cable termination circuit to a flat cable.
Essentially, the assembly includes a substrate provided with rows of pins extending from one side of the substrate and insulation displacement contacts extending from the other side of the substrate, the pins and contacts being electrically connected to each other.
The substrate and a base are adapted to sandwich the flat cable, at which time the insulation displacement contacts penetrate the insulation of the cable and connect the pins to the conductors in the cable.
Preattached to the substrate is a printed circuit board which carries the cable termination circuit.
The circuit board fits between the rows of pins and the pins are bent over the circuit board to make contact with the printed circuit.
The substrate and base may be parts of an off-the-shelf Dual In-Line Package (DIP) connector, providing a very simple, reliable, and inexpensive method of connection to the flat cable.
In a preferred method, the circuit board is pre-connected to the substrate, or to the top half of a DIP connector, by placing it between the rows of pins.
The pins are then bent over the circuit board and the ends of the pins are soldered to conductive landings printed onto the circuit board for the purpose of electrically connecting the circuit to the pins.
The substrate can then be attached to a cable at any time by simply placing the cable between the substrate and the base, and attaching the base to the substrate.
Also included in the preferred embodiment is a cover which can be placed on the substrate to enclose the circuit board, the cover protecting the circuit both before and after connection to a cable.
The substrate, the circuit board, and the cover form an enclosed unit which can be provided to the user separately from the base, the user connecting the base and substrate to the cable of his choice.
The entire assembly can be disassembled from the cable and put on a different cable without exposing the circuit