Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no lie!)

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Noobie here and yes, you read that correctly. I live in southeastern Connecticut and we had a tough winter with constant snow cover for several months. When opening our pool this Spring, we found a mouse nest inside the large Jandy Power Center box. Seems it infiltrated through one of the cable knock-out holes at the bottom that was wide open.

Anyway, we had nest material and mouse droppings everwhere but that was the least of my problems. When we vacuumed that out, we found that the mouse must have been desperate for food and decided that plastic wire insulation was a viable food source. Not sure whether that worked for Mickey or not but he sample all the types of wire in the box looking for the most tasty. Cutting back and reattaching most of the single conductor wires was easy. The real problem is the ribbon cable between the front and back PCBs. Darn mouse ate right through the cable with no hope of repair (yes, I tried to strip back and jump the ragged edges but it is impossible to work with the spider web sized conductors in a ribbon cable). I hope he got constipated on that one! :grrrr:

I have gone to several electronics parts shacks and no one had a cable with the appropriate connectors. One guy gave me a foot of raw ribbon cable of the same gauge but I could not figure out how to get the connectors (MTech brand) off the existing cable without destroying them (any suggestions?).

I can not find that specific cable online. A support guy at Jandy had no OEM info on that cable which is not surprising. So, I believe I need to buy a new Aquapure front PCB with ribbon cable which Zodiac (Jandy) told me is part number R0403900. I have found this part listed at many of the online sites for prices ranging from the high200s to low300s USD.

So, anyone have any suggestions on a low cost solution or a source for a replacement cable? I would much prefer to spend $20 than $300 if possible. Thanks in advance!
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

Flippy: that looks like it could be a winner. I am on an iPad ring now so not sure I can attach a photo from here, but i do have them. Will get someone posted one way or another. Thanks in advance!
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

Flippy - If I have done it correctly, attached are two marginal photos of one cable end taken with a cell phone. The resolution is not great but should be sufficient for your expert eye. Again, your help is much appreciated. :goodjob:

[attachment=0:1fsnofmm]IMG00151-20110608-0458.jpg[/attachment:1fsnofmm]

[attachment=1:1fsnofmm]IMG00149-20110608-0458.jpg[/attachment:1fsnofmm]
 

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Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

It is still hard to tell from the pictures, but I am about 99% sure that is your cable. I would call around to more electronic parts dealers and see if they carry a IDC 2 X 8 female to IDC 2 X 8 female. If not you only other option probably is to order in online. It is a lot easier to try a 4 dollar cable instead of a 200 dollar board. Also if your panel was powered on when they chewed through the ribbon cable it could have still damaged the electronics on the board. Hope this works for you.
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

you should be able to pop open that connector, cut the ribbon cable straight
and put the connector on the cable again

that is if there is any exra cable and its not going to be too short
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

Flippy - The risk/reward tipped in favor of my ordering the cable this morning for delivery on Friday. As you point out, $20 is cheaper than $300 and it looked so close. I will let you know in a couple of days. Also, the system was powered off at the box in my house for the winter so there was no chance of a short. Ironically, had the system been energized, I might have found a roasted mouse in there this Spring with little to no lasting damage.

Ryan - Without going Gonzo on the existing cable fragments, I was unable to snap the connectors off assuming I could then use some of the generic ribbon that I have. Not sure how they construct those things but they are snapped shutter tighter than a gnat's butt.
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

Flippy - YOU ARE THE MAN! Just plugged in the cable and I am up and running. Pool needs salt but the control is clearly working. I can not tell you how grateful I am for saving me $300+ on this fix. :party:
 

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Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

I have the exact same issue with my jandy rs4 aquapure control box. Dang mice! Or should I say Dang electrician for not using duct seal! guess he thought he would get me for more money but little does he know I am an ex electronic tech. So instead of spending $3000 to replace the whole system I opted to repair it myself. I live in northern westchester not to far from the CT border. Maybe it was the same mice. The ******** were still living in there when I evicted them from my control box. What a mess, and the stink of mouse Tick was unbearable! Hears the damage:

The relay wiring was chewed through. There was enough wiring intact to correctly butt splice the connections back together. Both xfmrs had the wiring chewed through real cllose to the connectors so I could not butt splice. I thought it would be too difficult to find the correct pin extraction and insertion / crimp tools and pins so I opted to replace them. The big transformer was $222 and the 25vac one was approx. $90. They also contaminated both the relay control and salt generating pcb's with Tick so I removed them and cleaned with electronics cleaner spray. I had to get conductive grease for the dc salt generator pcb when remounting it in the box. They also damaged the DC wiring to the salt generator electrodes and the wires from the flow,salt, temp sensor which was not repairable either since the mice chewed it right at the connector. This whole thing has set me back $540 and about 8 to 10 hours of my time. Still better than laying out $3k to an electrician. And to tell you the truth if I was the electrician I would scrap the panel at the customers expense too because it would have been less labor to replace the whole panel..

Also, be sure if you find yourself in a similar situation to spray the mouse droppings with alcohol to kill any hantavirus before you touch anything! Important !

So now I am down to the ribbon cable. Thanks to your efforts I will be able to complete the job while saving money! Jandy should offer this part without the user interface pcb's to help save on unnecessary costs. Thanks for your posts ! And yes ... Now I am at war with mice and will be looking to kill them when ever possible.
 
Re: Help - A mouse ate me Jandy Aquapure ribbon cable (no li

Juckey,

Glad to hear I was able to help pass on the knowledge of others here.

Wish I can say I was rid of the little chewers. Stupidly, thinking this was a winter thing, I did not plug the holes after doing my fix. So, when I went out there in late September to fill the holes, when it was still 70 degrees, I was shocked to find the mice had made an early entry and had again done some damage. Not only were Mom and Dad there but also four babies. Feeling uncharitable, I tossed them all out.

Heading out this weekend to assess the damage. Hope the fix is as "easy" as last year.

For those wondering why they chew these connectors, it has to do with rodents needing to keep their teeth from growing too long. Gnawing on hard and semi-hard plastic keeps their teeth under control. Same reason squirrels get electrocuted from gnawing on power line insulators.
 
God bless you! Same exact thing here. Booted up and noticed no Salt on my PDA. Went down this AM and opened box and saw the notorious mouse nest! New I had cable trouble. Thing at through half of this. Not one store carries this simple cable. ordered it on line!! I appreciate your help. I hope this works. Have a few other wires with insulation off . Will replace or fix.

Regards to all,

Dr. Evan Levine

open to heart questions in return for your great advice.
 
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