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Now you've done it Tayler! ;-}

@taylord - Tayler Great article! The Design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect

So far here’s the follow up articles based on your article!

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Thanks @danj! Just trying to do my part around here, you know. ;) Let’s hope Apple is listening!

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Either it was a slow news day or it's a lot more prevalent an issue, for all of these news folks been waiting for to get traction.

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Dan and Taylor, I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro TouchBar 15”. So far it has not exhibited this issue. It is also covered by AppleCare until Nov 2019, so I am not interested in opening the case and monkeying with the display cable to test an idea. Since Dan has had them apart and is familiar with the lay of the land in there, here are some thoughts on possible interventions that might prevent the problem. Thoughts, comments, etc,:

1) Radius and smooth the edges of the driver board that the cable is rubbing over to mitigate or eliminate the problem?

2) Cover the surface of the cable in that area with Kapton tape or similar, or even both the driver board edge and the cable surface, to minimize friction?

3) Install a semi-rigid U-shaped non-conductive “shield”, made out of a thin but slippery material, over the edge of the driver board which would increase the radius of the bend in the cable and also reduce the friction between the cable and the underlying surface?

I am not in a position to test these ideas, but my gut tells me that if I could come up with a suitable material for #3, such a shield could easily be installed by any reasonably dexterous i-FixIt customer that possesses a modicum of intellect. Any obvious flaws to these ideas? Any thoughts about suitable material for #3?

#1 can be performed with a set of common ignition point files, with care so as to not damage the cable or attached board.

#2 can be done by anyone that has wrapped a package for shipping, or for Christmas.

#3 would require some manufacturing and/or materials science knowledge, but should not be to expensive to create and I think has the best long term chance for success if installed on systems with minimal or no pre-existing wear to the flex cable.

I am not that familiar with the flex cables, but am willing to sacrifice a couple of my rPi camera module flex cables to experiment with another idea: repairing the existing cables by bridging the broken connections with insulated 32 - 40 guage wiring, covered with conformal coating and covering the repairs with Kapton tape.

There may be a million reasons that last would not work, but has anyone tried to perform a repair on a flex cable? I would be more than happy to attempt it before shelling out $600 for an out of warranty repair by replacement of an otherwise good LCD panel.

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Sorry guy I don't have a rabbit to pull out of the hat here.

Design failure is more than fixing a friction or wear issue. Often times it's the material choice or using the wrong concept which is the case here.

Apple also makes this imposable to even alter the design without replacing the complete lid costing the owner (or even Apple) quite a lot needlessly. Apples direction of making a non-repairable device has got them into trouble here.

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Hey @majones1, those are great ideas to prevent the issue from occurring! We've been thinking about possible prevention measures, but ultimately it's hard to recommend anything without doing extensive testing (which we haven't had much time to do) to make sure we aren't just creating another problem. Here are my thoughts though:

#1 definitely seems possible, but IMO too risky on the risk/benefit scale. It would be tricky to radius the board since it can't be detached from the screen, and really easy to accidentally snap the cables while going at it. You would also be introducing a bunch of tiny particles into the equation that would be hard to totally clean up before reassembly. And even then, it would be hard to say for sure how much you would need to take off to be effective.

#2 is my favorite possible prevention measure, since it adds the fewest new variables to the equation. Really the only downside to this one that I can think of is that the tape might add too much bulk to the cable end up adding friction and stress to the cable as it bends around the board, effectively cancelling out the benefit of the added protection.

Someone commented on my article with a similar idea to your #3, suggesting using a shirt collar stay to brace the cable. I think the idea is pretty promising, particularly if we could come up with a material and design that was durable, easy to install, and unobtrusive. It would take time and testing.

In one of the YouTube videos describing the issue (https://youtu.be/602Q00G_8rw?t=49), the person briefly shows a (kind of messy-looking) allegedly-repaired cable. It’s hard to say what exactly they did based on the one photo they show, but if you end up doing testing with your rPi flex cables, please let us know how it goes!

I’m glad you have AppleCare until the end of the year, hopefully Apple will come forward with a solution by then. Thanks for coming forward with your ideas—we’ll keep you posted with any of our findings as well!

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The youtube video you linked appears credible to me assuming it is at 15x resolution and that is 40 gauge enamel coated copper magnet wire. I would coat the joints with UV cured conformal coating to insulate them, and perhaps tack the wires down with some also. One concern for me with this idea is that the copper is going to work-harden over time from the bending with opening and closing. This may lead to issues with the wires cracking over time, duplicating the very problem it was intended to cure. On my best day, I would be hard pressed to improve on those solder joints, even with 4 decades of experience at soldering. Micro soldering is just not that easy for most of us, even with a perfectly set up work area.

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Agreed that #1 would be best done BEFORE components are added to the board, so that is probably on Apple to implement (if they care). #2 is a thinner option than #3 would be using modified shirt collar stays because the "plastic" collar stays are made from PVC, which is easily moulded with heat and an appropriate form. But the collar stays are much, much thicker than the tape. I will reach out to a chemical engineer turned lawyer and ask if he knows of any ultra thin, moldable sheet material that could be used for this purpose.

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I wonder if anyone has developed a technique for mechanically splicing these types of ribbon cables.

If there is sufficient room in the case to accept the slack of a slightly longer ribbon cable, that would avoid the super tight bend around the board edge? (yes, I know that we can not just change out the cable for a longer one - just brainstorming here)

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Yeah, definitely any cable work is going to be super involved—that is a good point about the copper wires cracking! That's exactly the kind of thing I'm worried about. Let us know if your chemical engineer turned lawyer friend has any good material ideas.

I did find someone else on YouTube who does extremely intricate ribbon cable work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwvelNOH...). I'm guessing if someone had enough experience with these kinds of cables, a splice-extension kind of solution would be theoretically possible. In this photo https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig... you can see the space the cables have in the case, I do think there would be room for more slack.

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If you can ID the damaged line then you might be able to patch the line from end to end. Keep in mind the ribbon is shielded on both sides. The tricky part would be bonding the wire to the ribbon and protecting it from wear. We are talking brain surgery skills ;-}

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Dan will be eternally grateful.