Soldering the wires onto the tiny contact patches on the ribbons turned out to be far less frustrating than other times I’ve done it. The key is to scrape all the silicone off the contact area with a machinist’s file until the copper is glossy, tin the pad, then apply the pre-tinned wire. It was trickier getting the shortest ribbon wrapped evenly around the shortest tube section. I also managed to reverse the ribbon sequence, from end to beginning, but as long as I’m consistent it’ll work.
There’s a blank area at the top of this one because of the pre-attached termination. Before I glue this piece together I’ll see about pushing the ribbon up a bit. I have a couple of days to think it through, since I’m otherwise busy Saturday.
I’ll also have to be very careful about colour coding of the wires. I used interconnect wires colours similar to the coding on the ribbon, which is White = Ground, Red/Yellow = Data, Black = VCC. That’s of course reverse of North American convention. The latter is used on the power supply. I just have to be careful and consistent.