The Climate control fix problem

Bushbasher · 28-03-2010, 11:23 AM

I'm trying to fix my climate control display and am following the directions posted by Lil Monty here. I've got as far as trimmimg back the ribbon but now I've come to a bit of a hurdle. How do I peel back the clear protective layer covering the contacts without damaging the tape more?

I've sent a PM to Lil Monty but as he's only got 4 posts up and hasn't posted for 2 years I'm not holding my breath for a response so if anyone out there knows the answer to my little dilemma I'd be very grateful for a solution.

Cheers
Bushbasher

Bushbasher · 28-03-2010, 03:55 PM

Never mind, quiet persistence on one corner created a "dog ear" separation and a couple of pairs of tweezers helped get the separation started. It's all sorted, fixed and back in the car; fingers crossed, my ham fisted efforts hold, so far so good.

Bushbasher

Serge · 21-04-2010, 08:54 PM

hey mate keep us posted on your progress, I might give this a shot later in the week.

Dr Jekkyl · 19-05-2010, 12:25 PM

Any success here people?

I don't think that I understand the instructions from Lil Monty. Does "trim back the ribbon" mean separate the ribbon from the contacts?

Is it then as simple as ironing back on or should an adhesive be used? If so, which adhesive and where might I get it?

Bushbasher · 19-05-2010, 01:02 PM

Hey there Dr Jekkyl,
Ok, yes you need to separate the ribbon from the circuit board. Before you do that though try just ironing the tape first. If that doesn't work then some of the circuits in the tape may be cracked, that's when you need to trim up the tape. I trimmed mine back to the fold in the ribbon where it folded over the edge of the board reasoning that if the ribbon had fatigued and cracked the circuits then there at the fold would be the most likely spot. I then peeled back the clear coating on the contact side and reattached the ribbon using a smear of glue from a hot glue gun, firstly because I figured it should be inert and not eat up the board or tape, secondly, it would be easy to detach the tape with an iron if it didn't work and peel the cold glue off and fouth, well, that's all I had handy at the time, lol. It worked perfectly for a few days then on a sucession of hot days a couple of segments on the DTE faded a bit suggesting a not perfect connection but since the weather has cooled a bit it's worked perfectly for the last 6 weeks. Working on the philosophy of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" , I'll leave well enough alone for now but I'm expecting that come summer when things heat up I may well have to pull it out and have another go at it.
Here's a tip though, if you're going to have a go at it; when you iron the tape back down it's super critical that you get the iron perfectly flat against the circuit board and make sure you are pressing evenly along the entire length of the tape with the side of the iron, otherwise it creates high and low pressure spots if you use the tip and the glue will be squeezed into the low pressured areas and hold the tape off of the board. It took me a couple of attempts to get mine right before I twigged to what I was doing wrong. This was hit home a couple of weeks ago when a work mate had a go at his S1 unit and actually made it worse because he was ironing unevenly. Eventually I think he held the hot iron against the edge of the board and for too long and the unit lost all it's display and we couldn't get it back. I think he must have cracked the circuits in the tape but as he'd already trimmed it up there was nothing left he could do. I felt really bad for him till he told me he'd traded it last week (S1 'mont,135k, excellent condition) and got $6k trade in for it on a near new TD Ranger.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Bushbasher

sbcb · 19-05-2010, 01:07 PM

Maybe the next person having a crack could put together a fixit thread with pics?
Dont know if this sort of thing helps or not?

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/20/repai...nctioning-lcd/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Repa...nctioning-LCD/

(read comments on what to use as a heat source, seems you need to careful not to over cook)

Dr Jekkyl · 19-05-2010, 02:16 PM

Thanks for that info.

I have already tried ironing the ribbon back onto the board with no success - in fact it may be worse.

I will cut the ribbon back then reattach and see if that improves the situation.

I will get pics as I go along too and see if I can't fashion a repair doco out of it. It would be good to base such a doco on a success rather than a failure, so we will have to see how it goes.

Serge · 27-05-2010, 06:57 PM

hey fellas, gave this a crack myself, made things worse, off to that liquidxtal guy...

Dr Jekkyl · 29-05-2010, 12:05 PM

My attempt to trim back the ribbon and reattach failed, specifically the latter.

I called the liquidxtal guy and he told me he wouldn't touch anything that has already been tampered with.

Anyway I managed to score myself two in working order from a wrecker for $150.

Serge · 07-06-2010, 05:00 PM

you wouldn't want to sell one to me?

fourl6 · 27-08-2010, 09:22 PM

thought id add a bit more to this thread... i tried lil monty's method and i think it helped, there are 1 or 2 parts of the display that are still faded but yesterday i couldn't even read it, ill update later, i didn't remove the ribbon at all just went over it with the iron for about 30 seconds...

Cheers Cam

KR1STO · 27-08-2010, 10:15 PM

I did that too Cam..
Worked well for about 3 days..

Bushbasher · 28-08-2010, 06:25 AM

Well guys, maybe I was just lucky or maybe I did something the rest of you didn't but 6 months on my display is still going strong. Every now and then the bottom segments of the set temp and outside temp fade out for a few minutes but they always come back. This happened after a few days of hot weather back just after I did the repair but it hasn't gotten any worse so unless I have the thing drop out completely I'll leave well enough alone.

Cheers
Bushbasher