Backlight Gone

[Watcher]

The backlight of my GP2X seems to have gone the way of the Dodo, which makes doing anything with it impossible. It's out of its warranty period and I was just wondering if there is anything I could do to fix it myself?

 

[camiga64]

The backlight of my GP2X seems to have gone the way of the Dodo, which makes doing anything with it impossible. It's out of its warranty period and I was just wondering if there is anything I could do to fix it myself?

Did you already measure the backlit-voltage (~ 18 volt) at testpoint 'T2' (a small round copper pad) ?

 

[Watcher]

The backlight of my GP2X seems to have gone the way of the Dodo, which makes doing anything with it impossible. It's out of its warranty period and I was just wondering if there is anything I could do to fix it myself?

Did you already measure the backlit-voltage (~ 18 volt) at testpoint 'T2' (a small round copper pad) ?


Unfortuantly I haven't opened her up yet as I am busy preparing for exams, I will do so as soon as I get the chance and post the result.

 

[computarman]

So the system is working normally and you hear the startup sound and you can see the menu etc. with a bright light? The backlight consist of several LED's inline and if the first led went out all the other Led's down the line would lose power. The Backlight has a separate little ribbon cable that connects to the main screen ribbon cable. You need to take a multimeter and make sure the Led string is getting power. If you find that the Led string is not getting power you could run a seperate wire to the Led string if you need to. Led's are not like the old flourescent backlights that needed fancy voltage from an inverter. So you could grab power from any suitable onboard source if needed.

 

[EvilDragon]

Note: The backlight wires SPLIT UP from the ribbon cable - but it's the SAME ribbon cable (there aren't two).

 

[Watcher]

It appears as if the backlight cable has a break in it, is there anything that could be done to repair it?

(Sorry for the bad image quality only have my phone camera at the mo)

http://radyr.cardiff.sch.uk/~peter.jenkins/DSC00277.JPG

edit: I didn't realise it was that large, have hotlinked to the image rather than breaking the tables.

 

[Orkie]

Try very to very carefully expose some of the wire and solder onto it? Can be pretty tough to solder onto those kinds of cables though.

 

[aaron11193]

Try very to very carefully expose some of the wire and solder onto it? Can be pretty tough to solder onto those kinds of cables though.

That seems potentially dangerous to the rest of the ribbon cable as it could melt, and the space to solder onto would be too small for a regular soldering iron.
Could you possibly get a replacement? I have heard that they are a generic name brand TFT LCD, you might find one on the net somewhere.

 

[Orkie]

That seems potentially dangerous to the rest of the ribbon cable as it could melt, and the space to solder onto would be too small for a regular soldering iron.
Could you possibly get a replacement? I have heard that they are a generic name brand TFT LCD, you might find one on the net somewhere.

That is like saying beheading might be dangerous to a corpse .

 

[aaron11193]

That is like saying beheading might be dangerous to a corpse .

Yes, i guess you're right

But i guess.. if it's only the backlight that doesnt work then you dont really want to destroy the rest of the connection to the LCD coz you could always just cut some of the metal from the LCD casing and put a few LEDs in there around the edges, but i dont think there is much room for that in the 2x case anyway..

 

[Watcher]

Bumping cause its fixed! Solidering a wire from one contact to another seemed to work and then adding superglue to stop it from coming apart in the future. Unfortunately I can't claim credit for the resurrection and the kudos go to my father.

Edit: And for future reference strong paint stripper doesn't seem to erode the plastic covering and only careful scraping at it with a sharp point seems to work.

 

[Sphinxter]

I'd try heat before the knife.

 

[Watcher]

Gone again, completely unrepairable this time. In the process of repairing the entire thing went. Ergo I live without a GP2X, ah well life goes on.