Can I replace the LCD cable by myself

[asimov-solensan]

I can't belive my bad luck, my first pandora showed the purple tinct around christmas, and then the second one is showing the same problem.


Last time I had to wait more than a month for the replacement and this time I was wondering if won't be better to just ask for the cable and replace it at home. I have some soldering equipment and that kind of things, in fact I have repaired some laptops (the closest thing to a pandora I have fixed).


I wanted to ask here if someone have done it, are there some instructions on how to do it, or at least how to disasemble the pandora without breaking anything. Do I need any particular tool?


It would help if anybody know how much time it will take if I senf it for RMA, maybe it's worth to send it.


By the way how hard is to replace the nubs? that can be done only at circuitco? I have a one nubber but I would like to "upgrade" at some point.


Thanks for the help

 

[MarioPandio]

Sorry to hear its struck again. I too have had 2 early units suffer this fate.


ED produced a video recently, covering the dis-assembly, cable repair and re-build, so yes you could give it a go yourself. See here http://pandorapress....pair/#more-6116


edit:


As for the nubs only ED or CC can replace them at present. If you do RMA might be better to send to ED even if you bought from Craig, so he can swap the nub at the same time.

 

[WizardStan]

Replacing the LCD is easy enough, requiring nothing more than a screwdriver or three. Opening the LCD part of the case is the hardest part, something I recently redid and took a bunch of high quality pictures of and may get around to uploading this weekend.


There's just a few things you need to be very careful of: the zif connectors are fragile, I broke mine and now it is very difficult to get the image to stay; and the microphone, when removing the board be sure to lift it straight out, don't tilt it, or the mic will break off.

 

[Nickie]

i think the question behind is : will the team be willing to send a LCD cable to end-users or not?

 

[asimov-solensan]

Thanks for the answers, of course I need to ask for the cable but I don't see why they wouldn't send me it. I will also send a mail to ED regarding the nub.

 

[MarioPandio]

They probably would be willing, as they are with battery covers but the more important point is, given that they are so cheap to purchase anyway, why not support the OPT and buy one with the postage yourself? http://icontrolpad.com/pandoraprivate.html as you'll see they are just £2.99 and perhaps you'd need a couple at once, incase you mess up the repair. When outside of warranty you may have to do this anyway, unless OPT then offer a priced service to continue any repairs for you.

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, I shipped a couple ones for self-repairments, that's also the reason I made the video.


Some users also wanted to replace their nubs on their own. Possible, you just need to be able to remove the old one.

 

[WizardStan]

Some users also wanted to replace their nubs on their own. Possible, you just need to be able to remove the old one.

But we can't buy nubs. I would love to purchase a few spares just as I did LCD cables.

 

[tsh]

Some users also wanted to replace their nubs on their own. Possible, you just need to be able to remove the old one.

But we can't buy nubs. I would love to purchase a few spares just as I did LCD cables.

Nubs aren't advertised, and I think it would be foolish if they were, since replacing them is really not trivial - but you can buy them if you try. Just took me 45 minutes to replace mine, with no special equipment (but I have designed and debugged even more complex PCBs in the past for several years). If you've not experienced PCB tracks lifting off a one-off prototype board before, you might want to be really really careful (even though this PCB seems quite well made). Replacing the LCD cable is a walk in the park in comparison.

 

[asimov-solensan]

I think i will buy the cable and try.


And if can make a suggestion, ED or someone (brave enough) could post a video showing how to replace the nubs.

 

[d0pefish]

I think i will buy the cable and try.


And if can make a suggestion, ED or someone (brave enough) could post a video showing how to replace the nubs.

I'm about to do both of these tasks as soon as my new parts arrive


I'll try to shoot a video of the procedure unless ED does beforehand.


I removed my nubs by getting a 0.05mm feeler gauge (the kind you'd use for a car), sliding it under the nub, heating a joint with the iron, and turning the feeler gauge round so it passes through the joint while the solder is molten and separates the two halves of it. I then slowly went round and did this for all the joints. It takes patience and care, but can be done without any damage if you're careful.


EDIT:


They just arrived this morning! EvilDragon is a legend Thankyou very much Michael, I can't wait to try repairing my Pandora tonight

 

[asimov-solensan]

If a video is too much work for you a few photos would help alot. And thanks by the way.

 

[d0pefish]

The repair operation was a complete success!


I have some pictures up in a thread over on Amibay:


http://amibay.com/showthread.php?p=181613


Unfortunately the video quality of my phone was proving to be quite bad so I gave up trying to record one.


There's not much light in my place so my camera (again on the phone, I don't have a digital camera any more) struggles in the low light but I hope this helps somewhat anyway


Many thanks indeed to EvilDragon - the new parts are working great so far! I simply cannot thank him enough

 

[craigix]

I wonder if the old lcd cable failure is related to the users environment somehow?


At least the new ones seem 100% so far.

 

[darfgarf]

I wonder if the old lcd cable failure is related to the users environment somehow?

british weather will kill anything given time

 

[Wally]

I installed a new LCD Cable as well, got a hairline crack in the screen (which I have ordered a new one and keeping the old one for a spare) I can't stress what ED said about opening the screen case enough.


No dramas otherwise

 

[elwing]

I wonder if the old lcd cable failure is related to the users environment somehow?

british weather will kill anything given time

starting with joy and hope probably

 

[asimov-solensan]

How long takes ED usually to answer a mail? I sent him one ragarding all this and I didn't recieved the answer, maybe I'm too used to craig's shop they always answered me within a couple of days.


The thing is getting worse and I lost my job and finished finals last week, this summer I will have lot of spare time, I need a fully functional pandora.