Can The Screen Be Replaced?

[CyruzDraxs]

I have two questions;

1.) Can the touch panel and the LCD screen be seperated if someone wanted to replace the screen?

2.) Is the interface cable for the screen soldered directly to the board and, if not, what type is it?

I have a broken Cowon A3 which, in my opinion, has the nicest screen of anything in that size. I thought I might try swapping the screens and just wanted to know if that's at all possible or if I should just put this thing on ebay for parts or something.

 

[mindlord]

1. The touch panel and LCD are the same thing, and can't be replaced separately. If that's what you're asking. Additionally, LCD panels often have their own pinouts, so simply swapping would be unlikely to work.

2. From what I can tell, the ribbon cable is not soldered, but uses one of those fancy quick release slider thing-a-ma-jiggies, but it won't do you any good anyways since the pinouts are very unlikely to be the same.

I can't help but point out that EXTREME care was taken in choosing the right LCD for the Pandora. If you check out the specs on the Wiki you'll probably find that the selected LCD meets or exceeds the specs of the Cowon A3's screen.

 

[White Flame]

Why would you want to replace the screen having never seen the Pandora's? The Cowon A3 is also a 4" 800x480 screen, like this and the Nokia tablets. I suspect they're all in the same visual quality range, if not from the same panel supplier.

(disclaimer: I have no clue about LCD sourcing nor the actual brightness/contrast/viewing angle/speed specs, just that my N800 also has an amazing screen.)

 

[craigix]

It probably is the same LCD.

It's made by TPO. You can get spares for about $80.

 

[Username]

If you managed to break it would it be an easy swap?

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

It's gonna be interesting to see you offering these parts (LCD, buttons, etc) for the masses when everything is going fine (after second batch, perhaps)

 

[Vorporeal]

If you managed to break it would it be an easy swap?

My guess is that it would be - you'd take apart the case, remove the old screen+ribbon cable, put the new one exactly where the old one was, close up the case, and you're done. It's a pure swap, no new things that would require any serious instructions on where to put and how to install.

 

[CyruzDraxs]

1. The touch panel and LCD are the same thing, and can't be replaced separately. If that's what you're asking. Additionally, LCD panels often have their own pinouts, so simply swapping would be unlikely to work.

2. From what I can tell, the ribbon cable is not soldered, but uses one of those fancy quick release slider thing-a-ma-jiggies, but it won't do you any good anyways since the pinouts are very unlikely to be the same.

I can't help but point out that EXTREME care was taken in choosing the right LCD for the Pandora. If you check out the specs on the Wiki you'll probably find that the selected LCD meets or exceeds the specs of the Cowon A3's screen.

1.) Touch panels often come mounted to the screen itself, however; resistive types are usually removable. Also; there is a few standard interface pinouts that most LCDs follow, depending on their size and function.

2.) It's highly likely they are the same pinout, if what craigix just said about it being TPO is correct. Usually manufacturers try to atleast stick to one interface pinout in similar sized screens.

I HAVE seen the screen in the Pandora. As it has been said before the screen used is the same as in the Archos 605 Wifi. The screen in the Cowon A3 is a bit different and has noticeably better color than the one in the Archos 605, however; some of that could be attributed to the touch panel itself--they sometimes degrade the image quaity a bit.

From this picture I just found, it looks as though the touch panel is interfaced together with the screen, so it would be a somewhat more difficult task to swap, but it'd still be good to know if the panel can be removed from that metal frame.

CODE
http://craig.gp2x.de/big_with_lcd2.jpg

 

[Tor]

Not all LCD screens are compatible though, it turned out that the screen in the Nokia N810 cannot be used in the N800.