By _Stilo_
Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:26 pm
Ok folks, I just want to put out some information on how to replace the backlight EL foil in an S950, since I made some pictures anyway, and there's questions about that popping up every once in a while. I hope somebody will find it useful.
It should be pretty easy to do if you don't have two left hands and know how to use a soldering iron. However, I take no responsibility if you break something or aren't successful. This is just meant as a guideline on how to do it.
Alright let's go...first you have to open the front panel to get access. For that you need to unscrew the cover (and the rack ears if you have).
Then you get access to the screws for the front panel. Make sure you don't lose the three washers you see in the pic. There's three more of the same screws on the bottom. Pull off the Rec/Monitor/Output level knobs as well.
There it is. This is a shot of how my display looked like before the replacement. Pretty weak.
Now you can get hold of the display. I recommend taking it off so you can handle it better.
Here you see the two power leads connecting to the foil. Better remember which one's connected where, although I think it isn't even necessary as the foil is driven by AC (somebody correct me on this if wrong). Unsolder them from the foil.
If you're lucky, you can now simply pull out the old foil, slip in the new one, and solder the leads back on and put it all together again.
Most of the time however the foil might be stuck to the PCB board of the display with some glue or stuff, and you have no way of pulling it out. One possibility is then to simply slide the new foil on top of the old one and connect the new one to the power leads. Just pay attention that no connection to the old foil remains, only the new one has to be connected to the power!
I however went a little further and wanted to document that here as well.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK FROM HERE!
If you still want to get the old foil out, you need to take the whole display apart carefully. First you need to pry the 12 metal clamps open that hold the display to the PCB.
Then you can carefully take it apart and remove the foil. Make sure you don't loose the rubber attached to the display. The actual display is kinda sensitive, it might produce random black patches when the contacts are touched, but they usually disappear on their own after a short while, so don't worry. I rested the display on two of the knobs from the front panel so the contacts (in the rubber) are floating free.
Now reassemble it all again in reverse order with the new foil, solder on the power leads, put it all back together and enjoy:
As you can see this is a blue foil, it's one I bought from midi-rakete.de. Any suggestions or questions are welcome. Have a nice day
It should be pretty easy to do if you don't have two left hands and know how to use a soldering iron. However, I take no responsibility if you break something or aren't successful. This is just meant as a guideline on how to do it.
Alright let's go...first you have to open the front panel to get access. For that you need to unscrew the cover (and the rack ears if you have).
Then you get access to the screws for the front panel. Make sure you don't lose the three washers you see in the pic. There's three more of the same screws on the bottom. Pull off the Rec/Monitor/Output level knobs as well.
There it is. This is a shot of how my display looked like before the replacement. Pretty weak.
Now you can get hold of the display. I recommend taking it off so you can handle it better.
Here you see the two power leads connecting to the foil. Better remember which one's connected where, although I think it isn't even necessary as the foil is driven by AC (somebody correct me on this if wrong). Unsolder them from the foil.
If you're lucky, you can now simply pull out the old foil, slip in the new one, and solder the leads back on and put it all together again.
Most of the time however the foil might be stuck to the PCB board of the display with some glue or stuff, and you have no way of pulling it out. One possibility is then to simply slide the new foil on top of the old one and connect the new one to the power leads. Just pay attention that no connection to the old foil remains, only the new one has to be connected to the power!
I however went a little further and wanted to document that here as well.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK FROM HERE!
If you still want to get the old foil out, you need to take the whole display apart carefully. First you need to pry the 12 metal clamps open that hold the display to the PCB.
Then you can carefully take it apart and remove the foil. Make sure you don't loose the rubber attached to the display. The actual display is kinda sensitive, it might produce random black patches when the contacts are touched, but they usually disappear on their own after a short while, so don't worry. I rested the display on two of the knobs from the front panel so the contacts (in the rubber) are floating free.
Now reassemble it all again in reverse order with the new foil, solder on the power leads, put it all back together and enjoy:
As you can see this is a blue foil, it's one I bought from midi-rakete.de. Any suggestions or questions are welcome. Have a nice day
Last edited by _Stilo_ on Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:08 am, edited 2 times in total.