Post your questions, opinions and reviews of the MPC1000. This forum is for discussion of the OFFICIAL Akai OS (2.1). If you wish to discuss the JJ OS, please use the dedicated JJ OS forum
By EntonDelMonte Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:57 am
Hi everyone!
This is my first post here.
Yesterday I finally gave my MPC1000 a proper upgrade with new pads and buttons.

When browsing our favourite MPC part source I also considered a new screen but they seemed overpriced to me – so I did some research with alternative parts from China.

What I found (and ordered) is this:
https://www.buydisplay.com/default/graphic-lcd-240x64-module-display-ra6963-fully-compatible-with-t6963
...which seems to run on the same controller and has the same specs.

The only thing that seems to be different is the amount and order of pins (see attachment of original and replacement).

Pins only present on the replacement are:
#21 — LED_A — Backlight Anode(+5v)
#22 — LED_K — Backlight cathode(0v)
...and pin #9 on the original pinout needs to be switched with pin #20 on the replacement.

Has anyone here tried something similar? How would I handle the two extra pins on the replacement?
I would be happy if anyone could give me a little hint :)

Best
Enton

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By Slump Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:01 am
Are you me? I'm literally in the process of doing the same thing with that same screen this same week. Weird... I replaced all the tact switches, both the alps SKHHAKA010 and SKQEABA010 styles. Then I replaced the jog wheel pot with an alps EC12E24204A2. After all that, I switched in a few different colored LEDs for a select few buttons, but left some the same. Anyways, I mentioned all that because I wanted to say that I was easily able to find tutorials and good posts explaining both how to do these upgrades/mods and lists for sourced parts. I found the right tact switches and jog wheel on these forums using the search function and I also found a shaky cam tutorial on youtube showing how to replace the tact switches; which was immensely helpful. But when it comes to replacing the LCDs with these cheap chinese displays I can't find anything really. Looking at the product photos listed on mpcstuff.com I see that the display unit is identical to the ones we got so it must just be all in the cable...

I also bought a backlight in the same style from the same distributor for my roland pg-10 which wasn't originally back lit. Similarly, there were no real tutorials or posts online explaining the how-to process for that particular unit, but I was still able to glean helpful information reading guides about doing the same thing with other vintage gear not originally backlit. I managed to get that display working and learned a lot in the process, but my knowledge is still spotty. For that install, I had to pull 5v for the backlight anode directly from the power section of the PCB. Although, I found that if I connected the anode pin (LED_A) and logic power pin (VCC) together on the actual display unit, while also connecting the ground (LED_K) to ground, I could get the backlight to light, but it's generally advised against for reasons I'm not sure of. This Is why I ultimately decided to pull a separate 5v for the LED from the power section of the PCB. The problem is the mpc is so much more complex and I don't know if I have the technical know how to find a clean and easily accessible 5v source just to power the backlight's LED. Again, looking at the mpcstuff.com's product photo I can see that the A and K pins on the board have big globs of hot glue on them. Did they just connect the anode (Pin A) to the logic supply voltage (VCC)? Does it actually matter that much to have a clean independent voltage to power the LED?

Anyways, I bought a 20 pin ribbon cable online. I crimped one side with dupont crimps on all the wires for simple pin swapping if need be and the other side with a normal 10x2 IDC connector. Looking at the two datasheets I made up this chart. I'll experiment and try to figure it out this week. Hopefully I don't blow anything up!

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By richie Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:15 am
Thanks for the post. Just so you folks know, this isn't new information.

Basically, do a 240x64 T6963 search and any of the screens that show up will up will work with the MPC 1000 as well as MPC 2500.
By Slump Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:25 am
Yea, the problem is what pins do we switch and how do we power those new pins, aka the LED back light? Maybe you can link us to that or share. I mean pin 9 and 20 is an obvious switch but does the reset pin and FS pin just get grounded? Do I have to put a trim pot on V0 to control contrast or will the mpc still do that through software? That's what were looking for. Were not asking if a standard 240x64 T6963 will work, but rather how do we make it work?
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By richie Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:55 am
You do not need to put a trim pot / resistor to anything. The pinout should be identical to the stock displays that Akai used.

All I did was solder a pin header to the common buydisplay.com screens and put it back in my MPC 1000. I never had to change any pinouts whatsoever. The contrast is controlled through software as far as I am aware.

The only soldering involved that I can recall is if I wanted to invert the screen. You can even see this evidenced on some install videos on youtube that it was just connecting the default ribbon to the pinheader straight.
By JVC Wed Aug 14, 2019 8:01 pm
240x64 T6963 LCD screen is very common screen. The newer screens on the market uses LED as a backlight, therefore you no longer have to deal with inverter.
So you need to get +5V DC from somewhere in MPC1000 (for LED light backlight). You can get 5V from CompactFlash reader area, because it uses 5V also.
I replaced kurzweil K2000 keyboard's LCD screen with the same LCD screen (it uses T6963 type LCD screen as well). The new LCD is significantly better than the old one.
I just wish that Akai used the same LCD screen for MPC-2000!
By JonathanBadness Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:07 pm
H guys. Did anyone have any success with led lit screens mentioned above. I have the same one as mentioned which was suggested the pin 20 and 9 needed to be swapped I tried this but I can't get off to do anything except light up and display horizontal lines. Frustrating as I can't stand the green screen and spent £20 on the replacement
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By horisonten Thu Dec 19, 2019 8:57 am
Also interested. This thread is the best bet for instructions anyone who want to replace the lcd has (based on my Google searches). Can anyone who has successfully made the swap please share the details? You will be of great help for a lot of current and future MPC1000 users.
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By Sense-A Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:00 pm
The one I installed into my Kurzweil K2000 has a resistor jumping from pin 3 to pin 21. pin 22 is not used.

I looked at the pinout for the linked replacement T6963 and the LCD pinout in the MPC1000 service manual. Most pins appear to match up. However...

The MPC 1000 LCD has 20 pins. The replacement has 22 pins.
Pin 9 from the mpc1000 must go to pin 20 on the T6963. Just how Slump drew it.
Slump left pins 10 disconnected on both sides. I'm not sure if that's okay.
Pin 10 on the T6963 is "Reset Signal" whereas on MPC 1000 it says "PWRGDB"
Also the T6963 has +5V backlight on pin 21 and 0V backlight cathode on pin 22. I'm not sure if these can be left unhooked or not...

Although, I found that if I connected the anode pin (LED_A) and logic power pin (VCC) together on the actual display unit, while also connecting the ground (LED_K) to ground, I could get the backlight to light, but it's generally advised against for reasons I'm not sure of. This Is why I ultimately decided to pull a separate 5v for the LED from the power section of the PCB. The problem is the mpc is so much more complex and I don't know if I have the technical know how to find a clean and easily accessible 5v source just to power the backlight's LED. Again, looking at the mpcstuff.com's product photo I can see that the A and K pins on the board have big globs of hot glue on them. Did they just connect the anode (Pin A) to the logic supply voltage (VCC)? Does it actually matter that much to have a clean independent voltage to power the LED?


On the one for my Kurzweil K2000, I think the guy jumped pin 3 (VCC +5V) to pin 21 as you did. But he used a resistor to make the jump, which probably is there for protection and for the same reason you were advised not to use the single source 5V to power both the VCC and backlight without a resistor.

You can probably leave pin 22 not connected (NC).

Too bad Slump hasn't responded. he seemed to be the furthest along and close to getting it working.
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By Sense-A Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:39 pm
So I just looked at the T6963 LCD in my Kurzweil K2000. It jumps the VCC +5V power from pin 3 to the +5V backlight power on pin 21 using a 220ohms 5% resistor (gold brown red red) with the red side towards pin 21. By doing this, you can connect the 20 pin ribbon cable to pins 1-20 on the new T6963 LCD, and have a resistor jumping power over to pin 21 on the T6963 LCD to power pin 21 even though the ribbon cable isn't connected to it. pin 22 is not connected to anything. This seems reasonable. I read several other situations online where people were powering the backlight but using a resistor to jump power. I think this is because the backlight is a more sensitive electrical component.

I think that resolves part of Slump's dilemma.

So I did notice that pins 9 and 10 are different on the MPC 1000 and Kurzweil K2000. We already figured we need to jump pin 9 to pin 20 on the new T6963 LCD. So what do we do with pin 10? My guess is that "PWRGDB" is equivalent to a reset which means we could just connect pins 10 to 10.

Pin 19 (Font Selection) on the T6963 can probably be left as is. Leaving it open will probably have it select default.

I might risk blowing something up to resolve this by testing it tonight.

If I get it working then I'm willing to buy a few displays and prep them for whoever wants to buy one that's plug-in ready. I could probably do it cheaper than what they sell for on Flea-Bay.