Backlight, Inverter, El oil etc.

Hi there...I saw many topics discuss about changing backlight/el foil but here is mine...
Got my 60 for awhile now without according too much attention about the display but...
Now it's time to change the whole thing, I got a bright n blue/green (wathever you call it) screen sometimes and, a noisy dark one the rest of the times...
It's intermittent...
Should I change only the El Foil, and what/where is the Inverter on the Mpc 60.
Someone can light me on that one
Thanx in advance

Sounds like you have a bad connection to the inverter or something.

I'm pretty sure it's a minor one, cuz it lights up sometimes so...
Ok, but can U tell me what is the inverter and where is located please...
Thank you...

NikBo wrote:I'm pretty sure it's a minor one, cuz it lights up sometimes so...
Ok, but can U tell me what is the inverter and where is located please...
Thank you...

I can't really explain it without a picture to show you but maybe someone has a pic of it already.

Is it like this... you can see the words but its not bright... I am also dealing with this as of yesterday... I think I switched inverters and got caught with a bad one... my other two machines just went in the shop so I cant swap now... I am not really sure that thats the problem though...

I recently got a 60MKII that is in need of a lot of TLC. The screen was dull and assumed that it was the backlight that was dead so ordered a new one.

Today with a bit of time on my hand I thought I'd take a closer look into the problem I realized that it wasn't the backlight It was in fact the inverter that is faulty.

Luckily I have a S3000XL kicking about that I have only used twice since I got it. I opened it up to compare the inverters and It turns out that the Inverters are Identical (mechanically and electrically) they don't look exactly the same but the mounting holes are in the same place and the Jumpers are the same.

I plugged in the 60MKII backlight into the S3000XL inverter and what you know one working backlight, all be it very dim.

I removed the Inverter from the 60MKII and noticed that there were dry solder joints on P1, the power input of the inverter, nothing 30 seconds and a soldering iron can't cure. Thought I decided to put the S3000XL inverter into the 60MKII as it is newer.

While both machines were open I checked to compare the LCD controller IC, and they use the same controller: LC7981

The screen on my S3000XL is much better than my 60MKII and I never use the S3000XL so I decided to swap the screens over.

The cable that connects the 60MKII LCD to the main board would not fit on the S3000XL LCD connector because the pins on the screen are too wide (right order, right spacing, just too wide to fit into the holes of the connector)

I used the S3000XL cable instead I just had to cut off the clip that is on the main board end of the cable so that the plug and socket would mate. the S3000XL LCD cable is much shorter than the 60MKII LCD cable, but it is long enough to reach.

I then soldered the 60MKII backlight cable on the the S3000XL LCD screen, screwed it into place, plugged in the backlight cable and the LCD cable. put the 60MKII back together.

Powered it up and everything worked perfectly. The new screen is much clearer and brighter, though I will get a new backlight for it some time (backlights for the S3000XL are much easier to source).

My thoughts on this are that you can pick up S3000XL's rather cheap now, and they have a few parts that will work in your 60MKII , it's worth looking into getting one if you can find one cheap enough. The floppy drive also looks like it may work as it has the jumper block that is the right shape ( I haven't tried it or looked at the model but on quick inspection it is worth a shot)

I hope this info helps someone.

Cheers,

nine

Lots of parts in these older Akai samplers are the same. Some S series samplers are almost free these days, but I still feel like its a real shame to cannibalize such nice stuff if its still working. Lots of these parts are still commercially available too. I only ever do this kinda stuff as an absolute last resort. Maybe they will be worth something someday, but probably not. They will still be worth something to me!

...and yeah, that's your inverter failing.

Raystar wrote:

Is it like this... you can see the words but its not bright... I am also dealing with this as of yesterday... I think I switched inverters and got caught with a bad one... my other two machines just went in the shop so I cant swap now... I am not really sure that thats the problem though...

Exactly...