The place to share knowledge about upgrades, mods, customisations and all other cool DIY projects for MPCs and other music equipment.
User avatar

Re:

By Scheme Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:57 pm
I heard there's a way to make your own EL Foils... Anyone? Lol
User avatar
By richie Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:47 pm
Thank you for sharing the pictures.

BUT... You paid the same cost it would have been to replace the screen with a brand new LCD screen -- where the backlight never goes out ever again. :(
By aldistorted Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:29 pm
Any help with the pics on this ? i took the front panel off but cant remember where the 3 washers go lol
_Stilo_ wrote: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).
Image

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.
Image

There it is. This is a shot of how my display looked like before the replacement. Pretty weak.
Image

Now you can get hold of the display. I recommend taking it off so you can handle it better.
Image

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.
Image

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.
Image

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.
Image

Now reassemble it all again in reverse order with the new foil, solder on the power leads, put it all back together and enjoy:
Image

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 :D
User avatar
By peterpiper Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:28 pm
The three washers goes between the upper front panel and the.....(theese are the moments when I realize that there are so many words I don't know in english). When you put the front panel on there will be 3 screws on the upper side to screw on and the washers need to be places there but not under the screws but under the panel.
Hope that makes sense to you.

peace
By The franchute Sat Jun 10, 2023 8:32 pm
Dear Stilo,

Thanks a lot for your "tuto". I've just bought a backlight for my S950, and I hope your instructions will help me because I'm not comfortable with repairing. Apparently, it doens't seem to be too risky including for a beginner... I hope so (I'm talking about the first part of your instructions of course).

Nevertheless, the pictures on your instructions have disappeared. Please could you post them again, ce serait top, merci beaucoup ?

Xavier