I have three pieces of equipment with displays that have failed, a Bushnell trail camera which still functions but I cannot access the menu because the display is blank, a bathroom scale powered by a cr2032 cell and now my Chinese uni-t ut201 clamp meter.
The last two are cheap enough but the trail camera was a couple of hundred quid.
Having checked power is getting on the motherboards is there anything else an amateur could look for to find the fault?
AJH
Early liquid crystal displays have a limited life anyway. There were different types (with slightly different colours) which had different life expectancy, but I've forgotten which is which now.
Failure of the connection to the display is not uncommon. Some displays use a very fine array of contacts embedded in rubber to push against the glass, and disturbing these often leaves parts of the display not working. Those with wire lead connections to the glass often break, causing much the same effect. If the connection to the AC backplane is lost, the whole display will stop working.
Some types of LCD rely entirely on a back light for visibility, and if the backlight fails, you can't see the display, although the LCD part may still be working fine. In such cases, you might be able to see the display if you use a bright torch (and this goes for some LCD computer monitors too).
How is the display connected to the board? If it is a rubber strip with stacked conducting sections, it might have lost contact with the glass or board owing to water ingress. If there is a flexible printed cable stuck to the glass, it might have come unstuck, or cracked somewhere, or making bad contact in the socket on the board. The socket can be a zero-insertion-force type clamped by a rocker or push/pull, or if the cable has a thick piece stuck on the socket end, it will be a push fit.
It was this on the clamp meter and all held together with pingfukits, so that's in the bin, the display on the scales had bled when viewed under bright sunlight so that went there too.
Just deciding whether to just use the trailcam on current menu settings or risk breaking it completely.
AJH
I have a Bushnell Trail Cam (model 119436). A year or so ago they uploaded the wrong firmware update to their website which stopped the LCD working. Even if that's not your problem and the LCD is dead, there should be a video-out port you can use to access the setup menu. On mine it's a subminiature (2.5mm) socket near the USB and SD card slots.
If it is a name brand camera, you may be able to get parts from the manufacturer.
Lack of adequate pressure on the rubber connecting strip is a very common cause of failure.
NT
I don't see why you put the clamp meter in the bin. Just remove the pingfukits (whatever they might be) and clean the rubber to make good contact on its edges again, and find some other method of holding it together instead of the pingfukits (whatever they might be).
The trouble with pingfukits is that they ping all over the room and you can't find them. Even if you do, you have no idea where they came from or how they fit. Been there, bought the t-shirt and the DVD.
Thanks for that, mine's an 119435 and I have just unzipped the new firmware although it has the original from new.
I'll have to find a 2.5 sub miniature to ?? and see if I can get by without the lcd screen.
AJH
"Pingfuckits" is the onomatopoeically ascribed name to a small spring like part that goes "ping!" when inadvertantly released from its confinement within a gadget when said gadget is undergoing disassembly.
It is the combination of the sound of its release and the resulting curse word emitted by the hapless disassembler when said Pinfuckit goes ping! and launches itself toward some obscure location in the workshop or room, never to be discovered ever again (at least as far as the disassembler's lifetime is concerned).
This explanation is offered to the few who subscribe to the D-I-Y newsgroup who are simply armchair DIYers. For those who've ever tried their hand at disassembling almost any mechanically complex piece of hardware (motorbike engines and gearboxes and, of course, wind up clocks for example) and had lived in ignorance of that word until now, would have immediately recognised *exactly* what a "Pingfuckit" was. :-)
And for more delicate of vocabulary you have "wherdigoes".
Well Duh! Obviously. But I did suggest finding "some other method of holding it together", as the OP said it was "all held together" with them, so I wrongly assumed they were external rather than internal.
Personally speaking, I rather doubt the very existence of such an 'animal' (a DIYer with a 'delicate vocabulary'). :-)
Depends if your 3yo is helping you.
I once exclaimed 'Gordon Bennett' over some DIY frustration or other, our then 2-3yo was 'helping'. She spent the rest of the day gleefully going round the house saying gordon bennett and laughing :-)
Can you tell me how many connections this 2.5 sub miniature socket has, I've tried a 2.5mm stereo to phono to the tv av port with no luck so is it just a 2 pole (mono) socket?
AJH
Perzackerly and I have a feeling it that it was I that created the word after using pingfukit when disassembling something with the kids about and getting black looks from SWMBO'd.
I think so, on mine anyway. Maybe on the more upmarket models that also let you play back images on the LCD it also has audio.
There is a menu option to set it to PAL or NTSC. Not sure what the default is; would your TV show NTSC composite video?
Try pressing "menu" then right-arrow 6 times then down-arrow then OK to toggle it.
I just found the manual - the default video setting is NTSC.
What is the tv side connector, I'll have to buy one.
Need to get the menu visible first.
Thanks Reentrant
AJH
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.