[MR2] OT Electronic Repair

[Bob Schultz]

Thanks for the response...

I said it was green or red because I am a bit color blind.
It may have some sort of filter over it.
It is not the Silver Type of displays you see on cheap calculators nor is it
the annoying blue displays they see fit to put on the new crop of Alarm
Clocks.

This remote is maybe 2" x 3" and was built in 1991 or 1992 so I doubt that
it has much in common with a Laptop but honestly, I don't know.
The fact that I can see that the display is working when I look at the
display on an angle is what made me think it had a light bulb behind it.

The unit is in a 1988 Allante and of course that car used the Bose Speakers
so it is next to impossible to retrofit the unit.
No one has seen fit to find design a cd player to work in this car unless
you go with an FM Modulator and even those are getting hard to come by.

If I was sure that the unit off eBay would work I would probably just buy
one but it is a bit of a crap shoot, it looks quite a bit different from the
one in the car and I don't know if the plugs are the same.

Unless I get lucky and find someone on the list with this particular
experience I guess I will just live with it until the unit completely dies.

Thanks

Bob



-----Original Message-----
From: mr2-bounces at mr2.com [mailto:mr2-bounces at mr2.com] On Behalf Of Kurt
Krueger
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 4:51 PM
To: mr2 at mr2.com
Subject: Re: [MR2] OT Electronic Repair

On 3/12/2011 9:26 AM, Bob Schultz wrote:
> I have an old FM modulator CD changer and the remote works but the 
> Display won't light up.
>
> It is the old style LCD, kind of red or green.  I can see the outline 
> of the display but they aren't bright enough to really read.
>
LCD's don't tend to be red or green unless there's a filter.  Or it's a
color display.  Are you sure it's not EL (electro luminescent)?
> It looks like there is nothing but a bad bulb behind them but my 
> cursory look at the unit didn't turn up anything.
Might be.  But it could be a bulb like a laptop LCD screen (a tiny tube on
the bottom of the display).  Those run off high voltage, so there's an
inverter driving the bulb.  Inverters can die too.
> Does anyone out there have some experience with something like this 
> and if so, is it practical to repair.
If it's LCD, power supply voltage could be affecting the contrast.  
Here's an article on how it works:
http://www.hantronix.com/files/down/neg-invr.pdf

Now having said all the above, I've never actually repaired one.  But have
had several devices that have failed similar to yours.  Generally they've
been old enough that I didn't dig into them.

I HAVE replaced laptop screens and inverters (economies say to fix).
> I think I found a replacement unit on EBay but I am not sure it will 
> work with the unit and I would hate to invest $40 into a 1991 CD 
> changer that may fail anyway.
>
I solved that 'problem' by buying a CD dash unit that handles mp3.  
Either on CD's or a thumb drive.  Cost me a whole $70 on a special good deal
(Sony at Frys).  Ripping at 128kbs is adequate for the stock MkI sound
system.  Good for about 8 hours of music on a single CD.  And with the
ripped CD's, I have the originals safely tucked away at home.


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