LCD repair

[@mikescher9266]

I thought I had destroyed my thermostat so I searched for instructions like this. Yours are by far the best explanation that I found. Thank you for taking the time to make this.

[@NarrowboatJourneys]

I cleaned the zebra connector of a kitchen timer but no luck. The problem was the other side of the connector which was stuck to the lcd. I pulled it off and cleaned it. It was tricky to put it back as there were no guides to locate it correctly but I got there in the end. Now it works like new. Thank you.

[@peterduxbury927]

The zebra strip also loses its Contact Pressure (over time). If your LCD Module is relatively flat, then it can be possible to restore clear LCD images on the display by the use of NalClips. These Clips are mainly used in clipping paper - in an Office Environment. I have had great success in the use of this type of Clip, which increases the pressure between the PCB / Zebra Strip / LCD Screen. The use of a few NalClips around the perimeter of the LCD Screen gets top results by just increasing contact pressure. I have also cleaned the surfaces with alcohol, which removes the substance which is exuded by the rubber-like Zebra Strip - over a long period of time. Hope that this helps.

[@giulianocrepaz1805]

The suggestion was excellent to solve the issue of LCD in my Casio calculator. The problem was in the connection strip. By heating with hairdrier and pressing in the contacts area, the LCD now working like new. Thanks

[@dpfreedman]

I may be five years late but it's never too late to say THANK YOU! My little Klein angle finder has been sitting in a drawer for ages as most of the LCD segments had gone M.I.A. rendering the device useless. Last night I stumbled upon your video and, this morning, applied your technique. Incredibly, after major surgery and contact cleaning, the device now works like new. Amazing! Thanks, again.

[@richardmoody8688]

Hi, well I've had a good day today, I fixed the LCD pixel problem that I had on my SONY mini hifi system using this video as a guide. I didn't do it exactly as the link but it was certainly a good guide. What I did in the absence of a soldering iron was use the side of a kitchen fork prong that I had heated up on the gas ring for 10 seconds. Then I positioned the heated prong exactly where I wanted it, pushed down on the furthest fork prong away to give a good amount of pressure and held for 75 seconds which allowed the heated prong to cool down. So, I was doing 3/4" about every 2-3 minutes. I did have to put the unit back together to see how I got on & take it all apart again several times but eventually I got there. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction ShortcutElectronics.

[@ytrew9717]

LCD repair using a fork! you should have make a video of it!

[@waynoswaynos]

Thank you. Method 1 did it. Now for the part of the repair you can't help me with, which is to find the 2 tiny screws I managed to lose while searching for an LCD repair video.

[@luminousfractal420]

tape magnets to a pole and sweep 😂 or (now bare with me) put a sock over a vacuum cleaner ...and hoover the floor, your screw will get saved by the sock.

[@waynoswaynos]

@@luminousfractal420 Haha, nice one. All good ideas. This particular work bench does electronics some days and light engineering on other days. Gets cleaned around only when something gets lost! I literally had a 250g of swarf to to sift through. Never did find those screws but I did find all sorts of other things.

[@rco8499]

I have many many many years trying to fix my VW LCD clock which is dead since I get the car, like 17 years ago. I really appreciate your detailed explanation how to fix it...

[@joelcordier6762]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I discovered the hot method. By the way, my gess for the zebra problem is the oil escaping from the rubber polymer. Same for remote controls or keyboards using the same method of conductive polymer pads to short pcb pads. It might be related to the pressure as I noticed that on remote controls, it's often the most used keys that become oily. Joel.

[@mikepanchaud1]

I fixed an old calculator with an unreadable display, by just running a soldering iron across the contacts and pressing them down. Still ok after a few years. Nice video. It's cool that the pitch of the contacts of the zebra strip is much fner than the actual contacts, so you don't have to worry about he alignment.

[@pault6533]

Additional ideas: *Flip the zebra strip when it is re-installed to establish new pressure regions. *Increase or restore pressure in the LCD frame, such as re-torque PCB screws, re-bending springs, or adding foam shim to front of LCD. *Heat zebra in boiling water to restore it's original height. *Use white vinegar to clean off battery corrosion from PCB. *Use pink pencil eraser to clean darkened gold or copper pads on PCB, followed by IPA *Use tape and conductive paint to repair torn polyester FPC, or conductive paint alone on FPC that has lost the carbon tracks. Very similar to keyboard restoration on many calculators and key fobs!

[@eddyvanoosterbosch9467]

You are a hero: I just fixed the LCD.l display of a Gazelle E-Bike: the display uses a flex cable which was indeed loose at the display end. Heating this side of the cable with a soldering iron at 195°C worked perfectly I have a electronicly adjustable temperature on my soldering iron)

[@tomclanys]

I tried to fix a broken FPC ribbon cable to the OLED display, but it doesn't work with just soldering. From what I read it's bonded with an ultrasonic device, as it adheres directly to the glass... so I had to buy a new screen.

[@helithopter]

Very good video and excellent English. I wish more people could talk as well as you do. Thank you.

[@davidargles]

Yay, thank you! It turned out that the problem with my calculator was neither of these, but your video inspired me to investigate. A little while later, and I now have a working *Commodore* calculator! Commodore? Guess how many years old that is! But all working fine now thanks to your inspiration! Regards, David (UK)

[@xavierdemers-bouchard2747]

What model if I may ask? I have tried to fix my dad's pr-100 but there really aren't schematics available....

[@mr_tom_1_0]

and what WAS the problem?!

[@frankedwards8643]

It now works great! Thank you ShortcutElectronics for this easy to understand LCD screen repair! I'm a big fan.

[@dave-ospamalot6502]

Thanks for this very instructive and thoughtfully-made electronics repair. Explanations with visual examples were very helpful in understanding the underlying concepts. I appreciate the care with which you demonstrated the repair, as well as additional applications. You earned my subscription! Please CONTINUE TO TEACH US VALUABLE LESSONS!

[@MrFelatio1]

I totally agree with your comment. This was the best explanation i could find on the internet and I have subscribed also.

[@csc434]

This gentleman gives a very clear explaination and excellent, understandable fix that even a non-tech person like me! Thank you!!

[@shonrite5705]

This is easily one of the best how-to videos I've ever seen. Thank you!

[@LJ6home]

Did it with a Fluke 87 from more than 35 years old. It's like new now. Thanks for the hint.

[@head85]

7:45 Wow, your dedication to teach seems boundless

[@ronkirzinger1947]

No one repairs my car's (1997 Mercedes E420) non-displaying pixels but I noticed that simply putting pressure on the ribbon cable at point of attachment worked to a very limited extent. I suspected already that heat or pressure would work and now that I see it in this video, it makes perfect sense! Definitely worth a try, though I might have to come up with a method to know the temperature of the soldering tip. THANK YOU for this video. :-)

[@ElTitoXBASS]

Did you solve it?

[@ronkirzinger1947]

@@ElTitoXBASS To make a long story short, in the end the results were not perfect. Ended up buying a used instrument cluster from Berlin for a very good price.

[@johnmanderson2060]

Perfect 👌🏻 Thanks 🙏🏻 a million ! Will use it next time I have a failed LCD

[@ПётрПроценко-б3к]

Thank you you reassured me that there are no other ways of them to fix those zebra connections or whatever connects to them

[@Falkentyne07]

Thank you for this video! I was able to fix my Chronos Chess Clock's left panel display with your exact trick, with some tin foil and a TS100 soldering iron @ 200C, and it's perfect!!!!

[@johntorres1805]

Great video sir wish I had watched this in the 90’s so many electronics I could’ve fixed

[@xcoder1122]

I would recommend to use Isopropyl alcohol and not Ethanol. They both are equally effective removing stuff and thy both dry very fast but Ethanol attacks plastic, Isopropyl doesn't. If you accidentally spill any Ethanol on the display, which probably is not glass but plastic, the display may get cloudy and there is recovery for that. If you spill Isopropyl, you should be fine.

[@andrewmansker9074]

Excellent. 20 minutes to clean contacts and add three layers of tape top and bottom and works like new. Thanks.

[@angusmacsac]

thx to your experience and a few other youtube videos covering "Zebra" rubbery conductive contact strips (i had no idea such existed) that are used to connect circuit board contacts to LCD contacts and how to clean them - i was successfully able to restore my LCD display functioning on a very expensive race car digital dash display - cost $0 - just 10 minutes of my time and some research and patience

[@DerekCampbellIS]

Thank you for sharing this troubleshooting method on the repair of an LCD board. I'm about to try it on my fading pixel problem.

[@isaiahurio2197]

Did it work for you?

[@cadelã0]

Thanks, I just recovered a 28 years old electronic agenda flex printed circuit with the aluminum foil trick!

[@mac7943]

Thanks for the great video! Also thanks for not playing obnoxious music like some do!

[@ton146]

Using these kind of connectors in a car which is subject to vibration is NOT a good idea. I am having a problem with my australian built ford falcon so this video was excellent. Tony

[@jesusg.r.6055]

Thank you for the video! Very clearly explained, both connector operation and their repairing. I fixed in the past zebra connectors in this way, but didn´t knew how to cope with the FPCs. Thanks!

[@ekawa5094]

I had a hacked ghost box with no numbers showing besides the very first one.. I'm gonna give your idea a try.. :-) thanks either way, I for one appreciate that you showed this so clearly!

[@shortcutelectronics]

Thx for nice comment :)

[@braddofner]

I always called them Elastomeric connectors. Zebra (I had to look, name was new to me) is the registered trademark of the connector by some company.

[@leeviwillman8834]

Brilliant work! Your english is not perfect, but no problem! Since you speak clearly, i can understand every word! With your help, i will soon try to repair my motorcycles screen. It looks quite the same than the car at beginning. Only a bit worse.

[@sylverkerhel5007]

Fantastic Well done. You explained this very well. Now I can try to fix my mini cooper 2002 missing digit. Great shortcuts and knowhow carry on you've earn my subscription too as I like to fix my own.

[@lassaadlahmar581]

i really enjoyed this video i am not a repairer i was searching on youTube hoping to find a solution to a large quantity of PDA for scanning barcode that has bad screens. i am tempted to givea go now

[@yusufdegirmenci]

Dünyanın en yararlı ve bilgilendirici videosu. Teşekkürler. Sade ve akıcı anlatımınız için de minnettarız.

[@пісок]

thanks a lot for your video, finally, I restored my digital cooking timer and calculator!🎉

[@DameAndThatGame]

Thanks for this, my BMW screen is full of lines, a new lcd is 68 quid, def going to give it all a clean and reseat, worth a try, cheers for info

[@DeclanCrane]

Did it work?

[@danc2014]

Some BMW display is caused by solder joint breaking. Butsimmilar fix, make a better screen connection. Just hard to get too.

[@DameAndThatGame]

@@DeclanCrane no, common heat and damage over time for mine, cars gone now

[@spapadHD]

exactly the information I was looking for right now, thanks a lot!!!!

[@warrennetherton6011]

Well done. You explained this very well. Now I can fix my vintage calculator.

[@homeralbufera7068]

Thank you for this informative video. This is very helpful to those with problems in the LCD display that could be fixed using the method you discussed here.

[@richardedwards4454]

Whilst I could not completely cure my current problem with an FPC, I am fully prepared for the next one! Thank you.

[@INeverWanted2010]

Very concise video. Thanks! I'm going to try this on a very old General Electric alarm clock that's been missing a few segments for years.

[@MrFelatio1]

Please give us the feedback if it worked out for you......

[@smartech3013]

This is a very useful piece of information. Thanks a lot.

[@greenedyfrio338]

Hi Very nice demonstration of how to do it. I have a that problem on my car Audi A4 1995. My problem is I think that even with heat, there is no glue or solder left to "stick" the tape type ( similar to the 2nd one on your video). Any ideas for what "glue" to use.

[@ramadhanisme7]

Come here to search for a gold and found a gold indeed, thank you for making this video

[@1omulatlantic]

100%Worked!The aluminum foil was a brilliant idea!Thank you very much!!!!!

[@ytrew9717]

great video, I suscribed. The last trick with the calculator rarely worked for me. I wonder what could be done to fix this calculator without the FPC.

[@alexshepherd]

Interesting - thank you - particularly your experiments with reattaching flex cables using heat. I have a Powerbook 100 with Sharp LCD where a few lines of the LCD are sometimes dead. I solved it by including a cushion to press the flex cable against the LCD - which works most of the time as long as I don’t close and open the display! These are a chip-on-flex design where the driver chip is attached in the middle of the flex. I can’t tell if the poor connections are between the driver chip and the flex cable, or between the flex cable and the LCD. Perhaps the heat method will also work for reattaching the driver chip to the flex cable. I was thinking of using a 3D-printing hotend heat block (with heater cartridge) because of its block shape. But a soldering iron looks like it works just as well - I just think you need to apply the tip onto some sort of block or strip, to spread the heat while applying an even pressure (a round soldering iron tip doesn’t seem ideal). If anyone reading this has indeed re-attached a driver chip to a flex cable in a computer’s LCD, let me know :) Cheers

[@haroldthibault9921]

Cleaning the zebra connector is only a temporary fix. Fading digit will come again sooner or later. From my experience on a fluke 88V.I would be curious about your own experience on your car.

[@fieldlab4]

Pencil erasers are great for cleaning up copper PC board contact areas which can also be a problem with zebra connectors

[@forsale313]

I believe this will work on my screen. Thank you very much.

[@fuzzs8970]

Thank you for sharing. Was wondering what if you apply some flux to the pins before soldering. Maybe it can improve the chance of better soldering connections

[@xmuro]

Brother you are KING! Thank you

[@wiesodass5543]

How many things went in the garbage because i thought it couldn’t be repaired 🤦🏼‍♂️. At least thanks to you i know now and can try to repair some stuff

[@0xbad]

I think I have a different kind of problem with my ikea kitchen timer. There is some grease stuck between LCD's two glasses, so some contacts seem to be shorted.

[@didras9131]

Thank you for posting, it is Exactly what I was looking for. A multimeter display appears to have the zebra connector loosely stuck to the LCD making it easier to reinstall. Is there a way to stick the zebra connector back to the LCD once you have cleaned it? Thank you

[@stevencrosato207]

Really interesting video, it helps me to fix an old broken lcd display. I just would to ask (as I'm a beginner): is that an aluminium foil like the one used for food? Could I do that also with a soldering iron without a temperature control? Thank you so much.

[@shortcutelectronics]

Yeah, I used a regular aluminum foil. Nothing special there. You can try without temperature control, but in that case there is a lot more risk to damage the LCD connector if the temperature is too high. It could start to melt the connector.

[@stevencrosato207]

@@shortcutelectronics Thank you. I will think about it, before doing the wrong thing. Or maybe I can have a try using the soldering tool a little far, but I think, as you wrote, I should push it on the alu foil. And actually my cable is already welded to the board... just the display has a lot of lines/dead pixels. Anyway I will try it! Thanks for your reply.

[@MrOner07]

thank you for this video... europeans has the most underrated videos ever.i subbed!

[@AbDaniel21]

besides pewdiepie

[@jozseffarkas1767]

@@AbDaniel21 who is pewpipi?

[@danc2014]

I thought it was just a taped connector strip. I will try the heat process as a few of my calculators have lost the digits.

[@phwdjw]

Excellent video. Very helpful! Thank you.

[@mediocreman2]

Thank you. In the second method is it just heating up the plastic and melting it back into shape so that it holds in the connections?

[@planecrazyish]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 great video, fantastic explanation 👍👍👍

[@VedafoneYT]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts and solutions with us... It actually helped me a lot. Regards

[@RFWMusic]

Yes, thank you. I agree with this comment !

[@farooquiasad1]

Thank you for your efforts very informative video, I have question about my car stereo LCD display, it works perfectly fine when start the car but after few minutes it starts fading and goes blank

[@shortcutelectronics]

If your LCD display works fine when you start the car, I am pretty sure your problem is not related to the LCD itself, but the hardware of your stereo system. If it starts to fade, instead of just going blank in one moment, my guess is that something is wrong with the power supply. If the audio system works also when the screen goes blank, the problem should be in the part of the circuit that provides voltage/power to the display driver. If you could find and check the voltage that provides power to the LCD driver this might answer the question. One thing that you could do with limited knowledge in electronics is to look for swollen electrolytic capacitors and replace them since they do not hold the voltage when they go bad, but make sure that the polarity of the capacitor leads are correct when doing that. Second thing is to simply search " fading display problem" in google since there is a chance that this is a common problem for particular system and someone has already solved it. There's not much more I can help in this case.

[@vasilnikolov8674]

Great video! You should have fixed also the temperature display while you had the dashboard open

[@Eiflerisch]

Great explaination, thank you! It helped me realy!

[@981965ta]

Thank you very much for the information, I have tried and it works perfectly

[@gregaravnik6957]

Wooooooooooooooow, wonderful. CONGRATULATIONS! 😍❤️💯👏🥇

[@stanislavstankovic2155]

Thank you for good instructional giude.

[@DonChevyL]

O is the tape of the lcd screen

[@kbuss10]

Bro this video is awesome! took apart my programmable 220v switcher plug that comes very handy and expensive in these energy crisis times! it was laying around for years because the screen was dead I didn't even know yesterday how the zebra connector is called. I fixed it in 10 minutes based on your video. I also applied five layers of transparent tape on the lower 3mm strip of the screen. this way the transparent enclosure that holds the whole assembly down put some extra pressure on the zebra connector for even better connection. LCD is perfect now. very handy and concise video! 😁🤗 could it be that order burnt pixels that the BMW owners are crying about are caused by the same stuff? 🤔

[@shortcutelectronics]

Thank you for kind words! I appreciate the feedback. If those BMWs you refer to display some type of images, than most probably that is the case that I illustrated with the calculator because I'm pretty sure they have flexible PCBs to connect the LCD to the main board. I think it is possible to fix that, but that is a lot more complex case than with the zebra connector. I have seen that usually other people are suggesting to buy a screen with the flexible PCB already connected to the screen and than you remove (desolder) the old screen from the main PCB and solder the new one to the main board. My old Audi had similar problem, but it was not that bad so I did not touch it since the success rate in my opinion is a lot lower than in case of a zebra connector. I would say that around 90% of all LCDs have one of the two connection types that I discussed if not more.

[@gasciotti]

Good suggestion! I will try! Thank you so much

[@Kangsteri]

Invisible dirt and magic smoke :D All electric connectors will suffer from oxidation over the time.

[@mohameda.sattar3020]

Fantastic, thanks a lot for demonstrating the technique

[@victorb22622]

Oh ,why not did i come on this video .i have seen 100 video of lcd replacing and correcting.all are doing the same ,replacing polarized film.even after replacing the polarized film ,the lcd actually does not giving the result ,so they do trial and error.so ,after ,i tired , just yesterday I decided to manipulate zebra strip which i was afraid to touch as i was not seen in any video about it.but i was sure this strip is the mani communication path.so i cleaned it and put it again.still it was not working.you cannot believe, i just put a hollow rectangular thick papper strip at periphery of the lcd frame so it pressure on lcd contact and zebra streap.it worked.so, actualy small trick works.after i slove it,i came to see this video just today.haaaa

[@hyphessobrycon_herbertaxelrodi]

another issue with vintage LCDs is the darkening of its panel. that is curable also, but much more complex, a LCD panel should be soaked in acetone

[@DerAllrounder]

Nice AUDI you are driving there!!!! Watching this video sitting in an 2002 Audi😂

[@id_you_tube]

brilliant video. Thank you.

[@tedisalonape6901]

can you also show how to fix a faded lcd screen? because there are some lose segments in my lcd screen I can only see half of it because the other half is dead

[@NiNjaTurtLe697]

I'm curious how the rubber strip comes into play to push display on LCD? Is there light shining through the rubber strip? Does the rubber strip have to be perfectly aligned with slots/holes on the strip and PCB? etc

[@christopheleloire4572]

très bon travail, j'ai appris plein de chose. merci

[@migebasemeper3157]

Awesome... Great repair ... The second One.

[@arunavabanerjee1315]

Nicely explained. Could you please help me with my Samsung AC Remote LCD and Zebra connector ? How can I stick zebra connector with LCD ?

[@kimokahikolekalihi]

What about using deoxit? Is that better than alcohol or wrong application? I have a 65" TCL LCD TV that has a couple black vertical lines through the screen.

[@llee66]

hi, seems you are from europe, mayby you have heard about lcds in alfa romeo 156 infocenter that go bad, i had one and it was related to temperature, when it was cold the lcd was working great but when it got warm lcd started to fade and eventualy stopped displaying, i red that the liquid cristal itself had some issue

[@renanramirez3469]

I have a casio g-shock that flashes some segments, not all the time, sometimes it works well, I think that water entered it and that was the problem, do you think that technique could work to repair it? PS What a good video, I thought that LCDs of that type no longer had repair.

[@shortcutelectronics]

If it has zebra connectors, this might work, because water might get between the zebra connector and connections of the Printed Circuit Board or the display connections. If it has the other type of connector in that case there still could be some water left that shortens some parts of the circuit and that messes up the signal. I think at first I would simply open the case and let it dry for some time. Maybe try to heat it up, but not too much. If that does not help, than go for some more drastic approach. P.S. I'm happy that you liked the video :)

[@tnamen1307]

@@shortcutelectronics sir please help me to fix this issue. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHKyi3xopb55ftU

[@abdulbilakhiya6026]

I appreciate n learn from you , thankyou sir

[@gustcevallos]

Thanks a lot! That was helpfull how to repair fpc! It work it, additional in add kapton tape

[@aleksandarpetrovic6613]

You are great, thank you! Where you are from?

[@SciFiFactory]

This is great! Thank you!

[@fyahwayne5]

The best so far

[@TCBytom]

Well, and what about "spilled" LCDs which don't have replacement ?

[@tof3275]

As a retired Electro-Mechanical Engineer [ H N D ] you state that you don't know why this chemical reaction occurs at 06:00, well here is the concise answer and to better understand I have used "Wikipedia" The common term is Verdigris. These pigments should not be confused with the green patina commonly called "verdigris 2 " which results from atmospheric corrosion of the surface of objects made of copper and its alloys. This patina , of a purely mineral nature, is mainly composed of basic copper salts which can be, depending on the atmospheric conditions, hydroxycarbonates, hydrosulfates or hydrochlorides 3 , 4 . In both cases, the amount of copper they contain gives them a certain toxicity . Verdigris is , by derivation, a color name . So there you have it because of corrosion to the surface which results in a bad contact. Here I may add this is NOT just in displays in car dashboards, this happens ALL the way through the electrical industry where the atmosphere is allowed to penetrate. The best example is a “computer clean room” these are set to ISO STANDARDS CLEAN ROOM CLASSIFICATIONS Clean rooms are classified according to the cleanliness level of the air inside the controlled environment. The clean room class is the level of cleanliness the room complies with, according to the quantity and size of particles per cubic meters of air. The primary authority in the US and Canada is the ISO classification system ISO 14644-1. This ISO standard includes these clean room classes : ISO 1, ISO 2, ISO 3, ISO 4, ISO 5, ISO 6, ISO 7, ISO 8 and ISO 9. ISO 1 is the “cleanest” class and ISO 9 is the “dirtiest” class. Even if it’s classified as the “dirtiest” class, the ISO 9 clean room environment is cleaner than a regular room. The above text is taken from the following website; www.mecart-cleanrooms.com/learning-center/cleanroom-classifications-iso-8-iso-7-iso-6-iso-5/ Now you may think that I have gone over the top here BUT it gives you an insight as to why “electrical connections fail”

[@achmadgildas367]

thank you for this video, it's very helpful

[@empewoow]

Thanks, this helped a lot.

[@diydantex6150]

Thanks I have a Fluke meter i would like to fix.