Author Topic: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?  (Read 709 times)

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Offline ktm450

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DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« on: June 16, 2010, 12:13:02 PM »
The one column and one row were missing on my project WCS94, I thought is have a go at resoldering the pins where they had come away from the glass. Managed to find the tiny little wire sticking out from the glass cleaned it up ready for solder stuck a blob of solder on the leg from the board applied pressure and heated the solder to re-connect.
All good, bit of mucking around though, connected back to the game for a trial run, lit up nicely then pop, something fried in the circuit board that the dmd is mounted to.  I am not 100% sure why, but because the board has high voltage going to it and I didnt fit it back into the speaker panel, just rested it upright in the general area, I think something may have shorted out. You live and learn  @.@
Expensive excersise though, I was kicking myself when I saw the cheapest DMD I could find was $212 from RTBB  @.@  @.@
My display was so nice and bright too, still had plenty of life left  @.@  @.@  @.@


Was kissed on the cock, when only a week later I saw Bumper had 3 almost dead DMDs on eBay.
I placed a bid and won them for 99c   #*#
I had pulled up a few schematics for the Babcock board that I had, but could not find the exact drawing that I needed for the particular model DMD, so I was hoping one of these would be the same and I could use some parts off it to fix my fried board.
No luck, the thought of spending $212 for my stuff up really irritated me, so I decided to borrow my dads soldering station, which has a vaccum de-solderer.

I desoldered all 160 pins...  (((

Then heated up the board with a heat gun, the glue on those double sided foam mounts is unbelievably strong, then seperated the glass from the board.

The donor board was a Vishay-dale out of a stern game, luckly it had plated through holes that I could use to attach the glass legs to.
The holes were not quite in the correct places but I just bent the legs to suit.
for the 32 rows the board had pads where the previous ribbon cable attached, which I use to attach the row legs.

Took a few hours, but I placed in the game and success everything works nice and bright.

All fixed for 99c  $#$
« Last Edit: June 16, 2010, 12:14:46 PM by ktm450 »

Offline ktm450

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Re: DMD repairs - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2010, 12:14:18 PM »
More pics...

Offline Extra Ball

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2010, 12:29:35 PM »
They are worth fixing, save yourself over 200 bucks by re-soldering. I have one in the shed with the bottom 2 lines gone, may have a go at it myself.

Offline el_timbo86

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2010, 12:51:44 PM »
WOW! Sweet fix right there ktm.

Thanks for posting the pics, i would love to be able to that kinda stuff  !!!


Offline Homepin

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2010, 12:55:32 PM »
well ressurected, great work - you obviously have more time than me though.......I would have chucked it
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Offline goodolddays

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2010, 01:02:06 PM »
Very nice work  ^^^. Geez you got a lot of patience  *%*
I need more room ! and more $$$

Offline ktm450

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2010, 01:25:20 PM »
well ressurected, great work - you obviously have more time than me though.......I would have chucked it

Not really, just less money... maybe??  *)*  *!@

Offline ktm450

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2010, 02:44:31 PM »
Forgot the glory shot   &&


Offline ddstoys

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2010, 03:23:54 PM »
Nice work mate well worth the $200 saving but a big job

Offline pinnies4me

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2010, 07:01:37 PM »
I'm thinking the satisfaction was probably worth at least as much as you saved - so I make that a $423.01 bonus Matt.
“If you wanna escape, go up to a pinball machine. There’s a magic button on the front that takes you to a world under the glass and makes the the rest of the universe disappear.”

Offline ktm450

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2010, 07:02:50 PM »
I'm thinking the satisfaction was probably worth at least as much as you saved - so I make that a $423.01 bonus Matt.

True, as soon as I turned it on, it felt pretty rewarding, all worth while  *%*

Offline Pintoxicated

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2010, 07:32:35 PM »
Big effort there mate.  I've saved two displays now by re-soldering the pins.  One of them I had to grind the glass away with a Dremel but got enough metal showing to solder it together.  The other the leg had just snapped and was an easy fix.

RTBB now have a repair epoxy which would be interesting to try next time.  http://www.rtbb.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_86&products_id=2235
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Offline pinnies4me

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2010, 07:41:03 PM »
Saving a DMD and reusing the old glass

$212.00


Watching Matt curse as he solders and un-solders 64 tiny legs


Priceless.
“If you wanna escape, go up to a pinball machine. There’s a magic button on the front that takes you to a world under the glass and makes the the rest of the universe disappear.”

Offline Strangeways

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2010, 09:18:22 PM »


Good stuff, Matt !
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Offline MartyJ

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Re: DMD repair - Too much time on my hands?
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2010, 09:39:47 PM »
 :D

Well done Matt.  Not an easy task.  Good way to sharpen up the soldering skills!