Korg Forums

NeoTriton · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

Hi folks, I've had a Wavestation for a couple of years now and while I really like it she's getting long in the tooth in regards to the LCD.

It's really dim now. I've read about replacements etc.. but I was wondering if anyone has successfully disabled the EL backlight and installed LEDs around the LCD display instead? I'm very good with a soldering iron and I know how to wire up LEDs and such but I'm curious if anyone has done this?

I reckon the brightness and readability will be fine with such a retrofit.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

GargoyleStudio · Junior Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 61

Hi,

In a couple of weeks I'll be replacing the EL panel on my O1W becuase it's really dim, but I'm going to use another EL panel rather than go for LEDs because there's not really much space in the O1W. It seems that apart from having to take the whole keyboard apart, replacement should be fairly easy and simply involves securing the new panel over the old one and swapping the connectors. I should imagine it's pretty much the same in the Wavestation as well.

There's a couple of companies that sell what look like suitable panels, www.microstru.com in USA and www.glowsafe.com in UK. I'll be ordering from UK.

Also, I'm not sure that LEDs will give an even illumination, whereas EL panels are very uniform.

Mike.

NeoTriton · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

Mike, let me know how you make out and which model you ordered for the retrofit as I might just go that route if there's not a lot of room in the Wavestation. I'll know more when I take it apart to have a look.

Mine is making a high-pitch whine from the EL and I assume it's because of it's age.

Thanks!

GargoyleStudio · Junior Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 61

Will do. It'll be a couple of weeks at least. I might even write up a HowTo...

I've got an open air gig this weekend and I really wish I'd been more on the ball and got it sorted ages ago!

Mike.

synx508 · Joined: 10 Aug 2008 Posts: 1

I've just replaced the Optrex DMF5005 LCD in my Wavestation AD with a generic 240x64 LCD that I bought from an ebay seller in Hong Kong for $49.
The replacement has an integrated white LED backlight which is brighter than the a new replacement EL backlight was in the Optrex, it also has better contrast - technology has moved on in the 15 or so years since the Optrex panel was released.
I did the swap because I'd bought the Wavestation knowing it was faulty and on disassembly I discovered that the original display had been
damaged, presumably during backlight replacement.

I tried to find the original Optrex display but it was easier to find something based on the same driver IC - the Toshiba T6963C.

The good news is that this generic part fits perfectly, it's not significantly thicker as some LED backlit panels are.
The bad news is that you either have to make up your own ribbon cable set or desolder the header from the Optrex display. I chose to desolder it, but it's not something I'd recommend to someone who doesn't have experience of desoldering multi-pinned parts from a double sided PCB without damaging the part. Additionally, there are some electrical differences. Pin 4, the LCD's negative voltage pin, needs less current and voltage than the original. I did this by putting a 10K variable resistor between the wavestation's pin 4 output and (logic) ground and taking the wiper to the display's pin 4. This preserved the range of the original contrast control nicely.
Pin 19 (font select) on the new part had no internal pull-up resistors so it required tying to +5 volts (pin 3) to stop the display randomly toggling between 8x8 and 6x8 pixel characters. The new display has an onboard negative power supply which isn't required, this is carried out to pin 20. I simply cut the ribbon for pin 20 just in case the wavestation end of the cable was grounded or similar.
The wavestation's EL backlight inverter also needs some kind of load or it'll whine loudly. I soldered a 22k resistor across the disconnected ends of the cable and wrapped it in electrical tape, ideally I'd remove the inverter's power source but I don't have the schematic and didn't fancy removing the whole main board to trace it.

The resulting display is absolutely gorgeous, the display I'm using is blue/negative, so the text shows up white on a rich blue background.

Here's a bad photo

GargoyleStudio · Junior Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 61

As noted in another thread here, I've just replaced the EL screen in my O1/W and it's fantastic. I tried it out in sunlight (for those open air gigs!) and it's clearly visible. All very good. Took me a few hours but it's been well worth it.

The high pitch whine occurs when either the connection isn't made to the EL panel, or when the panel is old.

I used a panel from these people:

http://www.glowsafe.com/e-shop/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=161

I had trouble with their EL panel because I cut through the power tracks on the back. It's not obvious where the tracks go and the panel needs to be cut down to size so it fits. I managed to re-route the tracks and resolder everything back up but it took two hours. I would say that this is not the easiest panel to use, but it is the cheapest at 8GBP...

Total time was about 5 hours or so including the 2 hours fixing the EL panel.

Mike.

fac · Junior Member Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 62

GargoyleStudio · Junior Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 61

fac, there seems to be a few companies out there that will replace the backlight for you but it's genuinely a time consuming task and they're prices reflect this. The cost of the backlight itself is minimal in comparison.

If you do it yourself it'll take several hours and you will definitely need a good screw driver and a soldering iron. But, you don't really need electronic know-how because all you need to do is to cut the original EL panel wires and solder on the new panel wires.

BTW, I worked on my O1W so I can't really comment on how tricky it might be for your particular model.

Mike.