Static Discharge - Dead LCD

[gchristopher]

After a static discharge to the plastic front casing of the RAMBo controller LCD, it's pretty clearly fried.

[img]http://gchristopher.net/3dprinting/dead_lcd.jpg[/img]

The RAMBo seems to be fine running the printer, so at least it's a straightforward component replacement. (Unless there's some dedicated LCD controlling circuitry on the RAMBo that's broken, but the controller circuit onboard the LCD seems by far the most likely casualty.)

Living in a polar desert where the air can't hold any humidity is nice for never having to worry about filament moisture, but less great for static!

[gchristopher]

Sad, sad dinosaurs. But they STILL have the credit card, so one of them is probably ordering from seemecnc.com as I write this...

[Jimustanguitar]

My printer has taken dozens of shocks without breaking. Once in a while it will jarble the screen, but luckily a reboot always seems to fix it.

I did break one of SeeMeCNC's own machines this way, though! We were doing a Startup Weekend that had something like 6 printers running, and I zapped one of the Orions that they brought to use at the event.

Have those dinos boil a pot of water to put some humidity back in the air!! Hope you're getting by ok up there. Winter decided to come back, down here.

[gchristopher]

Thanks! It's still winter outside and the dinos are not straying far from the warm printer.

And yeah, there's been tons of static discharges on and near the printer. I guess this was just the unlucky one, especially given that it wasn't even while messing with wiring!

[gchristopher]

Graaaaaaggggrrrrhhhhgghhhhh! (Actually things are fine.)

The LCD controller has polarized headers for the connector cables that are SOLDERED IN THE OPPOSITE ORIENTATION as the originally provided LCD controller!

So now I know from firsthand experience that plugging the cables in rotated 180 degrees doesn't break anything. The replacement works fine, but until I stared closely at the two boards and noticed one was polarized in the opposite direction as the original...

I'd post pictures of T-Rex yelling at the two inconsistent boards, but I need to go find some Advil first.

Also, I'm happy that only the LCD was damaged and the replacement worked with only 15 minutes of confusion that was solvable by staring at it until noticing the difference in headers.

[geneb]

I'm looking forward to that photo. I'll point it out to the guys in the shop.

g.

[gchristopher]

Haha, here you go:

[img]http://gchristopher.net/3dprinting/upvsdown.jpg[/img]

In case it's hard to see, here's a closer view.

[img]http://gchristopher.net/3dprinting/upvsdowndetail.jpg[/img]

The new LCD works just fine, though, and apparently it's very difficult to damage them by plugging them in incorrectly!

[geneb]

\o/
g.