Tuesday, August 11, 2020

3D Printing "Replaced my Photon LCD"

       My screen or LCD died back on 7/13. I was still within the 3 month warranty. AnyCubic sent a free replacement. It is still not here yet. I had also ordered a back up from eBay. That one arrived. The eBay replacement is the one I will test with increased air flow.
         This is the old LCD. I would get this bullshit intermittently. One dude said reseat the connection. It work for a while. Then same story. I truly think it is heat related. Either the connect at the LCD or the part of the ribbon cable exposed to the LEDs is cause thermal expansion.
        Here you can see how weak the connection is between the LCD and the ribbon cable



This is my LCD before I replaced it.


Replacement of the LCD


         I removed the bottom cover and left side. The ribbon cable is unplugged.
                   The ribbon cable is plugged into the back side the circuit board on the left side. From there the ribbon cable bends and crawls up the side of the heat sink for the LEDs. Which it passes 
thru an opening between the LED mount and the Al plate.
This fan blows out.
         The LCD is held in with double back tape. It is really stuck down. I broke the old LCD getting it unstuck. (Sadly no testing to be done.) Once out come the fun part of scraping the old double back off.
         After you get the old off, new goes down. I used flooring tape. Now comes the tricky part. 3 thing must happen or your screwed. Once the LCD sticks good luck not breaking it.

          1.) Take canned air and blow out any dirt on or in the LED hole.
          2.) Feed the ribbon cable all the way into the slot on the left.
          3.) Pull the protective backing off the screen.
        Plug the LCD in. I had to remove the two screws that hold the board in place. My fingers are too fat to get in there and seat the cable.
        How ever you can pull the other side of the double back sticky tape off without removing it. Now put the LCD in. Do not touch the back. And get it in right the first time. I got the cable through. Then put the LCD in cable side, left side first.
         Once it is in, remove the protective plastic. I use this yellow electronic tape to seal around the edges. No one wants resin getting in-between the LED and LCD.
Don't be me. Check to ensure your LCD works before taping everything in!
        I had ordered these pre cut jobs and never put them in. This time I try them out.
 Screen test.
        Because I think it is heat related. I reversed the fan. It is now blowing in, not out. When it blew out it was sucking air in through the print chamber and through a vent in the rear of the casing. This air flow across the LCD heat sink seemed wrong. The fan now blows air from outside directly onto the heat sink. This pressurizes the casing and exhaust will now exit out the rear.
        No idea if it is better. Hopefully I will get greater than 2 months or 1000 hrs out of each LCD.
         To increase the air flow around the bottom or intake of the casing I bought a laptop cooler. It puts out about 25 CFM. This laptop cooler is blowing into the intake of the casing.
        The cooler was leveled.
         The printer leveled to the cooler.
       The print station was cleaned and re-organized for the addition of the cooler.



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