The heater control display finally decided to go into permanent missing pixel mode last week so I fitted the zebra strip I'd had lying around for several years when pixel problems first arose. (Which promptly fixed themselves once I'd gotten the strip and made sure the battery was always well up. Magic!)

Unfortunately I can't get a full set of display elements to come up. Despite several cleanings and fitting tries the bottom half (ish) isn't co-operating. A bit of judicious thumb pressure on the bottom of the screen brings up some signs of life suggesting the zebra strip isn't settling flat on the contact areas of PCB and display.

Any ideas as to how this could be fixed? Looks to me that the zebra stip I have is little too tall and a little too thin to work properly in the space available hence it could tilt when the display is tightened down. Are all the zebra strips the same size or could my early E-Bay sourced one be wrong?

Clive

When Marty started to offer these he had them made to his precise specifications by a supplier in China. Unfortunately the minimum order quantity was in the thousands but he went ahead anyway and sold batches of them to other resellers as well as selling them direct from his own website. I suspect all of those being advertised on eBay at the moment are from his batch whereas earlier ones may well be ones intended for something else that were close enough to fit but may not work perfectly.

My mate Danny followed Marty's instructions and fitted one which worked perfectly first time even though he does seem to have 10 thumbs. So if he can do it, anyone should be able to......

Mine certainly pre-dates the ones Marty had made. Looks to be a standard size rather than a special so it's pretty certain it doesn't fit as it should.

Time to order another one then. E-Bay pot luck or RPI? RPI claim to have sold lots in their You-tube video.

Total PIA to get the pcb on mine clean. Probably because that end was still well stuck down. So glad I had one of the "tube of glass fibre" brushes originally developed to shift rosin and flux deposits from multi-core solder joints hanging around.

Clive

RPi did buy a load from Marty so it will be a good one.

Thanks for that info. Ordered one.

Clive

Only a few days ago I fitted an rpi one to mine, no problems with pixels now although I had a dodgy screen with a couple of iffy pixels which the rpi didn't cure but another screen with the rpi has got it all good again.

I did mine a few years back when the screen was switching off in cold weather. I bought the cable direct from Marty at the time.
I just followed the instructions and didn't encounter any problems that I recall. Worked first time.

This reminded me to do something about mine as a few more segments were starting to only wake up once the interior of the car got warmed up so ordered the RPi strip and fitted it yesterday (inside, on the coffee table, as it was pissing it down so I couldn't do anything outside). Their instructions aren't as good as Marty's so followed that, cleaned the back of the green screen while it was out and also checked all the bulbs. A bit fiddly but got it all done and back in so now have a nice bright display with everything showing.

Mine is clearly toast. Impossible to get it all working with the zebra strip. So I gave up and got a used working one. Which will do the deed.
For now!
Hopefully when the ribbon ins that one dies it will accept a zebra.

Clive