Hey,
I’m planning on repairing 10 or so of my own VB systems in a few weeks, so I figured I’d see if anyone’s looking to get their displays fixed, while I’m doing mine. I’m offering a one-time deal to solder them for free… just pay shipping (if you send just the displays). If you want to ship the whole VB system, rather than just the displays, add $10 (US dollars) per system (and shipping will probably be higher).
Terms:
-Limit 4 displays (2 systems) per person, and you must have been a member on this site with at least one post, before this posting. I’m looking to help out fellow VB fans keep their systems playing, not sellers looking to make more money by selling working VBs.
-I’m limiting this offer to 40 displays (20 systems) total, at least initially… first to PM get priority. While I wish I could fix every VB in the world, it does take time, and unfortunately, I can’t take a week off work to fix VBs. 😉
-I can’t guarantee that your displays will be repairable, though I have yet to come across a truly failed display that wasn’t damaged by misuse/botched repair attempts.
-They will be fully tested, but I can’t offer a warranty.
-Please pack them well… I will be reusing your packaging to send them back. For the return shipping cost, add $2 to what it cost to ship to me, to cover Paypal fees and possible slight difference in return shipping cost.
-The displays must arrive before May 18th. I will be repairing mine during that weekend, and while I have everything set up, and while I’m in VB repair mode, I’ll be doing all of them. That also means that they won’t be shipped back until after the 18th.
-I’m in the USA, though international is fine… of course shipping will be more expensive.
Here’s a pic of one of my own displays I repaired: 
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Anyway… drop me a PM if you want in on this.
DogP
Glad to hear that they’re making their way back safely, and that they’re being enjoyed once again!
mxpxrobbie wrote:
My kids have been bugging me about trying it out ever since they saw it on the dining room table in pieces!
As long as they’re ages 7+… awesome! 😉
jrronimo wrote:
I remember talk around here — AGES back — about straight up making new cables. Maybe in ~15 years we’ll have to start in on that…
Yeah, hopefully prices on new flat flex cables will start to come down as the years go by. We had some made for work a few months ago and they were ~$100 a piece! I’m sure in REALLY large quantities that price would come down, but a rigid PCB of that size would be really cheap… hopefully flex circuits are just lagging behind a bit.
Wyndcrosser wrote:
would rolling really get rid of the dimples?Could we solder over it? using thin solder wire
I think rolling may help, except it may squish the cardboard and adhesive, making it thinner, which would reduce the pressure. The reason I think rolling will help is that I don’t think the copper itself is dented, but that the cable has actually just rippled to conform to the socket (since it’s so thin). See the attached pic (side view of the cable under the microscope)… you can see the dimpled part is wavy compared to the undimpled part. But yeah, I don’t know that it’d hold its form for very long even if it was rolled flat again.
And by rolling, I mean using something like a rolling pin… not rolling the cable like you were rolling a poster.
But no, I don’t think adding solder would be a good idea. It might add a little bit of thickness, but would probably be hard to get as thin as you need it. I think a safer way to do that would be to just jam a piece of paper above the current cable stiffener.
DogP
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jrronimo wrote:
DogP: Can you show on a picture exactly where to look on a VB for any trouble? I don’t have a scope at home, but I work with a fully-stocked electronics workshop with a number of guys that could help me out. But I have no idea where to look on the device…
Since I’ve never troubleshot this problem, it’s hard to say exactly what to look at… but here’s some technical info and pics of what I’d look at.
The first pic is just the stuff to look for. On the left is the servo PCB, the right is the display assembly. The second pic shows a closeup of the board. You can see the opto with the flag (attached to the mirror) that breaks the beam as the mirror moves.
The third pic is the back of the board. There’s an IR LED, and two phototransistors in that plastic housing. The pins that I’d look at are pins 4 and 5. Those are the outputs of the phototransistors. What happens is the LED shines light, and the signal from the phototransistors changes when the flag moves back and forth blocking the light. The servo PCB looks at that signal to make fine adjustments to the mirror drive. I removed the screws to show the slot… it’s possible that the board needs to be adjusted to get the proper signal… though I’d be careful, since you could definitely make it worse. But to adjust it, just loosen the screws and slide the board forward or backward.
The last pic is a pic of what pins 4 and 5 look like on the scope. Notice that it’s a 100 Hz square wave (the displays oscillate at 50 Hz, which passes through 0 twice per cycle). You should see nice square waves like that… if you see skinny rounded bumps instead, then the board probably needs to be adjusted (as I talked about above), and if the signal is really weak, then you probably either need to clean the opto, or replace it (either the LED or phototransistor is getting weak). In my case, you can see the one signal is about ~500mVpp, and the other is ~750mVpp.
Of course it’s not easy to probe those pins… I probed them at the connector that goes between the opto board to the servo board… they’re pins 3 and 4 (though that’s still a bit buried, so I used a small wire clipped to my scope probe).
I’d also verify that all the cables between the boards are securely connected. If only one eye is having a problem, I’d guess that the servo PCB is fine.
Oh, and I remembered correctly… the displays are disabled when one of the mirrors stops.
DogP
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jrronimo wrote:
DogP wrote:
And BTW, the left eye uses the left mirror and left LED display (and the same goes for the right).Do you mean that the displays are actually side-dependent?
No… the displays are the same. My comment was in reply to:
Lester Knight wrote:
I’m seeing more in the left eye, so that would be the right mirror?
jrronimo wrote:
Either way, does anyone have any tips on aligning the displays vertically? Has anyone else run into something like this?
First of all, you can check the alignment by pressing Left, B, Down, A, Up on the right D-Pad (with a game running). This will give you a horizontal and vertical line, which should intersect.
So, what I’d do is verify that nothing looks obviously out of place. Check things like making sure the LED displays are properly seated in the housing and screws are tight, the display housings aren’t tilted, and move freely when you adjust the IPD, etc.
If all that checks out, you may need to adjust the alignment. There are two torx screws near the two small phillips screws that you removed to take the LED display out. By loosening these, you can slide the display around a bit to get the displays properly aligned.
These torx screws:
BUT, first look to see if either of them look to have been moved. If so, that’s the one you want to adjust. If not, try to figure out which one looks more out of alignment (you don’t want to adjust both unless you have to). Then look in both eyes and try adjusting until the lines intersect. I’d leave the screws a bit tight, so you can still move it by hand, but if you get it looking good, it doesn’t move when you grab your screwdriver to tighten it.
Good luck!
DogP
