So yesterday they were disposing of a Planar PE1500-BK that came on for 5 seconds and then the back light shut off.
Didn't find any references to stripping down one of these beasties on either the Naughty or Nice lists. Let me tell whoever maintains these lists to put this unit firmly and squarely in the "Kids don't try this at home" category. Notice the ribbon cable connecting the top and side circuit boards on the back.
Getting the back light off without destroying anything else was a challenge, finally had to use pliers to bend up an edge. Once I got everything 'cept the LCD out of the metal frame I pulled a black plastic surround off the back light assembly and put it in behind the LCD to hold it nicely in place. I pealed the tape holding the circuits to the frame, put the circuits on edge and taped them back down to the frame. Had to unplug one end of that pesky ribbon cable to get the circuits out of the way.
This is where things start to get tough. The ribbon cable is soldered on one end and the solder leads look way to small to solder on the board, so I cut the cable and plugged half of it into the other board. I stripped the cable down to copper on one cut end and worked at soldering wires to it. There are about five double wide traces, and those were almost within my abilities to solder. The ribbon cable was surprisingly sturdy and tinned and took solder nicely where I had stripped it and wires held firmly to the double wide traces, but in the end the five double wide wires defeated me, and I never attempted the handful of fine traces. I think splicing actual ribbon cable into the breach will be more successful, or maybe enameled wire. In any case this is going to be a stone cold tough job of soldering.
