SparkFun Electronics Forum

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here and I'd really appreciate a little assistance on a project I'd like to take on.

I was looking for replacement screens for my Roland MC-505 as mine is on the fritz. I saw this item: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... cts_id=791 and as far as I understand it would work much in the same way that this one would: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... 5767948970 It's basically the same item with the only difference being his is soldered onto a custom board which connects the replacement LCD's points to the molex connector on the MC-505, oh that and about $65!

I usually lean toward a diy solution to problems and this would certainly be right up my alley. I poured over the extended datasheet for the sparkfun product as well as the MC-505 datasheet and could not make much sense of it; my knowledge with reading schematics is minimal.

My questions are these: Does this make much sense to anyone? Can someone assist me in this endeavor?

The original LCD for MC-505 (molex type ribbon on the side) doesn't have the same connectors as the sparkfun LCD (the pinpoints in a row on top).

Thank you very, very much to those willing to help! Is this a lost cause?

I do apologize for the large attachments, I thought they would re-size.

So no one has any advice on this? Perhaps a point to a resource would be handy.

Thanks again.

At a glance, it looks like it would work. The only problem I see is that the molex connector doesn't seem to have a connection for the LCD backlight. (where are pins #15 and #16?) Other than that, my semi-educated guess is that it would be compatible.

It may be possible to use this display, but it's not pin-compatible, so you would have to re-wire it. The Sparkfun display and your old display both have Gnd on pin 1, but the rest of the pins don't match up.

Stig

You could match equivalent pins by looking at the datasheets for the two LCDs but then ...

... if they use different driver chips the MC505 firmware and LCD driver won't understand one another

So you need to find out what driver chips they both use.