Xpantastic!

Sorry to hear that.  
A long shot, but you could try swapping around the 4028s that drive the 6118s to see if they'rd bad (swap u6 and u8 with others)... you swapped u5 and u7 with other 6118s before?


--- On Mon, 8/4/08, chenedward69 <chenedward69@...> wrote:

From: chenedward69 <chenedward69@...>
Subject: [xpantastic] Re: Noritake displays on ebay
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, August 4, 2008, 9:36 PM






Thanks again for the reply. Yes, I have already removed the screws 
and brought down the display board. There was no broken wires or 
loose contacts. Going through the Test for the display you can 
automatically tell it is on the left display only on the 11th and 
22nd digits. They do not light up even as you scroll through all 
40. The other two displays are perfectly fine. I even tried 
swapping the 6118 chips around and still the issue remains in the 
left display.
This unit was never serviced and it's been a about a couple months 
since I powered it up. Last time I did everything was working 
perfectly so have no clue what would have been the cause. Other than 
this issue all else is fine.

Eddie

In xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com, William Cason <randycason102@ ...> 
wrote:
>
> Well...
>  
> First, I'm an electrical engineer but not a tech, but I'll do my 
best.
>  
> I'm thinking it's something related to the grids for those digits.  
That's the mesh that goes between the filaments (the really fine 
horizontal wires that go the entire lenght of the display) and the 
phosphor digit- segments.  If they have a problem it affect the whole 
digit.  Unfortunately, it seems from the schematic that the grid 
driver chips drive all three display's grids ganged together (e.g. 
grid 1 from disps 1, 2, and 3 are driven by the same chip driver).  
That means it might not be a chip, or you'd have the same digits 
missing on all 3 displays (do you? did you run the display test in 
the service page?)
>  
> It would be interesting to open your OB and hinge down the display 
board (it's on hinges).  Then see of you can see very tiny wires 
inside the VFDs running from the pins to the grids for those digits; 
are they broken?  If so, that's the worst case I suppose, need new 
displays.  If you have any friends with oscilloscopes, it would be 
good to check the signals on the grid 4 and grid 25 pins of that 
display when it's running; are there 55V pulses?
>  
> I'm also wondering, what brought on the problem on TWO digits 
simultaneously? (don't thing old age alone would explain the 
coincidence)
>  
> Randy
> 
> --- On Mon, 8/4/08, Edward Chen <chenedward69@ ...> wrote:
> 
> From: Edward Chen <chenedward69@ ...>
> Subject: Re: [xpantastic] Re: Noritake displays on ebay
> To: xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com
> Date: Monday, August 4, 2008, 8:28 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Randy,
> Thanks much for taking the time to reply.  It is actually two 
entire digits, I believe the 4th and 25th on the display.
> As I am not a tech, are you saying it may be an IC related issue 
and possibly fixable?
> Rgds,
> Eddie
> 
> --- On Mon, 8/4/08, William Cason <randycason102@ yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> From: William Cason <randycason102@ yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [xpantastic] Re: Noritake displays on ebay
> To: xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com
> Date: Monday, August 4, 2008, 8:21 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chenedward69,
>  
> Are you sure it's not a driver IC problem (the 6118's referenced in 
the service manual)?
> That would be much easier to fix than replacing the VFD!
>  
> Did you mean two segments of one digit, or two entire digits?
>  
> Randy
> 
> --- On Mon, 8/4/08, chenedward69 <chenedward69@ yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> From: chenedward69 <chenedward69@ yahoo.com>
> Subject: [xpantastic] Re: Noritake displays on ebay
> To: xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com
> Date: Monday, August 4, 2008, 3:57 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> With my luck my M12 just lost 2 character segments last nite on one 
> of the displays. I contacted Armen here in NYC directly knowing he 
> is the only one who has stock of the displays what the cost of one 
is 
> and of course he says I would need to bring the whole unit in to 
get 
> it serviced before he can determine a price? WTF? I asked if I can 
> just bring the display board and have him just replace the one 
> display instead of lugging the whole board in and he said no, no he 
> needs the whole unit. When I mention I was out of state and didn't 
> want to make a useless trip if the price was out of my range he 
then 
> throws out a quote that it could be $350 - $500?? and also 
depending 
> what else needs serviced?? As I clearly stated to him there was 
> nothing else needed to be done besides the one display he says well 
> just bring it in and we'll discuss..knowing his shadiness from 
having 
> dealt with him in the past he would have probabaly swap some parts 
> out of it to make it defective and then turnaround and jack me up 
for 
> other repair costs. That is why I have no intention of bringing the 
> whole unit in and will just avoid him totally. Thought I share 
> my .02 experience.
> 
> So if anyone has a display for sale please let me know? ;)
> 
> --- In xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com, "envia94" <akva@> wrote:
> >
> > The value of an Xpander display is easily over 100 EUR ...
> >
>