Oh wow I want this! Looks 
. My track record with opening hardware (in particular Machinedrums 
️) is not good though so I shall just admire from a distance 
@corri303 I replaced my Rytm LCD with a “black” one and like yours it is more of a dark blue, I was thinking of trying some film to change it darker.
Whilst researching I found this video which is quite interesting, although maybe not for the feint of heart as it involves partly dismantling the LCD:
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Interesting. As far as my understanding of lcds goes, I’m not sure if you can enhance the contrast this way. It’s limited by the transmission characteristics of the polarizing films. They cannot block the light completely and apparently have worse absorption characteristics with shorter wavelengths (therefore more blue gets through).
You can invert the lcd this way by applying the film 90° rotated.
Maybe I’m wrong and there are higher quality films with better absorption. Either way, I’m too scared to try this out.
GOD DAMN IT…yer all gettin it DONE! Looks so good. I have the screens for MM and MD but no skills. I already completely destroyed one UI board trying to change the screen of my MD.
I NEED to change it. For some reason the red just destroys my eyes. Arrrrrrrg.
Awesome job!
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Great stuff guys and great work. I have skipped forum for a few months and thats why I didn’t contribute to the thread. The desoldering descent solder sucker and solder wick wire are essential to safely remove components. If anyone replaces encoders bear in mind that front plate holes spacing is very tight and there’s no room for alignment errors.
Anyone try replace a screen on MD SPS-1 MK1–I dont like the Red Colour personally
id be keen on part numbers for MK1 replacements
thanks David
I provided them somewhere in this thread. Just scroll up.
thats sexy as hell!
Anyone know if this display would work?
I just ordered this display off Amazon as it looks to be the same as the adafruit discontinued ks0108 contoller 128x64 display. Only 12$ shipped and here in 2 days. I’ve recently re-purchased for the 3rd time a MD MK2 UW+ with a black Dick Malibu faceplate so I’m super excited to get back into the MD and update the display. I’ll post some pics as I do it if that helps anyone trying to DIY this display swap.
I’ve worked with lead free solder a ton (all you can buy thee days) found it not much different to leaded… sounds like a heat transfer issue to me. Like was mentioned by others a soldier bridge would help. A quality solder iron. Flux never hurts, if you are having real issues use an old school resin flux.
A heat gun would work if you don’t want to cut the pins and pull individually. Make sure to set up some heat shielding around parts you don’t want to heat up, as it will take some considerable heat. This method is a bit sketchy given how much heat you will have to throw at it. Heat shield!!
Another method would be to solder suck each thru hole, and then lightly “crack” the pins from the edges of the thru hole using the tip of you soldering iron, wiggling the pins side to side.
Not sure why I’m responding to an old post, maybe it will help someone… ?
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You are right, it definitely was a heat transfer issue. I blamed it on the lead free solder, because I didn’t know better at the time. But I’ve ran into the problem several times after that so I know it’s the lack of proper temperature control of my soldering iron.
Flux - like you said - helps a lot, too.
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Apparently Noritake GU128x64E-U100 can be modded and fitted into MD. Pinout and configuration of MN128x64 make me think that it would not be an easy task.
Btw I have a couple of white on black KS108 compatible modules so if anyone would be interested to have one feel free to contact me.
the Noritake VFD are really great looking. I put one on my SP1200 and it was quite a task to mount and fit the pins, but it looks awesome. I may contact you about the white on balck once I see the quality of the display I ordered come in this week.
Red screen seem to be a blue light filter, so it’s better for your eyes 
It’s not. I can’t see clearly with the red. It hurts my eyes badly.
If you really really want to desolder the correct way and not damage any pads on circuits, invest in a desoldering gun.
This is the one I have. It has a built in vacuum and sucks the solder out of the hole after heating it up. Add a little flux, put it over the pin/on the pad until the solder starts to flow, press the button and it sucks all the solder out. For through hole anyway.
For surface mount just use a SMD rework station (heat gun).
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yes! this will save you loads of troubles. I used that exact model to fix all sorts of stuff on old machines and samplers that were real delicate, and it made it so easy. Its worth the investment.
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Absolutely worth it. $250 tool vs replacing your more expensive machine.
this seems like the best idea here. I did the same when I did the display replacement on my SP1200. I created my own buss style ribbon connector and soldered in. That way I could remove the display easily if I needed to down the road for any reason. I just tried to de-solder the pins from the back and front using a solder sucker gun and its really tough. Its almost like they used 2 types of solder… one to solder the pins in, and then a lower threshhold melting point solder on the top of the pins and back of the board. Really strange the melting point is well above a pro grade solder sucker gun. I eventually just gave up and resoldered each pin to confirm solid connections and left it alone. I may try again this week.