Hand controller help

[Anthonyexmouth]

Backstory. When I bought my HEQ5 about 5 yrs ago from FLO, within a day I had dropped the hand controller directly on its screen and broke the LCD, not an issue really as I'd always planned to use ASCOM. 

Anyway, it always annoyed me having an unused but broken controller with no way to get a replacement screen. Forward to now, picked up a working controller on eBay for £15. Now do I just keep this controller or swap the screens. My original one is the one with Celestron on the board. The one I just bought is the more populated board. Is there a difference? Is one better? The new one has a power port on it. Anyway. here's the pics. Which one should I keep and put the screen in?

 

[M40]

So....the second controller you bought works well with your heq5 plus it has the newer internals; why not just recycle the old one giving you more time to wait for the clouds to go? If it were me, I would by now have fried both of them and be looking for a third 🤦‍♂️

[Cornelius Varley]

What firmware version does the replacement handset run ? Will the screen fit your old handset ?

[Cornelius Varley]

33 minutes ago, M40 said:

So....the second controller you bought works well with your heq5 plus it has the newer internals; why not just recycle the old one giving you more time to wait for the clouds to go? If it were me, I would by now have fried both of them and be looking for a third 🤦‍♂️

The replacement appears to be older, either a V2 or V3.

[Anthonyexmouth]

31 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

What firmware version does the replacement handset run ? Will the screen fit your old handset ?

Yeah. Identical screen. What would the power input socket on the new one be for? 

[Cornelius Varley]

14 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Yeah. Identical screen. What would the power input socket on the new one be for? 

The V3 handset could be powered from a suitable supply for firmware flashing and inputting coordinates etc without the need to connect to the mount (v4 handsets required this). The V3 and V2 handsets have a 5.5x2.1mm socket, the v5 has a usb port for power.

[Anthonyexmouth]

So my original v4 is the newer one. I'll pop the screen into my original one. 

[malc-c]

I don't think the screens are the same - The connector in the top image has far more pins on the flex cable than the low, which has just 16 on a 1mm pitch.  Whilst they may be physically the same size, the controllers will be different.

Regretfully the screens are custom for Synta handsets.  I had one donated to the exchange program, it works just fine but the screen was damaged - finding replacements  has resulted in dead ends.   

[Cornelius Varley]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So my original v4 is the newer one. I'll pop the screen into my original one. 

If your replacement handset has V3 firmware then there is no advantage in trying to swap LCD screens. The displays may look identical but that doesn't mean that they are.

[malc-c]

The two screens will have the same 16 chr x 2 row spec, but the COG (chip on display) inside them will be different.   This is evident by the increased pin count on the connector on the later handset.  There is a very good chance placing the LCD from the older handset could result in the newer working LCD being damaged, or the older LCD damaging the newer PCB as pins on the LCD header could be shorted.  This is assuming the flex cables are the same width and the older flex cable will fit 

[Anthonyexmouth]

25 minutes ago, malc-c said:

I don't think the screens are the same - The connector in the top image has far more pins on the flex cable than the low, which has just 16 on a 1mm pitch.  Whilst they may be physically the same size, the controllers will be different.

Regretfully the screens are custom for Synta handsets.  I had one donated to the exchange program, it works just fine but the screen was damaged - finding replacements  has resulted in dead ends.   

Yeah, you're right. Same dimensions. didnt look at the connector

[AstroKeith]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So my original v4 is the newer one. I'll pop the screen into my original one. 

LCD screens are usually connected by a 'one shot' connector. Replacing these in my experience has about a 10% success rate.