My friend Lynda has this stereo whose display quit working.
So I volunteered to take a look, partly because I had a strong suspicion that it would be an easy fix. But don’t tell Lynda!
The display in question is the one on the upper left, the FM/AM tuner display. It’s a “seven segment” display. Usually, these sort of displays are LCD based (liquid crystal display), which don’t have much luminosity of their own. Thus, they have to be backlit to be visible.
I was pretty sure this lamp behind the display was all that was bad. So the disassembly began.
Here’s the inside of the stereo. Pretty hollow inside. Kind of shocking really! It’s kind of funny how the design philosophy is so different now. Seems that the ergonomics of modern consumer electronics are much more compact and sleek.
But I digress.
Here is the board with the display. Notice the large white plastic shroud.
Here is the plastic shroud taken off the board and the display removed. At the back of the shroud is the DC lamp.
Sure enough, the lamp was burned out. Here is the lamp board, ready for a replacement.
Below is the replacement bulb.
And here it is lit up with +8V DC to test its operation.
Reassembled, here is the display lit up again!
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