I fried my beloved screenpad baby!

hokman · Post by **hokman** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:45 pm

Because there's this damn thief in my house who keeps stealing my things. I lost 2 9,6V RC battery (one's my friend's). And my screenpad in its box, someone stole the damn adapter. I was using a 700 MA one from a piano instead of 500MA, and felt that the colours felt weird and dim next to my bro's abused screenpad. Later I tried it with my brand new multi voltage 1000 ma adapter. Play it for 10 mins, the screen went up and down diming and all gone!! It had no sound in that 10 mins. The back is almost on fire. Remember, I've only used it a few times instead of 8 hr's per day like my bro's. I wanted to keep it new, but now fried.

I opened her up, found out that a big block on the upper board is smoking. 2 wires, probably for power, melted. I connect them again, only smoke comes out. Does anyone know if this is the end? Or could it still be saved or use for another purpose. Is the screen itself fine?

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:08 pm

Max current output doesn't matter, what voltage are you giving it. By 'big block' do you mean the backlight's transformer?

superdeformed · Post by **superdeformed** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:48 pm

nos_slived wrote:Max current output doesn't matter, what voltage are you giving it. By 'big block' do you mean the backlight's transformer?

Actually, max current output does matter if the power supply is not regulated. If you have an unregulated supply that is rated for significantly more current than you're using, then the voltage will be a fair bit higher too, which could explain the weird colors.

hokman · Post by **hokman** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:25 pm

http://hipgear.arcadeconsole.com/hipgea ... lowres.jpg
my board doesn't look exactly like this but i'm talking about the yellow square surrounded by black border smoking.

My board doesn't have the jack on top of the yellow and the jack below it.
I really want to save this because I can't buy it anymore. I got it at when it was $19.99, now it's all gone of course.

Edited by nos_slived, due to large picture.

A.J. Franzman · Post by **A.J. Franzman** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:21 am

hokman wrote:http://hipgear.arcadeconsole.com/hipgea ... lowres.jpg
my board doesn't look exactly like this but i'm talking about the yellow square surrounded by black border smoking.

My board doesn't have the jack on top of the yellow and the jack below it.
I really want to save this because I can't buy it anymore. I got it at when it was $19.99, now it's all gone of course.

Edited by nos_slived, due to large picture.

The "yellow square surrounded by black border" is the transformer for the backlight inverter. The image is of the "big motherboard" version of the Hip Gear - the one that doesn't work below about 11 {EDIT: make that 7} volts, which I have. If yours is the "small motherboard" version, it will be a bit different in layout.

If the transformer is the only thing that went bad, someone with real electronics knowhow might be able to disconnect the inverter and do an LED mod to save the screen. Otherwise, it's toast.