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EL panel problem with very large alignment error
micoder
Posts: 36
I now have encountered three separate older EL panels that have failed.They each failed in exactly the same way. The button offset (alignment) is about half a screen in distance. This of course makes the panels unusable. No amount of resetting or removing batteries solves this problem. Has anyone encountered this and have you found a solution?
AMX technical support had never heard of it.
AMX technical support had never heard of it.
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I'm surprised - I've run into similar issues quite regularly. You panel might be hosed, but you can force calibration mode with most of them (not sure about yours in particular, but it's worth a try). Power it down completely, then restore power while holding your finger in the center of the screen. Keep holding it, and it will boot into the setup page ... still keep holding it, and it will jump to the calibration page right after (about 10 seconds). Then you can try recalibrating. If you still have communications, you can skip all that and send it a ^CAL command. The remaining question, which you will find out soon enough, is whether the calibration will stick. If not ... well, time to sell them a new panel.
I would love to try this, but you have to be able to push some buttons on the panel in order to initiate serial commands. I cannot do this. I can talk to each of these panels through the normal axlink system. If there is some way to send this command through axlink, please let me know.
Like I said, the offset is half a screen. Most buttons are completely inaccessible. Initiating setup is very difficult when powering up because setup is offset to the edge of the screen. It can be done but then the setup buttons are completely screwy.
I can't help but think that there may be a hardware problem. I would love to be able to repair these units. I just don't know which device failed. I have subbed all the chips that can be plugged in. NO joy.
I suspect that calibrate may simply not have the range to bring back a good calibration when I am starting from half a screen offset. I would love to try if it can be done from axlink.
Michael
It sounds like a hardware failure. Something like a dried out or failed capacitor. I think they are going to need to go back for service.
Yes DHawthorne,
The button images are on the screen in the correct place. The place where you push to activate the buttons is offset by half a screen. That makes half of the buttons totally inaccessible.
I have three panels now with the exact same fault and exact same offset. I would love to know which piece of hardware failed so that I could repair them myself. Something has failed with aging in these old panels. I hate to throw them away because the EL technology was generally more reliable than the lcd. The lcd illumination lights failed on a regular basis. The ELs would just keep on truckin.
Michael
I would guess with the age of these panels, perhaps the batteries went out and either took the calibration settings with them, or they got zapped from a power outtage...
- Chip
Well, Chip Moody,
I tried your suggestion. No Joy.
I first tried sending the calibrate command to a bad panel. Nothing.
So then I tried sending this command to a good EL panel, still nothing.
Then I decided to see if there was something wrong with the format I was using. What happens is that there are some commands that can be sent this way, like time and page, but SEND_COMMAND 50, "'CALIBRATE'" simply has no effect on the panels. I find this puzzling. There may be more commands that do work, but I have not tried them all. I do know that I can communicate with the panels by sending page commands and time but the calibrate is just a no show. Go figure.
Michael
The last time it occurred to me it was in a venue where all the staff used the panel to route pix and sounds all around the venue - it gets a very hard time indeed. Greasy fingers, food etc.
In this instance, the overlay membrane had collapsed and it obviously mucks around with the XY part of the matrix values. I managed to get a few weeks out of it by removing the membrane, cleaning it and putting it back in. The surface was badly worn and finally the client agreed to replace the membrane and all was well.
HTH
This sounds like a possibility. I did take one panel completely apart and cleaned the entire surface of the panel carefully. No joy. So, It sounds like I should try separating the panel itself. I had not tried that.
Michael