Lighting getting even more expensive.....

[vtsteam]

Our backup home heat source, a Toyostove Laser 730 heater, has been working perfectly for several years. We mainly heat with wood, but the Toyostove (which burns either kerosene or diesel fuel) is great for when we are away from home, or for warming up the house early mornings before re-loading the wood stove.

It has a digital temperature and program display with programming keyboard, similar to a microwave oven's, but yesterday the display suddenly went blank. I cycled the power, but couldn't get the display to light. I did however notice that the heater seemed operational.

Raising or lowering the temperature with the panel buttons worked to start and stop the heater. It just wasn't possible to see what temperature I was setting it to, and what the present temperature was. Because it wasn't visible it also wasn't possible to set the internal clock and day of the week for the daily heat programs to regulate the heat.

The front display panel was connected to the main heater control board via a ribbon cable, I removed that to check the contacts for corrosion, but they were clean and in good condition. I contacted Toyostove via email and within an hour a very knowledgeable customer service person called me back at home, and together we went through a thorough troubleshooting procedure for the two boards. I was extremely impressed with the competence and level of service they provided.

He was 80% sure the problem was with the front panel display board and not the main control board. He gave me a part number for my unit after checking the series number and then provided the phone number of a nearby New Hampshire distributor who could provide the part. Cost was about $275 with shipping. I called the distributor and ordered the part, which had to be shipped from Japan.

After the phone call I was reinstalling the display when, tilting it at a flat angle to a nearby window, I thought I saw a pale ghost of the digital display. I then realized that this wasn't an LED display but a backlit LCD panel and the likely problem was only that the backlight wasn't working. Holding a flashlight at an angle I was actually able to read the digits set the time and day, and re-enable the weekly program.

So, the long and short of it is, we've basically got a $275 light tube out. 

[awemawson]

Is the back light replaceable Steve - some are just electroluminescent tubes similar to lap top displays.

Today I steamed up the Beaver TC20 lathe - not used it in a while but I've just bought a spare battery backed RAM board that I want to be able to test so needed to download the contents of the existing RAM via the RS232 port. Couldn't get it to work - fairly sure the baud rate was wrong so out came the oscilloscope but I was getting very peculiar spikey waveforms - blimey an oscilloscope to fix as well 

No - the BNC plug on the scope probe was half undone so the signal was only coupled by a very small capacitance - screwed it up and the jobs a good 'un 

(Yes Baud rate was set to 300 not 9600 as I last used the port to do the programming of the PLC software  )

[vtsteam]

Isn't digital electronics great? Highly specialized display keyed to a specific version of a specific model, only available from Japan (until rapidly obsoleted) for $$$.

A conventional thermostat had a physical pointer and graduations, and a thermometer. Impossible to stop displaying without actual physical damage. Standardized and available domestically from multiple competitive sources at reasonable cost at most local hardware stores.

True, no programming, but It wasn't that hard to change a setting using the biological computer between the ears and a push with the index finger a simple slider.

I have to re-program the digital version every power outage anyway, which takes multiple modes of button pressing to accomplish for hours, hours, minutes, days of the week, and program modes.

Guess I'm a luddite. I still miss channel dials on TV's.....

[awemawson]

My bedside clock I’ve had literally for decades, a cheap Ross red digital display. It packed up a few weeks ago, and although I changed the one ic in it it still didn’t work. Never mind, an identical one bought s/h on eBay cost less than the I/C that I’d changed.

 It was at this point I realised that it had a back up 9 volt battery to keep the time during power cuts. Over the years like you I’ve exercised multiple button presses to reset it  never knowing that it had a (rather flat) battery 

[vtsteam]

Well Andrew despite the high expense for this display board, there is no RTC or backup battery for it.

As far as re-tubing the backlighted LCD, I'm not sure I can find an equivalent replacement, or if it's even accessible or removable. I haven't un-screwed the display board from its plastic snap-in housing so I haven't had a good look at it. I might do so, but for now we want to use it in place to keep the heater working.

And also if I take it apart, I'll have to drop the power and  #$%*^ re-program it again via flashlight and some serious squinting behind me spectacles!

I might do as you do, after the replacement arrives, try to fix it as a shelf spare.