DISCLAIMER: These steps are for informational purposes only. If you break your device, I’m not responsible. For the Backlit Kit install, the LCD tray is slightly modified to fit the Backlit part. If you don’t agree, hit the back button. Thanks, The Management! 😎👍
Always practice safe static protection. There are lots of pics and tips for installing the new Backlit LCD Kit. Click on any pic and at the bottom you will see a link for full size to get even more detail. Then magnify to full size. The pics and tips page scrolls well with a phone or any device in wide mode. Most will find this to be a bit overkill but hopefully should answer any questions visually that may come up. A picture is always worth a thousand words.
‼WARNING: PLASTIC SCREW HOLE STATIC
CHARGED FLAKES MAY CAUSE MADNESS‼
Use something similar to a makeup powder brush works.
SUGGESTED TOOLS FOR BACKLIT INSTALL: THIN LEAD MECHANICAL PENCIL or THIN SHARPIE MARKER, XACTO KNIFE, PAINTERS TAPE, SOLDERING IRON AND FLUX, FLUX BRUSH FOR CLEANING, ISOPROPANOL(RUBBING ALCOHOL)
SUGGESTED TOOLS FOR STANDARD LCD INSTALL: XACTO KNIFE, PAINTERS TAPE, SOLDERING IRON AND FLUX, FLUX BRUSH FOR CLEANING, ISOPROPANOL(RUBBING ALCOHOL)
Microvision Backlit LCD Kit.
The kit consists of the transmissive LCD, backlight unit and custom zebra connector.
Standard LCD Parts. Reuse the green sponge for correct spacing and original zebra connectors.
🔥🔥 Make sure the game cartridge is removed first before disassembly otherwise the game cartridge can jam inside the case and cause damage to the large mainboard to cartridge connector🔥🔥 Flip MV over with paddle wheel hanging over edge. Remove battery, cover and six screws.
Place back aside. Note wiring placement in the wire channel troughs. Take pics if needed.
Notes: Power switch is flat over brown pin. Note wire routing.
Brown support pin through middle of power switch. I’ve run into 2 switches with oxidized contacts causing no power. To clean, Remove wiring, remove small PCB, bend back 4 metal crimp tabs holding switch together. Clean all contacts with metal polish and isopropanol.
Disassembled the power switch. This came out of a unit that would not power on or the switch was glitchy. The contacts were heavily
oxidized and need a serious cleaning with a metal polish and a Dremel nylon cup brush.
Another pic of the brown stop pin supporting power switch. If this is broken. Epoxy another one. This supports the switch and will just push in. The factory routed the wiring wrong and put stress on this brown stop pin.
Other side of switch shows wire routing.
Move paddle wheel potentiometer to side. Note: plate is flush.
Slide out keypad / paddle wheel plate. (whatever it’s called🤔)
Note: piezo speaker placement and wire routing.
Move switch and piezo to side. Piezo wires are fragile. Check piezo solder connections. Resolder if frayed or popped off the piezo. The piezo has a thin metal layer on top. Solder quickly or metal layer will burn away.
Note: keypad is installed flat in recessed area so plate will be flush.
Push keypad slightly out from underside. Keypad could be stuck from foam adhesive.
Remove mainboard and accessories. Put aside case parts.
Note: This mainboard to cartridge connector pops out easily and installs only one way. Makes sure all pins are clean. Use isopropyl and Qtip if needed. Take a pic.
Solder the earlier mainboard battery clips. The later units had soldered battery clips.
Add solder to oxidized battery contacts. Flux-Solder-flux-reheat-repeat cleaning with a flux soaked Qtip to clear the corrosive oxidation layer.
Check for other cold solder joints. The solder joint to the left of the battery clip is the main power feed from the switch. In this case, it was a cold joint with the frayed wire wiggling lose in the thru hole.
👉Fix the glitchy paddle wheel pot.👈
Fold back the 4 tabs and clean with metal polish and alcohol. Then apply some switch lube with graphite mixed.
Polished with simichrome.
With cases aside, remove 4 screws holding LCD tray. Make sure these caps are not leaking. The larger 33uf can cause display issues. It should have about 16M ohm resistance in circuit. I’ve had a failing 33uf cap cause a flashing display and bad response from the contrast knob. It had very low resistance in circuit. I pulled it out and it read 3k pF!
Screws removed. LCD tray should fall down. The 2 clear alignment pins might be tight.
Front alignment pin. These clear alignment pins might need a gentle push down on them for the LCD tray to pop out.
Rear alignment pin. Alignment pins might be stuck.
Original LCD components. These are just clinging to the mainboard. Note zebra connectors orientation.
🔥🔥 Soak the zebra connectors with isopropyl alcohol before peeling off. This potentially avoid damaging the large zebra LCD connector. The leaking LCD fluid can cause these zebras to stick to the board and LCD. Pulling off without soaking can remove the conductive carbon on the black silicon zebra stripes🔥🔥
Some later mainboards might have a small clear silicone contact button to the right above the display. This connects power when a cartridge is installed. It fits into the small hole in the LCD tray. Some units have the hole in the LCD tray but no button and no open pads. This unit has the pads with a solder blob and no hole in the LCD tray. I’ve seen problems with the button not making good contact and needed to be cleaned.
The unit will not power on if this button is not making good contact. Some have a solder blob shorting the PCB pads on the mainboard thus deleting the silicone button. Picture of the solder blob mainboard.
If this is an EU Microvision- Click here for more instructions. Some of the later MVs have a different design for the LCD tray. Return to this point when your done.
Remove front polarizer sheet. This will not be needed as the new LCD have the polarizers built in. Constantly clean static flakes with a makeup powder brush. Watch for paperboard shims under large zebra connector. They must be reused for warped LCD trays or add painters tape strips mentioned later. Display issues can result if not in place. Sometimes masking tape strips applied under the large zebra were used.
👉🔥🔥 Click here to skip these next few steps for a standard LCD install. 🔥🔥👈
This side is where the LCD retaining wall needs to be trimmed. Note the layout of the tray for reference.
The wall is too high for the backlight unit to sit flat.
With the old LCD in the tray sitting flat. Draw a line marking this wall area where to trim down flush to the height of the LCD. This will allow the backlight unit to sit flat on the LCD.
Another pic drawing the mark line with the old LCD as a guide.
Remove the old LCD. Tape the area to protect the plastic tray viewing area from scratches.
File down the wall. Clean static charged flakes… watch them magically reappear…
Clean the area of flakes and check the height. It doesn’t have to be level, just even or below the height of the LCD is the goal so the backlight unit sits flat but still tall enough to hold the LCD in place.
The next step is to mark 2 small cuts needed on the tray to fit the BL unit. Place the original LCD in the tray. Then place the original straight brown/black zebra connector in position shown above. Then place the BL unit in the tray.
Keep the BL unit against the right retaining wall stops and the original zebra connector centered.
Another angle of the BL unit against the LCD retaining stops and original zebra connector.
Mark the 2 small supporting walls left and right when the BL unit sits. These are the cuts needed for the BL unit to sit flat.
Use a pencil, thin sharpie, or Xacto knife to mark the cut lines. Click on the pic to see up close.
Use a pencil, thin sharpie, or Xacto knife to mark the cut lines. Click on the pic to see up close.
Another view of the marked cut lines with the x-acto knife.
Trim back 2mm. Take 2 or 3 small slices as this has better control than trying to cut off all at once.
Undercut the slices so they pop off. Clear the flakes.
View of the right side after trimmed. Looks for flakes.
Check fit as this does not need to be tight. Some room for small adjustments are needed in the next mainboard assembly step. The BL unit fits in this orientation. The black lead goes on the right. That keeps the illumination side pointing thru the LCD. Watch for flakes.
Checking to see if the backlight unit is sitting flat and the notches are cut out with enough clearance. Clean the flakes.
🔥🔥 Start Here for Standard LCD install 🔥🔥
Next step is to cut three (3) strips of painters tape 3mm x 34mm. No flakes here.
Place (2) 3mm x 34mm strips of painters tape thickness on the upper shelf for the large zebra connector. Add 1 strip under the lower side ledge. This will raise the zebra higher to compensate for the LCD tray curve. See pics below.
It was too expensive to manufacture a new custom molded silicone zebra connector to replace the original. Custom straight zebra connectors are widely available. Ohh lots of flakes here.
View of the (2) strips of painters tape on the left upper shelf and (1) strip on the right or lower shelf. These sit under the zebra to raise it so it can reach the mainboard contacts when assembled. Flakey flakey.
Install the zebra connector. When everything is clean, remove the clear protective clings sheet(s). They can be tricky to remove. Not removing these can lead to display issues with improper spacing. Install the backlit transmissive LCD.
👇🔥🔥 Standard LCD installed silver up pictured below. 🔥🔥👇
Lay the new LCD onto the zebra. The Backlit LCD can be oriented with either side facing up. Verify the LCD on all corners and stops. In this view, make sure the zebra is touching the LCD contacts from under the glass and the top zebra make contact from the top of the glass as shown oriented in the clear LCD tray. See below…
… use a Q-tip to check how well the dark conductive strips are in contact. The large Zebra connector needs to make good contact with the LCD from under the glass. Gently press down going across to see these LCD contact areas under the glass. This is like pressing your face to a glass window, from the other side of the window, you can see where you skin touches and where it doesn’t. You want all of the black strips showing evenly contact across the glass LCD contacts. Use the glare of a light to see the LCD contacts better…
…if it appears to have less contact in the middle, the tray is excessively warped. Remove the LCD and zebra and add a second shorter 3mm x 22mm length strip to fill the low spot in the warped LCD tray. Add that strip to the lower ledge. That will allow the zebra connector to have even pressure across the LCD contacts. This will fix displays issues with missing or shimmering vertical lines in the middle of the display. Some LCD trays are warped more that others affecting this zebra connector. You can see the warp in the tray by viewing line of sight along the length where the large zebra sits. The factory used a few methods to fix this problem by adding tan masking tape strips or thin paperboard strips that fall out when disassembled.
🔥🔥Skip these next few steps for standard LCD install🔥🔥
Set the LCD tray aside and wire up the backlight unit.
On this early mainboard version, the black goes there and red goes there. Watch the original wires do not fall out when heated. They ends of these aged wires are heavily oxidized making soldering difficult.
Later version mainboard with BL unit connection points. Make sure the black resistor lead is trimmed to avoid contact with the red lead.
Peel off the protective cling sheet.
Add the new pink and black custom zebra centered on the top edge of the LCD contacts. This was custom made to clear the new backlit LCD components to make proper contact with the mainboard.
Make sure the black wire is on the right side so the backlight is projecting thru the LCD. Move both wires to the right shown before assembly. This will clear the mount.
Backlight unit wired in. Check placements. LCD is flat, BL unit flat in position. Pink zebra connector centered in position.
👇🔥🔥… continue standard LCD install here🔥🔥👇
Now that all of the backlit LCD components are in place, roll the mainboard onto tray so the left LCD tray alignment pin is popping through mainboard. Careful not to bump the tray.
Pick up the assembly aligning the rear alignment pin. Holding the board together so the alignment pins are through the board.
While lightly holding together verify left zebra connector. Use a small tool to gently push zebra connector closer to LCD for the best possible connection. Careful not to topple the zebra as it will fail to make a connection to the LCD pads. Verify it is still centered! Also adjust LCD if needed. The zebra alignment can fix display issues.
While holding everything in place, carefully check that all parts are in place. Keep the BL wires from under the mounts and solder pads. They like to get squished every time or poked by a solder lead right next to the black wire. Verify that solder pad lead is not touching or poking into the LCD backlight unit. Unsolder and flatten if needed.
With everything adjusted and still in place, install the 4 screws to hold LCD tray in place. These are self tapping screws! 🔥Follow existing threads🔥 Drop screw into hole, turn CCW in loosen direction until threads align with bump. Then tighten CW until stop. ⚡DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN⚡ These screws apply needed pressure for good zebra contact. Stripped screws won’t apply needed pressure and will lead to display issues.
Lay mainboard assembly into front case. Large mainboard to cartridge connector needs to be pushed to outer edge so mainboard lays flat in case.
Starting installing parts in case. Make sure the solder joints and wire are clear of the highlighted raised wall area on install. The piezo needs full contact with this ledge for optimal sound.
🔥🔥Careful with piezo during reassembly.🔥🔥
Hold piezo and wire together reshaping wire as the center solder connection is fragile. The wires need to be inline to fit between the 2 brown posts so the piezo can lay flat. If center wire pops off, use fast soldering method as the center metal is very thin and will burn away with too much heat and time. 👍
Paddle wheel knob in place. Piezo wire installed correctly between brown pins and wire routed between case screw posts. These components like to pop out of place interfering with final assembly.
🔥🔥TO AVOID CENTER WIRE POPPING OFF, HOLD PIEZO AND WIRE TOGETHER AS NEEDED FOR RESHAPING WIRE AROUND POST🔥🔥
Install power switch following previous disassembly wire routing notes. Install keypad / paddle wheel plate. Make sure keypad is flat inside case. This lays flat with 4 right brown piezo speaker pins just about flush.
This plate needs to be flat against the piezo for sound quality. I have seen several units send from the factory with the piezo not seated correctly with this plate warped.
The warpage can be corrected by slowly heating this warped area with a heat gun, softening the plastic to flatten back in shape.
🔥🔥Keeping the areas above and below tight against the piezo provides the best sound for this very weak speaker device.🔥🔥
Install paddle wheel potentiometer and power switch. Follow routing notes and pics from disassembly. Add your battery placement card if you have one. Print out the battery card pic below.
Battery placement insert. These were installed in the single battery units. Download the PDF to print correct size. Cut out from sheet and custom trim to fit under back case to pin in place when screwed down.
Print one out.
Add 6 screws. 🔥🔥Rotate screws CCW to feel thread alignment bump then when you notice the screw drops down, the threads have aligned.🔥🔥
Then tighten CW. Do not overtighten as this will strip out the plastic threads. Case should align like this with components in correct positions.
It’s common for the piezo to pop out of place and cause interference with a flush case.
The 2 middle screws apply more pressure to the LCD tray. These screws can’t be stripped as this could cause display issues.
Switch should barely poke out. If the brown stop pin inside the case is cracked or broken, this switch will fall into the case. Check the case being straight all around. The next 4 slides show a repair.
Power switch retainer pin repair. Snip off the broken brown roundish post. The white strip is 4.8mm wide to fit between the switch leads. It hasn’t been trimmed to height yet.
New white switch retainer post trimmed to the correct height. The white repair post was trimmed back slightly to fit the switch tightly.
Battery contacts in the correct position.
Best location to allow battery to snap in place.
Battery installs flat and level.
Push down. Snapped in making good contact. Add battery cover.
Power on! Twinkling or missing display lines are the zebra connector strips. Check for tray warpage at the large zebra connector and/or the pink zebra is pushed close to the LCD and is straight.
After all of your hard work, take a break and beat my score of 181! 😉👍
If you run into issues where the game is not displaying correctly. Go back and review the zebra connector alignment.
🔥🔥If all else fails, send it to me or contact me here or here on FB messenger.🔥🔥