Damaged digitiser flex cable on H1000 MessagePad

[TheBasement]

Hey I did a dumb thing and touched the digitiser ribbon cable with a soldering iron. It melted with a quickness. Are these actually repairable? I’ve tried a couple times already but that trace is getting shorter and shorter. I’m not sure it’s even metal, it looks like graphite or something?
So, where do I find a replacement LCD (or digitiser) for my MessagePad H1000?

 

[Kai Robinson]

@Androda may be the person to talk to about this - he's done reproduction flex cables before

 

[Androda]

Hey I did a dumb thing and touched the digitiser ribbon cable with a soldering iron. It melted with a quickness.

Got any pictures of the melted section? Depending on which cable was melted we might be able to recreate it.

Though if I'm understanding correctly, this is the interface to the resistive touch sensor area - and I believe that's hard-connected to the panel.

 

[TheBasement]

Got any pictures of the melted section? Depending on which cable was melted we might be able to recreate it.

Though if I'm understanding correctly, this is the interface to the resistive touch sensor area - and I believe that's hard-connected to the panel.

You’re right, it’s part of the panel.
I’ve found and bought another inoperative H1000 from eBay USA, so I may have some parts in a month or so

 

[TheBasement]

Well, against all odds I think I managed a fix of sorts. Kept gently scraping till I uncovered some of the conductive material, and then used kapton tape to stick some copper braid to it. Unconventional, definitely ghetto, but the screen is registering input.

 

[Androda]

Well done. Now hopefully the copper doesn't oxidize over time and break contact.

 

[TheBasement]

Just reporting back on this. While it does work in the fact it allows screen input to register, it won’t stay calibrated. I think what is happening is the copper section has a vastly different resistance value than the carbon traces, and it is way out of spec for the controller to deal with. Even right after a screen calibration the tracking starts to drift, eventually getting so bad every touch input is registered on the far left no matter where you press on the screen. The only true fix would be to use a replacement resistive layer.