"N_Cook" wrote in :

Jeff Liebermann wrote in message
...
On Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:12:10 -0800, mike wrote:

I have a meter with intermittent display segments.

Maker and model number?

I've cleaned the board and (carefully) the LCD glass contacts.
Not much help.
Neither did cleaning the zebra strip.
Is there anything I can do to the zebra strip to help?
I've thought about shaving down the plastic to get more compression
on the strip...but there's no coming back from that.

If you look carefully at the strip, you'll see that the connecting
PCB traces has created an indentation in the strip. If you rotate
the strip to a different side, the indentations will not make
contact. There are 8 possible ways to reinstall the strip, 7 of which
won't work. The trick will be to find the original orientation.
Shaving the existing connector won't help because it will reduce the
connection pressure.

However, I don't think you'll have much luck getting it back in
position. Find a replacement strip and it should work, assuming
nothing else is blown/broken/trashed. Search for "elastomeric
connector strip".
http://www.fujipoly.com/products/zebra-elastomeric-connectors.html

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558


"There are 8 possible ways to reinstall the strip, 7 of which won't
work" ?
The point of zebras is they have very great latitude for
mis-positioning, I've found replacing back-in in another 1 of 8
orientations often works, admittedly I flip in a vertical sense and
flip longitudinally ,not necessarily solved the problem for very long
though. Assuming the zebra is nominally held in a plastic well, then
"shaving down the plastic " does work , and is a more long term
solution. I mark and use a file to remove about 1/3mm all round, just
freehand, again zebra latitude comes to the fore again - I wonder who
thought up such a clever solution.



Filing it is drastic and not reversable.

Instead, I recommend shimming between the bezel and the LCD glass (on top
of the glass) using a narrow strip of self-adhesive tape. You only
really need to shim the edge with the zebra strip. The glass then sits a
little closer to the PCB complessing the zebra strip slightly more.

It is the ONLY satisfactory method I have found if the clamping pressure
comes from plastic clips, not screws.

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