Case Study for Repairs on aging Touch Screen: Who says electronic repair work doesn’t require creativity? Yes, experience, education, skill, and patience (lots of that!) are necessary. But a good dose of creativity is just what can make the difference in solving a challenging repair.
This aging and long out-of-warranty Allen Bradley touch screen control panel was deposited on our loading dock nearly dead on arrival. I say “nearly” DOA because while it did power up, which was a definite plus, it was otherwise non-responsive. Among other age-related problems, a video problem on the motherboard was causing no video to the LCD (digital) output or on the VGA output (analog).
The customer was anxious to get this unit repaired and back in service and I mean this exact unit, not a replacement. Our expert tech staff determined that even though major replacement parts for this unit were unavailable (such as the very-important LCD panel) it could still be repaired with some ingenuity, some clever secondary market purchases, and access to our deep parts “boneyard”. And, despite some rather “invasive surgery”, it would still look and perform identically to the original.
With approval from our customer, this unit was repaired almost entirely with used parts. Even the case was expertly modified to accept a different panel. We retrofitted the backlight, and analog to digital interface board from the replacement monitor to fit inside the cabinet but had to discard the monitor power supply, and route power from the existing source. When “surgery” was complete, the touch screen was accurate and calibrated at the very first test and required NO adjustments! Way to go!
My motto has always been, and I mean always, where there’s a will, there’s a way. This customer really needed their Allen Bradley touch screen control panel to be back up and running and with no replacement units immediately available, by gum we were STILL going to find a solution!
Hats off to our extraordinary tech staff for finding and executing a workable and cost-effective solution and to our customer for bravely approving an “alternative” approach.