My Infocentre has died
Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2023 2:40 pm
I think my infocentre has finally died (Sadly before I even got the car to MOT!) as now it's not showing anything on the LCD (even bright light shone through shows nothing), so it's either the LCD itself, the 'zebra' connector or the infocentre electronics have failed.
Searching back over historic posts, @brinkie and @jifflemon the experts in this field have helped loads, doing a few bench tests (I now have a test rig here so I can supply 12v from spare car battery (fused) onto the green and grey connectors onto the dashboard cluster) there are a few observations:
The 5 pin connector/prongs that send the data to the LCD processor seem fine, continuity is OK and I get a voltage reading on all pins (assuming they are modulated on something like a serial bus to the LCD controller) so this does seem to confirm the infocentre computer is powering up and generating a signal/power to the LCD. Not sure if there is an easy way to test if the data is 'good' or not though.
Are there any pins to probe on the infocentre computer to try and work out if it's alive and working or it's just receiving power and not running? (Trying to determine if it's LCD or computer failure).
I've tried re-cleaning the 'zebra' connector for the LCD, created a little more pressure on the clip to make sure it sandwiches correctly, cleaned the pins, checked power on the main board and illumination bulbs are working ok.
I suspect I'm in the market for both, the infocentre and LCD and at least I can then do further diagnostics and work out which is at fault before I delve further. (1994 2litre Volvo 480 ES with the dashboard with grey and green connectors plus SRS) So if anyone is selling the infocentre and LCD (Or ideally, the whole instrument cluster so I have a second to test/work on) please let me know.
Searching back over historic posts, @brinkie and @jifflemon the experts in this field have helped loads, doing a few bench tests (I now have a test rig here so I can supply 12v from spare car battery (fused) onto the green and grey connectors onto the dashboard cluster) there are a few observations:
The 5 pin connector/prongs that send the data to the LCD processor seem fine, continuity is OK and I get a voltage reading on all pins (assuming they are modulated on something like a serial bus to the LCD controller) so this does seem to confirm the infocentre computer is powering up and generating a signal/power to the LCD. Not sure if there is an easy way to test if the data is 'good' or not though.
Are there any pins to probe on the infocentre computer to try and work out if it's alive and working or it's just receiving power and not running? (Trying to determine if it's LCD or computer failure).
I've tried re-cleaning the 'zebra' connector for the LCD, created a little more pressure on the clip to make sure it sandwiches correctly, cleaned the pins, checked power on the main board and illumination bulbs are working ok.
I suspect I'm in the market for both, the infocentre and LCD and at least I can then do further diagnostics and work out which is at fault before I delve further. (1994 2litre Volvo 480 ES with the dashboard with grey and green connectors plus SRS) So if anyone is selling the infocentre and LCD (Or ideally, the whole instrument cluster so I have a second to test/work on) please let me know.