View attachment 1409 View attachment 1410
Ok, update time. A little late, as it took longer to deliver from the UK to France. A hold up in customs, according to the guy, then I was busy with house/studio renovation stuff. Any way, here's the skinny. Apologies for the lack of how to pics, but he provides pictorial installation info anyway, and it was a slightly stressful experience (read on!) so I kinda forgot..
1. Installation: Despite his insistence that it was possible to do without opening the machine, I decided to follow advice on here. 10 minutes, a dozen or so screws (NB - careful, there are several different types used!) and the centre section is open, display accessible. Looking at it, you probably can pop the whole display bezel out and do it that way (as the display actually screws into the bezel assembly), but it seems more fiddly to me & I'm prone to breaking things I have to prise open...
Then - minor niggle 1; the replacement display is actually physically slightly smaller than the Tascam original, so only 2 holes line up with the display housing. To get around this, he supplies two washers to clamp the new display in place. Sounds fiddly and is, but once in, the display is secure.
He provides good clear instructions on fitting the display, see them here:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7EcSsF92KI3aHJMNGYzTVktbnc
Follow them and you can't go wrong except that -
Minor niggle 2; the plastic plug for the backlight (pic 8) supplied on the new display was too loose after I'd cut back the plastic on the existing connection. Perhaps I cut too much off, either way I was forced to use the original plug with the wires soldered to those on the new one. Workable, but not plug n play! So be careful if this is the case & be prepared to do this to get a good connection. Tip - do it before you screw the display in place!
2. Setup: Once in place, screwed in & soldered, you have to tweak the settings using the 2 pots he's soldered to the board for that purpose, so do this before you screw the desk back together again. Wires are long enough to re-seat the centre section and adjust the display from your preferred angle so again, it's fiddly but not difficult. I was faced initially with a blank white screen, but one pot sets the correct brightness for the display, the other the contrast, thus allowing you to set it to your preferences. Once you're happy, screw the desk together again & test it all!
Minor niggle 3; viewing area is not central in the "window" (as I pointed out earlier, it's not the same size exactly as the Tascam orig.). You get used to it, but some would find it irritating and there's no positional adjustment possible.
3. Was it worth it? - well, my original display was still readable, but I decided that it was only a matter of time before it became illegible. This way I got a clearer display, the old one is still there in an emergency & the job is done before I build the desk into studio furniture and make the job even more fiddly!
Conclusions: It's much clearer than the Tascam orig, and though I'd prefer a bit more contrast its still legible from wherever I need it to be (i.e. standing or sitting and from both sides). Due to my studio setup, the 2seemy option was ruled out, so it was either this or a new Tascam display. This was slightly cheaper than that, and you can get one in blue apparently, if you want that, I just preferred b & w.
Installation is not as easy as he says it is, but anyone competent with a screwdriver & soldering iron would be able to do it with patience & a steady hand. Pics are of the before & after & if you'd like to ask me questions about the experience please feel free. This or 2seemy? I'm not going to speculate as I haven't seen a 2seemy installation & its not an option for me, but on balance, overall, I'm happy...
. There is a pdf on here somewhere which shows you how to open or take apart your desk if that's the problem, if you can't find it I still have that, so will post it if need be. Re the actual display, if you've got yours from the same guy as me (on eBay), he will give you instructions via email (or eBay message), though strangely his Google Drive pics aren't there anymore, so you may need to ask him maybe if he has them somewhere else. Also I did write my experience up earlier in this thread, so that might be of help. Please post again with a little more detail if you can and I'll try to help further, though I'm not really an electronics maintenance guy! If you take it slowly and carefully it is relatively easy, if a bit fiddly - and you will need a soldering iron..
