Icom IC-M127 Display is Failing

[Capt. Rich]

Hello all, I have 2 Icom IC-M127 VHF radios. One is located on the bridge and the other at the lower helm station. Both displays are failing to the point of unreadable, otherwise they work as well as new. I am waiting for a response from ICOM service to see if the screens can be replaced. I know electronics become dated the day you purchase them but in the day these were very good units and it seems a shame to just throw them away. Any thoughts?

[fairbank56]

The lcd panels in these radio's are connected to the front panel circuit board via elastomer connectors. We tech's commonly call them zebra strips. After a long period of time combined with heat, they can leach out a substance called siloxane which creates a film on the edges that are in contact with the lcd on one side and the circuit board on the other. This film makes for a poor connection and causes some of the display segments to fade. It is possible to remove them and scrape the film off with a razor blade restoring the display to like new condition. This may or may not be your problem as it could also be that the lcd itself is failing. Either way, it can be fixed although I doubt that Icom services them any more. I could fix them for you but with the low cost of radio's these days it might just be time to upgrade to a modern class D DSC unit.

Eric

[rckoury]

I would like to discuss a repair to the display of my ICOM M-127. Please contact me at rckoury@earthlink.net.
Thanks,
Bob

[phorvati]

Any idea if ICOM custom designed the LCD or is this something they purchased?
if i am looking at this correctly its 32 segments and 4 commons. There are companies that make glass displays but the trick is finding the one that makes this arrangement of segments.

[fairbank56]

This is obviously a custom design specifically for this radio.

[phorvati]

Thanks, that's very neat how you got the photo. I see that its customized. But it doesnt matter, 'cause I figured out how glass segmented LCD with zebra strip works, and how to fix faded or damaged ones.

Actually in my case both front and rear polarizing film got damaged. So all I had to do is scrape it off and order LCD screen polarizing sheets on ebay. After googling how Glass LCD segmented displays work, I played around with the strips of polarizing paper until I got the segments to show. In essence there are two sheets of polarizing paper, front one should be vertically polarized and rear one should be horizontally. This LCD is translucent, meaning the back screen is transparent and reflective. So that means back-light LEDs can light up the segments from the back, and LCD can also utilize ambient light to pass it through LCD and illuminate segments. In taking this thing apart, I screwed up by damaging the rear translucent screen. So I just replaced it with polarizing (transparent) screen. So I get my segments correctly displayed by utilizing backlight LEDs but because I lost the reflective nature of the back screen I cannot utilize the ambient light to illuminate the segments. No biggie as I plan to use it in the cabin. But now that I have it working again, I might look for translucent screen material. Definitely a good spare to have for any on board LCDs that fade out.

[vyc2014]

[QUOTE=fairbank56;746801 I could fix them for you but with the low cost of radio's these days it might just be time to upgrade to a modern class D DSC unit.

Eric[/QUOTE]

I have a Simead autopilot AP300X that has a failing LCD panel. Is that something you could fix?
Private message me and I'll send you a photo. I also left a thread here under Simrad AP200x display last week with a link. Also mention what you'd charge to repair.
Regards
Don Roy

[Morrissey]

Originally Posted by fairbank56

The lcd panels in these radio's are connected to the front panel circuit board via elastomer connectors. We tech's commonly call them zebra strips. After a long period of time combined with heat, they can leach out a substance called siloxane which creates a film on the edges that are in contact with the lcd on one side and the circuit board on the other. This film makes for a poor connection and causes some of the display segments to fade. It is possible to remove them and scrape the film off with a razor blade restoring the display to like new condition. This may or may not be your problem as it could also be that the lcd itself is failing. Either way, it can be fixed although I doubt that Icom services them any more. I could fix them for you but with the low cost of radio's these days it might just be time to upgrade to a modern class D DSC unit.

Eric

I realise this is a very old thread. If anybody has success, can you clarify where the film needs to be removed from? Is it from the display segments themselves?

And yes, upgrade might be best but an equivalent unit, the Icom 2730A, is $541 here in Australia. So I'm up for an attempt with a razor first!