I've never installed an LCD before, looked cool so I ordered a couple of cheap parallel LCDs from crystal fontz... I found a pinout for the connector wired it all up, double checked my wiring, shut down my computer, pluged it in, powered up and..... BILLOWING SMOKE then a spark and one of the caps on the back caught fire and caught the ribbon cable on fire... the whole time I'm franticly pushing the power button to shut it off, it wouldn't go so I reached back and pulled the cord out. so I checked the wireing again and everything in perfect order... then I went back to crystalfontz and found the datasheet... well aparently this model screen has a -5V generator which the diagram I wired it by had labeled that pin as a +5V input for the backlight anyway I ordered 2 and they were cheap, so all is good:
uh, you might want to edit that image to not include profanity, and read the faq/rules concerning such things.
That sux man. I have destroyed my share of electronics but none of them caught on fire . too bad you didnt have a vidio camera on hand eh?
yeah from now on I'll be more skeptical of random schmatics online... use the manufacturer specs if they're available.... I think I only paid about $8 for the LCD, it was the cheapest one they make so no big loss. just a LOT of smoke
MMM, I bet it was smelly smoke too, electronics (especially electrolytic caps) have quite a pungent smell when they burn, probably not to healthy either.
n00b question. How do you get to display whatever you want. Does the software/drivers that comes with it have an input GUI that then saves the data to the onboard memory of the display? And I'm sure there must be a way to display temps, music playing etc.
Always try to use header pins, soldering wires direct to the contacts is potentially dangerous if the flatcable doesn't have some kind of strain relief.
