FOR THE EXPERIMENTER
Sustainability is important to me and wherever possible ...
To many this item might just be an piece of technology junk but I am big on reusing or repurposing old electronic components and hardware, particularly from the point of view of sustainability, it needs to be repurposed not thrown in the rubbish tip!
Sustainability is far more than NOT burying waste material back into the earth but consciously recognising the energy expended to create the item through it's various "stages" in life, beginning with the raw materials being extracted from the earth, processed, finished and then fitted into equipment - every single step used energy which is referred to as embodied energy.
Coming up with an Ee value for EVERYTHING us humans create is an attempt to take into account the energy used for extracting and processing of the raw materials, manufacturing of the component, distribution of the component(s) and final assembly of the component. In fact the measurement of Ee can become extremely complicated and technical, many tertiary institutions are involved in this specialised field of science.
The sole purpose of establishing Ee values is to raise awareness of the extraordinary energy consumed in the creation of various items - it may give you cause to think twice before wasting all that energy and burying it in the ground, with the possible side-effects of poisoning the environment due to leeching.
HERE is a page I have created which gives some tables and more detailed information about specific Ee values for different materials plus a link which you can use as a starting point to investigate Ee for yourself.
This LCD module was extracted from the MIYACHI Welding Controller model MA-201C, an old device in the world of welding controllers but that doesn't mean the LCD is of no further use.
This module was fully functioning but because of the equipment obsolescence, it has no purpose to fulfil in the original equipment.
There is NO COST for this LCD display, other than shipping, although if included with other items where the order exceeds A$75, shipping is free anyway.
MIYACHI Schedule Programmer and Monitor - LCD Display Only
Made in Japan
Most likely this is OEM OKI Data product
40 character x 4 line
Display area (large): 127mm x 36mm
PCB module: 181mm x 177mm
Weight: 122g
Unfortunately, identification of this module is sparse ... no ID markings at all on either side of the PCB. However, on the underside, there is a White sticker which has been dot matrix printed as 40S EBG 408
LSI's abound on the underside of the PCB, all surface mounted.
OKI devices
M5238
M5839B 3x
plus
Unmarked (blank top) LSI's 4x
These OKI chips are both LCD drivers, controllers but the purpose of the blank chips is unknown ... possibly memory. This looks to be a "dumb screen", meaning that data is sent to this PCB from the main board. I have not kept the main board, I couldn't see any purpose in saving it - all SMD and with some custom programming in a 27C256 EPROM plus other custom chips.
One end of the PCB module has a flying lead (which went to the main board) and I would say this is the backlight for the display.
The other end of the PCB (underside) has a 10 way male pin connector (2.54mm pitch), this will be the supply rails and it looks like a parallel data input.
I am not about to sit down and work out the function of these pins, that is for the new owner to work out! I did look around online for ANY data about this module, zilch found ... I suspect this was a custom made product for Miyachi
Cosmetically the module has a few scratch marks on the front protective screen but nothing too serious.
NO light-dark spots on the LCD screen
I have now packed this LCD module into a suitable ESD protective packet, along with the original 4x standoff's (just in case they are needed by the new owner)
