Timesquare intermittent display issue

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jhosef
 
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Timesquare intermittent display issue

Post by jhosef »

As shown in the photos, I have a ghosting of the pixels that should be off.
When I take it out of the band, it clears up but not immediately. When I put it back in the band, it is fine for a little bit then goes back to this ghosting.
In the scrolling numeral mode these dim pixels are on the leading edge of the numbers.

I think that my soldering is tidy, but can post a picture for discussion. My only guess is that there might be a current leak somewhere that the band is pinching.

Given the nature of the design, I can only see one side of the board. I'm assuming that the IC pins are not bent under the matrix or this would be a solid problem rather than sporadic. the outer pins of the ATMEGA are neatly against the matrx housing.

Otherwise, it keeps time and is readable even with these extra half lit bits.

Where should I be looking to clear this up?

Thanks,
Joseph
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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Timesquare intermittent display issue

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Ghosting is probably a soldering issue. Please post some clear close-ups.

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pburgess
 
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Re: Timesquare intermittent display issue

Post by pburgess »

The 'ghosting' actually is normal in binary mode: the 'dim' pixels are zeros, the 'bright' pixels are ones.

When the battery voltage drops below a certain threshold, the watch can't sustain these intermediate 'gray' values, so it goes into a strictly 1-bit display mode. This is not the 'preferred' look for the binary mode, but it's better than nothing.

The battery voltage will usually creep back up if the watch is not fussed with for a short while (e.g. installing or removing band, or just setting it aside for a few minutes). Once sufficiently recovered, the 'dim' zero bits return.

jhosef
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:22 pm

Re: Timesquare intermittent display issue

Post by jhosef »

pburgess wrote:The 'ghosting' actually is normal in binary mode: the 'dim' pixels are zeros, the 'bright' pixels are ones.

When the battery voltage drops below a certain threshold, the watch can't sustain these intermediate 'gray' values, so it goes into a strictly 1-bit display mode. This is not the 'preferred' look for the binary mode, but it's better than nothing.

The battery voltage will usually creep back up if the watch is not fussed with for a short while (e.g. installing or removing band, or just setting it aside for a few minutes). Once sufficiently recovered, the 'dim' zero bits return.
thanks, I recall reading that in the instructions but it didn't seem to look this way in the pictures. definitely been fussing with it so this makes sense.

now that I know it works as intended, I guess that I'll need to learn how to reprogram away those dim "0"s.

thanks.

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