Mini LCD cable replacement  

RE: Mini LCD cable replacement

I have already bought about 4 cables from different suppliers and not one of them works as it should. The screen is lit (white) but does not display any information.

Can the 100cm cable length cause this? Or must the cable have some parameters that need to be focused on? I don't know what to do anymore.

RE: Mini LCD cable replacement

If you want to make your own then get old long 3.5 inch IDE desktop computer hard disk drives Parallel ATA cable (28AWG 40pin, 2.54 mm pitch) which is 457mm (18in), cut the cable close to the attached connectors. Do NOT get the one for 2.5 inch disks, they have lower pitch. 

Double check the cable, there may be a hole cut on one of the ends - this is done on purpose for Cable Select, make sure to select the other part of the cable in that case.

Then from the main ribbon rip a new one with 14 cables and clamp 14 FC IDC ( female insulation displacement connectors). Make sure to use new connectors and make sure not to mix polarity.

This should help to allow moving LCD display for Prusa Mini into a more convenient spots and it should still allow the LCD display to work without artifacts (usually anything longer than 60cm causes issues)

RE: Mini LCD cable replacement

If the cable is too long, it will mess up the SPI signal (eg. effects of stray capcitance/inductance) the display uses to communicate. When that happens it shows a white screen, but the buzzer and encoder should still work as they don’t use SPI

RE: Mini LCD cable replacement

I'm in the same boat; i also want to move the display away from the printer (i have the original prus enclosure, so on the outside of that) and i bought a M-to-F extension cable. Upon turning on the printer, it just shows a white screen. If i disconnect and reconnect the cables, the screen shows correctly.

Are there any measurements as to how long an extension can be? Would it be better to have just one long cable instead of 2 cables covering the distance? I know some people has success with doing this, so what gives? Is it the cable quality? length? Are some people just more lucky than others?

The original cable is about 35cm long and i bought a 20cm extension.

RE: Mini LCD cable replacement

Single cable is surely better than a cable with a interconnection.
You can make a new one if you get parts, explained in posts above https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/postid/719262/

Another idea is to get a ferrite ring and make a single loop through it, it may help with some interferences which may be the reason why you get the white display on the start. https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/tdk/HF60T62X13X39/9849888 sometimes you can find those in old computers on the cables that go to the front panel.