Can I disassemble a Fisher F2 case?

[NICKTHEBOOMER]

I have 2 Fisher F2s, one of which got soaked some years back and the electronics are fried I guess. Anyway, the LCD screen on my other one got accidentally smacked by a shovel and now has a big black blotch on the screen - as usual for a LCD. Anyhow, I got to thinking that if I could remove the screen from the old one, it might work in the new one. I am a fairly good tinkerer but am not sure how the case for the controls comes apart. Anyone have experience doing this sort of thing?

 

[still looking 52]

My little brother cz5 probably knows the answer to your question and he's a forum member also, I'll shoot him an email right now and hopefully he'll put a post on here that will help you.

 

[Dave J.]

Getting the thing open is the easiest part. The rest is very difficult electronic repair work. It's in the category of "this looks like a challenge I can't resist", not in the category of "I think I can salvage this thing".

I'm not saying don't do it, just saying to have really low expectations regarding the outcome and chalk it up to "well, now I know what the guts of an F2 look like." You were about ready to get a fancier model anyhow, right?

 

[mudpuppy]

Ha! I love those "How hard can this be?" moments in Life, that all fairly good tinkerers experience! thats when a guy truly learns, curiosity factor runs strong in some...a few phillip heads later, and holy krap! I'm in way over my head here!

I tried this once on a CZ 20, being a fairly good tinkerer myself...nope, not as good as I thought I was! Sent the whole mess back to Felix!

Well, anyway, at the very worse, you will have 2 coils and shafts that are still good, so theres that...along with an appreciation of micro soldering skills and definitely an advanced knowledge to help a brother similarly inclined down the road perhaps...

I'd go for it though, might be just a simple plug and play kind of deal right? Do a vid of the breakdown or let us know what you find in there! Maybe a fellow could buy two brand new F2 brain boxes straight from the factory for a reasonable price, and load them up on your shafts??

See? Then you will have 2 good F2's, maybe sell one and break even on the whole deal?
Mud

 

[SenorJuan]

I wouldn't normally encourage such things, but this project is a viable one, with care, so....
There are 2 crosshead screws holding the front panel onto the rear. You need to partially peel off the front label/membrane keypad layer to get to them. This is tricky, there's about 6 layers of plastic/sticky tape, you've got to get them all up together. But you only need to peel them up in two specific spots. Screw 1 is located on the bottom left, where the case is at its widest point. About 8mm in from the edge. Screw 2 is close to the NOTCH button. About where 4 o'clock is on the black notch button, about 8mm in from the edge.
You only need to get a small screwdriver in, they're not tight, and you don't need to actually remove the screws, they can be left in their holes.
The rest of the swap is just skilled electronics. The good LCD will need careful desoldering, about 24 pins in total. Do this job first. Then I guess the damaged one could be removed by cutting the legs close to the PCB, then cleaning out the remnants from the holes. Resolder the new LCD in.
Alternatively, you could cut the good one out, and refit it closer to the PCB on shorter legs.
Good luck.

 

[Hotwire]

Like mudpuppy said, keep the coils & the shafts. Sell both housings "as-is".

 

[Dave J.]

The rest of the swap is just skilled electronics.
Good luck.

Yep.

 

[SenorJuan]

I guess it's worth adding: Observe sensible anti-static precautions. Don't flex the ribbon cable from the front panel to the PCB any more than necessary, it's fragile. If you want to give it a thorough test, without messing about re-screwing the case, you can simply use "Scotch tape" to hold the case together.
There is an LCD test function built in, that turns on all the segments. It's ages since I tried it, so I can't remember, but it's something like "hold in sensitivity - , whilst powering up".

 

[mudpuppy]

Well? How did it go Nick?

I hope you saw Juan's advice on those screw locations etc. before your dismemberment attempt!...24 tiny little pins to unsolder and re-solder and not a quick plug-n-play!...Hopefully you used your fried rig for practice first!

I'd a backed out on that and went the brain box swap out route...Does Fisher sell the brain boxes separate?...What did you do?
Mud.