Agilent U1273A OLED DMM Dim Display - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: Gangway
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2018, 11:27:39 am
content: Just asking if anyone had success repairing display board. Keysight only offer purchase of exchange meter.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 07, 2018, 11:30:19 am
content: Yes several people did. Search for a thread on the forum.

author: Gangway
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2018, 11:40:11 pm
content: Hmm, nothing found relating to U1273-26501 Display Module repair. But old post confirms Agilent U1273A DMM is considered BER if any out of warranty repairs required.Never had this problem with repairing Fluke products.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 12:00:36 am
content: Quote from: Gangway on July 07, 2018, 11:40:11 pmYou should get a display from third party. Or order U1253-66007 from Keysight and desolder it form PCB it will come with. Although it's somewhat tricky as it's tab soldered.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacing-oled-screen-on-an-agilent-u1253a-multimeter/msg1362614/#msg1362614IIRC there was some another thread too. Some people ordered displays from china which were not soldered to PCB therefore didn't need to be desoldered first.

author: Gangway
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 01:47:16 am
content: Thanks for reply, trolling Keysight forum, found display for 253 series available, but Keysight Austraiia, told me it would not work in 273A.As I'm not sure if problem is in OLED or PCB circuit. Time spent dictates close this job off.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 07:51:48 am
content: Quote from: Gangway on July 08, 2018, 01:47:16 amIt won't fit to 1273A unless you desolder it from PCB it comes with.Bare display without PCBhttps://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.18.4707da385slyfU&id=556241996733&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail

author: Gangway
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 10:37:16 am
content: Thanks again for reply, interesting you can purchase the OLED panel, ( if I can read Chinese), but PCB maybe faulty.Either way this exercise is not going to be cost effective.Will give owner bad news tomorrow.Appreciate your time.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 10:53:17 am
content: Quote from: Gangway on July 08, 2018, 10:37:16 amWhat?QuoteHow it's not cost effective? Display costs < 10% of the new meter price. Unless you will charge more than US $180 for your work, it's still makes sense.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 20, 2024, 12:09:11 am
content: Just replaced it on my 1273A, the old one came off easily with hot air and gently lifting it off the PCB pads. A little heat on the display itself and it came off the backing easily enough. Kept the old foam backing, with a few dots of CA glue (probably good enough). Might have worked to use double-sided 3M tape as well... The hard part was soldering the new connector to the PCB; I cleaned up the pads and applied solder paste, but couldn't really reflow the connector as it was a $*$&^* to get to lie flat. I held it sorta in place with a small clamp, then pushed down on it with a small screw driver and gave it a quick tap with the solder iron (JBC CD-1SQF with a fine tip) and the paste flowed perfectly. One pad/tongue at a time: push it down, tap with the tip, remove tip, hold for a second or two, move on to the next. I did it under the AmScope. Reassembled, works fine, except it's right to left, shifted (as expected). Time for the firmware fix; haven't actually looked at that yet, but I assume the unused white connector to the top right of the main PCB (rear view) has rx/tx pins.Clearly these displays are defective... Amber OLEDs have very long life, blues are shorter but not THIS short by any imagination. I use mine very little, and the display didn't even outlive the batteries that came with it. (Which were probably due to be discarded anyway, not a fan of leakage.) From what I can tell the most common OLED defect is they're not properly sealed, air gets in and oxidizes the <whatever is inside>.Edit: here's the exact item I got:https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832698680234.html(Apologies for resurrecting this old thread.)

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2024, 05:02:47 am
content: You need nothing special, use the modded firmware updaters with the original cable.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 24, 2024, 04:30:37 am
content: Yes, the modded 3.03 works beautifully! Thanks so much for creating it!(The file says 3.01, but the meter reports 3.03.)

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2024, 10:21:09 am
content: Yes, because as stated:Quote from: DavidAlfa on October 31, 2023, 07:16:24 am