Ruark Vita Audio R4 Mk3 OLED dimming - Replacement part - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: rh100605
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2024, 04:20:12 pm
content: I recently repaired a Ruark R4 Mk3 CD\DAB\FM\Bluetooth radio.Unfortunately the OLED display was burnt by leaving the Date/Time showing permanently. This will be true of many more R4 Mk3"sI could not find a replacement until I stumbled across this Large OLED Display 3.12" Inch SPI LCD 256x64 Graphics SSD1322 from China on eBayhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304970947254I bought one as an experiment it has 16 pin SPI 4 wire SPI connection which is also used by the R4 Mk3As I no longer have the radio I was wondering whether anyone else would like to try this display in their R4 ?Below are two pictures of the OLED display in a Ruark R4 Mk3 with different connections to earlier models. It has 20 x2 cells and is 3/4 inch high and about 3.25 inches long.So the above Aliexpress device will not fit as it is nearly 1 inch high when in the metal frame.

author: Iain
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 04, 2025, 06:03:19 pm
content: Has anyone had success with sourcing and replacing the display?I turned mine off at the wall when I went to visit my parents for a fortnight recently and the display was dead when it was powered up again. It had been fine, apart from a bit of standby burnout, up to then...

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2025, 12:08:48 am
content: This looks like a 18x2 or 16x2? character display, I can't tell from the photo. 16p FFC connector. If you can figure out that spec that might help narrow it down.Given the long ribbon though, its probably a custom part.Here is a i2c part for example:http://www.wide.hk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51Yours is probably SPI.

author: Iain
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 09:21:01 pm
content: The display is this parthttps://first-components.com/it/uc-2002aswag02(part number found on the FFC).Encouraged by Rob's post I removed the front panel and checked my board over with a multimeter, I managed to upset it enough to have the box turn itself off and when I turned it back on the display was alive again. Result! It's still a bit burnt out, but it looks like there's an option to cure that with a genuine part for less than Ruark's repair fee.There are much cheaper PMOLED 2.93" 20x2, SPI displays to be found, but ones with 16 wires I could find none (that's before considering pinout). Is it practical to make a physically similar 20x2 SPI display that has more wires work? e.g. I have no idea why the original has BS1 (nor do I know what BS1 is) whilst another might have BS0, BS1 and BS2. That's not the only difference, but it might illustrate the challenge.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 10:14:03 pm
content: US2066 driver IC:https://newhavendisplay.com/content/app_notes/US2066.pdfBS2-0 is to choose the bus used, spi, i2c, or parallel.So most are probably wired with the parallel bus available to use, which requires more pins, but you don't have to connect them.$37 is not very expensive, but other US2066 20x2 display should also work. SSD1311 should be an equivalent driver but I haven't verified that.

author: rh100605
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2025, 12:55:17 pm
content: The Ruark R4 Mk3 display is identical to the GFOC2002C-WG from GI FAR TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. in Taiwan. The specification is attached belowDigikey sell this display as a marketplace part shipped from Taiwan or there is a listing for new old stock on ebay.com in Florida.As with First Components in Milan Italy the postage/taxes are really high at about £25+ or more than the display.There are also other solutions which would involve making a pcb to split out the Eject and IR sensor connections and then wire the SPI/power to the new part.Any 20x2 oled using the US2066 or ssd1311 controller chip will probably work.An example using the US2066 is here atBuydisplay.comwhich is very similar to the Winstar 20x2 oled.