STi-R 9500ci hybrid?

[MEM-TEK]

Hi everyone,

We need RacerX's help on this one. I sent a PM to RacerX, asking if he can snap off the rear display covers on his 9500ci and STi-R display modules and then get us the part numbers off of the displays. Once the rear display cover is removed, the display and its tiny circuit board which has a programmable Atmel controller on it simply drops out the back of the module. I opened my 9500ci's display module a good while back and noted that the display itself is very easy to desolder.

Anyway, my idea is that hopefully (once checking with Avago Technologies) both displays are the same brightness class and that both use the same voltage. If so, then it should be possible to swap a red display for a blue display or vice versa, even though the display brightness as the display is dimmed might be somewhat off. Heck, it might even be possible to use one of Avago's yellow, green or orange displays, but to do so the displays have to be from the exact same family where the final digit of the four number digit indicates the display color. Wouldn't it be cool if your display color matched the lighting color for your car's instrument cluster?

[Lucky225]

Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Hi everyone,

We need RacerX's help on this one. I sent a PM to RacerX, asking if he can snap off the rear display covers on his 9500ci and STi-R display modules and then get us the part numbers off of the displays. Once the rear display cover is removed, the display and its tiny circuit board which has a programmable Atmel controller on it simply drops out the back of the module. I opened my 9500ci's display module a good while back and noted that the display itself is very easy to desolder.

Anyway, my idea is that hopefully (once checking with Avago Technologies) both displays are the same brightness class and that both use the same voltage. If so, then it should be possible to swap a red display for a blue display or vice versa, even though the display brightness as the display is dimmed might be somewhat off. Heck, it might even be possible to use one of Avago's yellow, green or orange displays, but to do so the displays have to be from the exact same family where the final digit of the four number digit indicates the display color. Wouldn't it be cool if your display color matched the lighting color for your car's instrument cluster?

X2, if you want to actually DESOLDER the display from the board for an STi-R and RESOLDER it to the 9500CI's board, THEN, it would work, but the board it's self that the display sits on is model specific.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Hi everyone,

We need RacerX's help on this one. I sent a PM to RacerX, asking if he can snap off the rear display covers on his 9500ci and STi-R display modules and then get us the part numbers off of the displays. Once the rear display cover is removed, the display and its tiny circuit board which has a programmable Atmel controller on it simply drops out the back of the module. I opened my 9500ci's display module a good while back and noted that the display itself is very easy to desolder.

Anyway, my idea is that hopefully (once checking with Avago Technologies) both displays are the same brightness class and that both use the same voltage. If so, then it should be possible to swap a red display for a blue display or vice versa, even though the display brightness as the display is dimmed might be somewhat off. Heck, it might even be possible to use one of Avago's yellow, green or orange displays, but to do so the displays have to be from the exact same family where the final digit of the four number digit indicates the display color. Wouldn't it be cool if your display color matched the lighting color for your car's instrument cluster?

Ohhh, that would be an awesome mod for some one to do, or a great thing for Escort(you guys listening?) to add as an option on purchase!

[focalcivic]

I think we are getting off topic in general, the original post was about swapability, like taking a standard stiR display and plugging it into the port on the 9500ci control box. As Racer said it does not work. Simple does not work, no cross breeding.

This post is going towards modifying the internals to make one work with another which 95% of the users would not do anyway, only REB is in that 5%.

[RacerX]

PM replied.
STi-r says QCMS 2999

ci says QCMS 2998

they look pretty identical, took some close up pics of both.
though the ci does that "scrolling startup" that the STi-r doesn't.

[focalcivic]

Originally Posted by RacerX

PM replied.
STi-r says QCMS 2999

ci says QCMS 2998

they look pretty identical, took some close up pics of both.
though the ci does that "scrolling startup" that the STi-r doesn't.

See that different part numbers

[Lucky225]

Originally Posted by focalcivic

See that different part numbers

yea one's red, one's blue

[MEM-TEK]

Alrighty!

As RacerX mentioned, the 9500ci uses the QCMS-2998 display and the STi-R uses the QCMS-2999 display. Thus the displays are from Avago's same display family, "should" have identical specifications for communicating with it, and should operate using the same voltage. The only things which may be different are current draw, Avago's display brightness classification, and the luminosity curve as the display is dimmed by frequency modulation.

Well, I am fixing to call Avago, talk to one of their engineers, and get the specifications! I will also try to find out what other QCMS-299X display colors should also be compatible.



P.S. I forgot to mention that my red 9500i uses the QCMS-2999 display. I may try swapping its display with my 9500ci.

[MEM-TEK]

Hi everyone,

I talked with an Avago engineer a little while ago. Their QCMS-2999 and QCMS-2998 displays are proprietary products which are specially manufactured for Escort. As a result, the Avago engineer could not provide me with any specifaction sheets. Yet my guess that the displays belong to the same family were correct. The Avago engineer did confirm that both displays use the same voltage and draw the same amount of current. Yet the Avago engineer also mentioned that the display pin-outs are a bit different compared to their publicly available display models. So this precludes the possibility of using a readily available Avago display to change your 9500ci's display color. I can't and won't disclose any additional info since it may be or obviously is proprietary. Yet the Avago engineer did conclude that swapping a 9500ci QCMS-2998 display with a STi-R QCMS-2999 display is theoretically possible (based on the voltage and current draw specifications) although the frequency modulated display brightness profile may not appear to be quite ideal.

Yet of course this brings up the 9500i (blue) display bug where once in a blue moon 1/2 of the 9500i's blue display would fail to illuminate unless you power cycled the blue 9500i again. This may be some sort of weird issue and could be one of the reasons why the 9500i now is only available in red. I don't know -- this is just a guess.

Anyway, theoretically it is possible to swap the red Avago display from the STi-R display module with the blue display from the 9500ci display module, and obviously swapping the tinted display covers as well or alternatively using the display modules without the front snap-on tinted display covers.

I wonder if RacerX is willing to try this. The only RDs which he could fry will be his own! But seriously though, it should work just fine.

[Atlas]

You guys are amazing! Well, one step closer to a red 9500ci display.