EFJ VP900 pixelated top display

[Salmon_Glove]

I have two VP 900’s that I picked up off E Bay; the radios appear brand new or refurbished, the only issue is the top display on both radios is partially pixelated. The radios were not programmed upon my receiving them, however, I’ve since programmed them without any issue.

The seller originally has these radios listed as UHF VP600’s, not until after I received them and read the code plugs did i realize they were actually 900’s. Before purchasing, I reached out to the seller with questions and he was very forthcoming in that he was not a “radio guy” ( he did not have any other radio equipment listed on his seller page), told me that he had acquired these as part of a storage unit that he had purchased, he was unsure if they even turned on or not (no battery when he acquired them) and that if there were any issues I could send them back.

Upon discovering the top display issue, I contacted the seller and he immediately agreed to take them back and issue a refund, however, because I was able to pick these up for next to nothing and they otherwise function fine, I opted to keep them in hopes I could fix the top display problem.

Does anyone have any insight into what is causing this problem and how to go about fixing it? I’ve searched extensively without any success.

 

[DeoVindice]

Personally I'd try throwing firmware at it. Last revision for VPx00 was something like 8.30.

 

[Salmon_Glove]

Personally I'd try throwing firmware at it. Last revision for VPx00 was something like 8.30.

Tried that and it unfortunately didn’t work. The radio was originally 8.28 or something, updated to 8.30 and nothing changed.

 

[Salmon_Glove]

Is there a way the firmware could be installed incorrectly perhaps?

 

[fire_master_21]

There is always that risk when updating, however it could just be a bad display too.

 

[KevinC]

What's odd to me is they are both pixelated in the exact same way.

 

[Salmon_Glove]

What's odd to me is they are both pixelated in the exact same way.

This is one reason I was thinking it’s firmware related. They were also tagless with an unknown background, original firmware being 8.28 or something like that, so my initial guess is someone was tinkering with them in some way and caused the issue.

 

[n3obl]

I have to suspect its probably a hardware issue.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Reminds me of a VP6000 I have that does the same thing....I just ignore it and move on. It's a test radio after all.

 

[Salmon_Glove]

I have to suspect its probably a hardware issue.

Would you say it’s a possibility the radios were originally Model 2’s that someone damaged while attempting to convert them to model 3’s?

 

[AM909]

Not familiar with those radios specifically, but between missing tags and the model number confusion, it sounds just like the built-from-parts Motorola radios that are out there.

I don't know what the connection to the display looks like, but some radios use a conductive flexible "bump" sandwiched between contacts on the board and display, which is very sensitive to any foreign material like dust. If you're not ultra-careful when putting them together, you lose some pixels. Maybe that's what happened when Dr. Frankenstein assembled them?

 

[Salmon_Glove]

I attempted taking one of these radios apart to see what was going on and ended up throwing in the towel pretty quick. The housing is easy to remove and what I presume is the “control head”? Was easy to disconnect from the case, however, the top display and parts leading to it was hidden well so I went ahead and called it quits before I broke it worse.

Can the actual transceiver / guts / control head?, regardless of series (400, 600, 900) be placed into any case (no, limited, full keypad) and then the personality changed in Armada?

If so, I was thinking of trying to find a VP 400/600/900 in any band with a good condition case and then transplanting it.