Now I can play my cz101 at night...

[Projectile]

I love the Casio CZ series synthesizers, but all of them except the cz1 and cz5000 suffer from having dim grey screens with no backlight, which makes them nearly impossible to use on a dark stage. You can buy backlit LCD displays all day long for 3 bucks on ebay, so I decided replace the dim grey LCD screen in my Casio cz101 with a bright blue backlit one. Simple mod. Huge improvement!

pics:





Next, I want to add a rotary encoder for faster scrolling through parameter values, but that's a little more complicated.


..

[Silverfish]

Excellent! I've seen this mod a few times on various CZ models. I'd like to do this to my CZ3000 some time.

Is the LCD anything in particular, or just a "regular" 16x2 LCD?

[Projectile]

Excellent! I've seen this mod a few times on various CZ models. I'd like to do this to my CZ3000 some time.

Is the LCD anything in particular, or just a "regular" 16x2 LCD?

It's just a standard 16x2 lcd (HD44780). I just bought the cheapest one I could find on ebay.

If you want to do this mod, you will have to file or cut the screw holes wider on the new lcd board in order to get it to fit on the mounting bracket. I used a dremel tool. Also, it's a pretty tight fit in there (at least it was on the cz101), so watch where you run your wires.

[gmeredith]

Do you have some DIY links to this mod? Did a search but nothing showing how to, or where to buy the display and its part number. I have a CZ101 just itching for a bit of blue

Cheers, Graham

**EDIT** just posted a fraction after you did - thanks for the info!

[Projectile]

Do you have some DIY links to this mod? Did a search but nothing showing how to, or where to buy the display and its part number. I have a CZ101 just itching for a bit of blue

Cheers, Graham

**EDIT** just posted a fraction after you did - thanks for the info!

I don't have any links with instructions, but I used this picture for reference to make sure I didn't wire it up backwards:



He installed a trimmer to adjust contrast, but I didn't find it necessary.

[madtheory]

I love the Casio CZ series synthesizers, but all of them except the cz1 and cz5000 suffer from having dim grey screens with no backlight

That's the coolest looking backlit screen I've seen. Nice job. Small correction- the CZ-5000 has no backlight either. Only the CZ-1 has this, using EL foil.

[drawtippy]

This is a giant pile of awesome. I love my little CZ but I feel like I don't use it enough cuz it's at an awkward angle and I can't see the screen. Please, any more info on the install would be greatly appreciated!

--nice job!

[jrombrasher]

I sold a CZ101 on ebay a few weeks back and the buyer returned it because the display was too dim (I really tried to warn them pretty explicitly in the description) Anyways, it's funny you posted this, I just sent off for probably exactly the same display yesterday, I'm glad to see that it works well in the unit. Now i'm actually pretty glad the buyer sent it back, this is gonna look awesome, I might even hang onto it.

[Projectile]

Please, any more info on the install would be greatly appreciated!

Since there seems to be a lot of interest in this mod, I'll post whatever info I can.

The LCD board in the cz101 has 14 pins. Most of the backlit screens sold on ebay have 16 pins. The extra 2 pins are for power and ground to the backlight. you simply need to jumper these 2 pins to the existing power and ground pins. On my cz101 the power wire was white and the ground wire is red, and they are the first or the last 2 pins depending on which direction you are counting from. Aside from the 2 extra pins, all HD44780 LCD display boards should have the same pinout, so as long as you keep the wires in the same order, the worst you can do is hook it up backwards.

Here is an HD44780 pinout diagram for reference:
http://www.instructables.com/image/FMCP ... pinout.jpg

Everything else should be pretty straight forward. If you need any help, feel free to post your questions here and I'll try to answer as best I can.

[awol9000]

Nice mod. I'm looking to pick up a CZ-101 as my next buy. Any other mods known?

[ColorForm2113]

very nice! i think im going to have to do this when i get time

[slippast]

Please, any more info on the install would be greatly appreciated!

Since there seems to be a lot of interest in this mod, I'll post whatever info I can.

The LCD board in the cz101 has 14 pins. Most of the backlit screens sold on ebay have 16 pins. The extra 2 pins are for power and ground to the backlight. you simply need to jumper these 2 pins to the existing power and ground pins. On my cz101 the power wire was white and the ground wire is red, and they are the first or the last 2 pins depending on which direction you are counting from. Aside from the 2 extra pins, all HD44780 LCD display boards should have the same pinout, so as long as you keep the wires in the same order, the worst you can do is hook it up backwards.

Here is an HD44780 pinout diagram for reference:
http://www.instructables.com/image/FMCP ... pinout.jpg

Everything else should be pretty straight forward. If you need any help, feel free to post your questions here and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Thanks for the info. So it sounds like the cz101 is already wired for power, it just doesn't use
that in the passive display? When you say 'jumper these 2 pins' is it obvious where they connect on the CZ? Please forgive my ignorance, this sounds like a project that A) I could pull off and B) I could afford.

Is in necessary to disassemble the entire keyboard or can you pull the LCD from the front? I may splurge with an extra $3 and go for orange or red. Thanks again.

[Projectile]

Thanks for the info. So it sounds like the cz101 is already wired for power, it just doesn't use
that in the passive display? When you say 'jumper these 2 pins' is it obvious where they connect on the CZ? Please forgive my ignorance, this sounds like a project that A) I could pull off and B) I could afford.

Is in necessary to disassemble the entire keyboard or can you pull the LCD from the front? I may splurge with an extra $3 and go for orange or red. Thanks again.

The original display is not "passive". It doesn't have a backlight, but it still needs +5v to operate. The +5v wire that supplies power to the original display seems to be able to handle enough current to supply a typical backlit LCD just fine. Most replacement LCDs have 2 pins which require a +5v connection: one for power to the display, and one for the backlight. You have to connect these pins together (and the two grounds pins), so that they both recieve +5v from the single power wire connected to the original display. You can find them by looking at the HD44780 pinout diagram I posted. All of the wires you need are soldered to the original display board. You simply have to desolder them, and connect them in the right order to the new LCD board, plus the two jumpers.

You do have to take the cz101 apart, but it's not that difficult.

One note about LCDs for those experimenting with different colors. Most modern backlit LCDs draw a fairly low amount of current and the cz101 should be able to handle them just fine. But beware that there are a few oddball LCDs that draw significantly more current than usual. These could cause problems. They also might work fine. I don't know becasue I haven't tried them. I just know they exist, and they have caused problems in other DIY projects. The ones I know about specifically that have been reported to draw a high current load are made by crystalfontz. They look like this: http://www.crystalfontz.com/product/CFAH1602B-YTI-JT. If you want to be on the safe side, I'd just avoid the LCDs with the black background altogether until someone reports that they work in the cz101.

[madtheory]

Very cool

[slippast]

Projectile, excellent summary. That made perfect sense. Thank you for taking the time! I'm going to give this a shot when things calm down around me.