A novel climate control display fix.

[Bushbasher]

I had a few minutes to spare today and put my mind to a solution for my climate control display. I've been having ongoing issues with my CCs' after I bought a replacement for my original failed one . The replacement was one of the "fixed" ones you can get off of Ebay although I bought it from a third party out of a wreck and only discovered it was a modded one when it also failed and I pulled it apart. Anyhoo, I have been hunting high and low for conductive membrane tape with no luck and have approached many an electronics repairer only to be told it can't be re-glued and to bin it. But being the stubborn pr!ck that I am I wasn't going to give up that easily and tried to think outside the box for a solution. To this end, I noticed that when I pressed on the tape where it joined the circuit board with my fingers I could get the various elements to on the display to light up so all I needed to do was find a way to press the full length of the tape to the board all at the same time and make it stay there and the display should work. So this is what I came up with -




The smallest bulldog clips I could find and a thin strip of swede leather (or inner tube rubber would work too I reacon, I just happened to have a scrap of leather). Line up the tape over the contacts, wrap the leather over the tape to protect it and clip the whole lot down then remove the wire levers -



I plugged it in and tested it and it worked perfectly so I chopped out the fascia and back cover to allow for the clips then put the whole unit back together and slipped it back into place for a perfectly working climate control display. Who knows how long it will last, maybe indefinitely maybe not but at worst only a clip can come adrift which can be easily and quickly reattached, all for less than $5. It would seem to me that original untouched units that are starting to fade can also benefit from this method by just attaching clips as above to re-enforce the join without the expense of replacing or reconditioning them.
Only time will tell how long it will last but, hey, it didn't cost me anything to do and it's working perfectly.

The one in the pics is the second unit I just removed from the car and did up for the pics. The tape is completely stuffed as it was the "fixed" one and there's not enough tape left to fold over the board but you get the idea of what the other one is like.

Cheers
Bushbasher