Fluke ti25 Ramblings

So...

It's been a while since I've been on here, I apologize but; life...

I have found myself in possession of a Fluke ti25 thermal imager. While the tech is kinda old (2007, I believe). It's probably the coolest thing I have in my collection of ''things''. Unfortunately not long after having it, I found it had a faulty LCD display. If not already bad I searched for any information about replacement parts, guides, anything and found nothing further than an operators manual. No schematics, and I'm not surprised.

So, I decided to do what anyone would; take it apart! And in doing so found that it came apart very easily. A protective ''Fluke Yellow'' boot removed, then 4 screws hidden under some decals and the top portion of the chassis was away. The LCD is a Sharp LS037V7DW03, however there are different variants of this display. These are/were widely used in all sorts of small digital devices.

Unfortunately getting the exact model to replace this part is over 100£ plus shipping from Asia, about 40£ if you don't wanna wait months. I started looking at the datasheet for the Sharp LCD and noticed that the differences in models were things such as touch, or VGA/QVGA. The 51 pin connector and voltage remains the same, so far as I could see...

I did some broader searching in eBay, and found a near exact fit, actually an upgrade because I have sourced the touchscreen variant. Unfortunately the ti25 does not support touch functionality and the LCD is covered by a thick plastic protector.

So a little non-destructive invasive tinkering and I am back up and running with a multi-thousand dollar tool...

Please let me know if you need help and or if you have any similar stories or questions.

Sam