E-Mu Proteus/1 /2 /3 screen options

Synth Repair
1

I’d like to replace the screen on my Proteus/3. It’s a pretty standard 16x2 display that I should be able to replace with any HD44780 LCD. But the E-Mu has a ribbon cable, and I’ll have to manually solder all 14 wires of the ribbon cable if I can’t find something with a compatible connector.

Here’s someone else who replaced the screen with a Winstar WEH001602C.

There’s someone on Reverb selling replacement screens for the newer 16-character E-Mus, but I don’t know if it’d fit the original Proteus, and he’s charging as much as the whole synth is worth. It’ll only let me put 2 links in the message, but you can search for “OLED Display Upgrade - E-mu Orbit Morpheus Vintage / Classic Keys Proteus Ultra / FX” on Reverb.

Does anybody have experience with this or know where I could get a screen?

If I manually solder the pins … would it work to get a standard 14-pin ribbon cable with 2.54mm pitch and just chop one end off and solder it to the new screen? Something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y20XVZU/

Thanks!

proteus3-screen-s-l1600
proteus3-screen-s-l16001600×857 166 KB

2

I’m really surprised that there’s no readiliy available screen replacements for any E-mu rack synths except for occasinally seeing OLED replacements. I don’t want an OLED without a screen saver.

3

Any HD44780 LCD is likely to work, but you need one with the right dimensions (85 x 36mm) with DIL headers on the left side.

However it’s a relatively difficult desoldering job to remove the old display because the LCD is mounted to the front panel PCB via a 14 pin header that is soldered both to the LCD’s PCB) and to that front panel PCB. There’s also a two pin header (similarly soldered to both PCBs) at the other end for the backlight. There are no cable involved.

BTW, the StackExchange posting above was me, and I run the FB “Music Gear Display Retrofits” group.

4

24 x 2 LCDs for the Proteus 2000 family are readily available. In fact as yet there are no OLEDs in that format :cry: