Pro1, Ghost touches and other digitizer and display issues

[SchattengestaIt 559]

As an abusive user, my third display starts to have a 'blind' touchscreen line. What a shame.

I've now ordered a handful of displays from Aliexpress, expecting two or three to be usable. I've found two other sources for displays but both are shops from china labelled to be in the UK or something else. I expect a higher risk to be scammed there than on AliExpress...

 

My main question is, though, if there's any known way to prevent the issue?
As far as I remember, it's caused by slight movement which breaks the ribbon cable over time. Maybe it even rips off from the display. I'm thinking about pouring a bit of superglue under and around the cable. Has anyone managed to make that work?

[Hook 3,020]

I'm betting a very high proportion of the risk is accounted for by letting the phone snap open rather than guiding it with your fingers slowly so you don't get a loud clack.  The clack is pleasing and fast, I understand, 😉

[VaZso 1,998]

3 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

My main question is, though, if there's any known way to prevent the issue?
As far as I remember, it's caused by slight movement which breaks the ribbon cable over time. Maybe it even rips off from the display. I'm thinking about pouring a bit of superglue under and around the cable. Has anyone managed to make that work?

My plan is the next time I will have a defective screen, I will try to apply some glue under that ribbon cable.
(That was also my plan before my previous replacement but I wanted to do it quickly and weekend was in the corner, so I forgot to do it...)

However, my current screen is the one and only I have ordered from Aliexpress which has no defects at all of the screen, including screen corners.......

However, I am planning to do it using a two-component glue instead of a superglue (cyanoacrylate) because the first one is easier to handle and harder to misplace while cyanoacrylate tends to flow at every possible places when you apply a bit higher amount (which you may need for the ribbon cable) while gel-type version is usually also not the very best for this purpose.

2 hours ago, Hook said:

I'm betting a very high proportion of the risk is accounted for by letting the phone snap open rather than guiding it with your fingers slowly so you don't get a loud clack.  The clack is pleasing and fast, I understand, 😉

Unfortunately, it is practically nothing to do with the way opening the Pro1 by snapping it or not...
...simply because 99% of the times I open it by guiding the screen with my fingers and I had some defective screens since I use my Pro1 (by the end of 2019)....

[SchattengestaIt 559]

@VaZso I was thinking about Epoxy as well but the higher the viscosity, the worse it will get into small gaps. You'll have to be careful with superglue but I expect better results if I pour superglue into the gaps to prevent any kind of movement.

I just hope it doesn't get into the corners of the display itself.

@Hook I open the display very softly as well, so that's not the root of the problem. In my case, it's probably related to pressure in the pockets of my trousers. The display is too flexible for tight pockets. And since the phone is so big, every jeans' pocket is tight.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

52 minutes ago, SchattengestaIt said:

In my case, it's probably related to pressure in the pockets of my trousers. The display is too flexible for tight pockets. And since the phone is so big, every jeans' pocket is tight.

That's my guess too. Even if metal frame, it still is in risk of being twisted, unless you got very deep pockets - and no, I do not mean in the sense required for aPple users...
This is actually another good reason to make it a habit to place it on your desk while sitting. You get better reception, and thus prolonged stamina as well.

[John Veness 57]

I've never heard of such a consistently failing screen on any other phone. Does anyone know if the Elephone that shares the same screen has the same issue?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

2 minutes ago, John Veness said:

I've never heard of such a consistently failing screen on any other phone. Does anyone know if the Elephone that shares the same screen has the same issue?

In all fairness towards Boe, it seems to be related to stress on the cable. Sure if the cable-construction had been more sturdy, then the mount would have been less critical.
I have no idea if the display comes with very strict mount guides of the fragile cable-construction. If not, the blame is on Boe. If there is a  guide that is not followed, the blame is on FxTec.

[John Veness 57]

11 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

In all fairness towards Boe, it seems to be related to stress on the cable. Sure if the cable-construction had been more sturdy, then the mount would have been less critical.
I have no idea if the display comes with very strict mount guides of the fragile cable-construction. If not, the blame is on Boe. If there is a  guide that is not followed, the blame is on FxTec.

Sorry, who is Boe?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

5 minutes ago, John Veness said:

Sorry, who is Boe?

The producer of the displays. https://www.boe.com/en/

[SchattengestaIt 559]

@John Veness If you press with force onto the middle of your display, it will bend slightly. That's very noticeable with replacement displays since they have a sticky back and you can hear the glue sticking to something when being pressed.

The design flaw of the Pro1 probably is that there's a gap between display and display cover (the part you screw onto the sliding mechanism) and therefore you have more wear on the display. If I don't forget, I'll try to measure how much air is between display and the plastic part, maybe we can stick something in between, idealy some plastic glued on, so the display holds onto it.

[John Veness 57]

Thanks. It surprises me that they fail in exactly the same position - the horizontal line approximately one third up from the bottom, when held in portrait.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

14 minutes ago, John Veness said:

Thanks. It surprises me that they fail in exactly the same position - the horizontal line approximately one third up from the bottom, when held in portrait.

Well if the displays and mount are the same, the weakest point are likely to be the same... 😉

[VaZso 1,998]

10 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

That's my guess too. Even if metal frame, it still is in risk of being twisted, unless you got very deep pockets - and no, I do not mean in the sense required for aPple users...

The frame is not metal, it is plastic.
Mine has a small bit missing at one of the corners since it was <1 year old.

[VaZso 1,998]

9 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

The design flaw of the Pro1 probably is that there's a gap between display and display cover (the part you screw onto the sliding mechanism) and therefore you have more wear on the display.

That is definitively can be the reason of the fault.

Anyway, once I have boght an Elephone U Pro display together with its original frame by mistake.
I could separate the screen which worked after it, bt it was not the easiest thing to remain intact - I still have the frame if you may like to see a photo of it.

It has a big metal part behind the screen, where the screen was glued using original sticky part... so that frame is metal as opposite to Pro1's frame and it does not allow movement.

[SchattengestaIt 559]

@VaZso I'd be very interested in seeing pictures of the frame, google doesn't provide me with anything useful. Maybe a picture from top and one from the side?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

On 6/27/2023 at 10:33 PM, VaZso said:

The frame is not metal, it is plastic.
Mine has a small bit missing at one of the corners since it was <1 year old.

Sorry was unclear, meant the frame of the whole phone. The rather thin outer frame around the display shold not matter much for the stability (no matter the material).

The base of the top part is metal I beleive, right?

[SchattengestaIt 559]

Make your displays last longer

I've recently ordered a bunch of those 'b-ware' displays and out of seven, two were in good condition and one is usable (~20€ each). That's okayish since there are no good displays to order anymore.

As the displays are so scarce nowadays and they never caused touchscreen problems when assembled in the original phones (Elephone U Pro), I've looked more into the touchscreen issues.
I've inspected the frame and searched for a point of failure. And I think I found one.

Using one of the broken displays in my order (big black dots over the display) I found out which cable is used for the touchscreen. It's the black one.
If you look at the frame of the first image, you'll see some cutouts and slightly elevated plastic for the display connection (which goes over the complete bottom of the display).



What you also see is, that there's no additional space for the touchscreen cable. Even worse: there are two cutouts around the cable with a piece of plastic pushing onto the ribbon cable itself (circle). I expect that this middle piece is regularly pushing unevenly onto the touchscreen cable which causes it to break connection over time.

I don't believe this part is needed as structural support, so I filed that part away as seen in picture two and three. This way the ribbon cable has much more space and should - in theory - last way longer. Hopefully for years.

[John Veness 57]

Well done, hope it works out.

[Rob. S. 1,660]

Excellent. I'll definitely keep this in mind, as a screen replacement (splintered glass, still holds together though) will be due for my current Pro1X sooner or later as well.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

15 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

I don't believe this part is needed as structural support, so I filed that part away as seen in picture two and three. This way the ribbon cable has much more space and should - in theory - last way longer. Hopefully for years.

This might also explain why some sees it and some does not. If there is a slight variation in the length or mount of the black cable between various batches this could mean that the shorter ones go under the plastic just fine, but the longer ones have a slight curve that are pushed on unevenly. A fraction of a millimetre could be enough...

[SchattengestaIt 559]

4 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

This might also explain why some sees it and some does not. If there is a slight variation in the length or mount of the black cable between various batches this could mean that the shorter ones go under the plastic just fine, but the longer ones have a slight curve that are pushed on unevenly. A fraction of a millimetre could be enough...

I'm not sure about that. In my view it's related to the usage. I'm a very heavy user and I have my phone in my pockets all the time. This includes pushing and squeezing by the pockets themselves or from the outside (i.e. when lifting heavy stuff and the phone is in between). The only thing I'm not doing is to 'clack' my phone.

I've had this issue with three phones now, with the replaced displays failing faster. Probably because a factory mount leaves less room for movement. The first one (used) lasted over a year without issues. If other people have their phone mostly on the table or even in a cover, this issue might never happen.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

2 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

If other people have their phone mostly on the table or even in a cover, this issue might never happen.

Indeed, as I do both, that could be the explanation why I have not seen it on any of the devices.

[VaZso 1,998]

On 6/29/2023 at 7:08 AM, EskeRahn said:

The base of the top part is metal I beleive, right?

If you separate the top part, then the top one which holds the display is plastic and the bottom part which is the display base and which contains the display assembly, is metal.

[marmistrz 93]

Hi,

My Pro1's screen suddenly started going crazy. In the morning it was kind of pale, and later suddenly started showing just stripes of green. See the video here.

Do you have an idea what might've happened?

Edited September 20, 2023 by marmistrz

[VaZso 1,998]

Hi,

Generally it looks to be a problem with display cable.
Either the cable which goes from bottom part of the phone to top part or simply display's connector was partly detached (for example as a result of dropping the phone) or there is a chance display's own ribbon cable is broken.

As of last problem, you can order a display for Elephone U Pro at Aliexpress which are basically all have a smaller or bigger black area mostly at corners, so they are not perfect but they work. Stock OS is needed to set touch panel's margins.

So at this point, there are more potential causes of the problem, first I would try to look at the internal connector and find out if moving the hinge seems to affect the behaviour of display. Also I would buy a spare screen just in case which you can also try before removing original display.