Replacement LCD for Merigold

[tossedsalad]

My Merigold has stopped working and it would seem the cause is a bad LCD. The screen has multiple lines on it and turns blue when I turn the unit on. I thought I could replace the LCD like you can on a PDA or laptop, but I can't find anyone who sells them. Anyone know of a source of GPS LCD screens?

[+embra]

I've never heard of anyone being able to buy one from a supplier (not that my knowledge is exhaustive). My guess as to your best bet might be to see if you could buy a broken unit for parts. Maybe you could turn something up on the Yahoo Meridian Users group.

 

Edit to add: I was on the verge of mentioning this in your other threads, but the $180 flat rate Magellan supposedly charges for repairs might apply only to Explorists. It seems to me that they used to have something like a $125 flat rate for Meridians. I would still regard that as excessive for fixing your Meridian, though...if they even repair them--they may not touch them as unsupported "legacy" models.

Edited April 26, 2007 by embra

[tossedsalad]

I've never heard of anyone being able to buy one from a supplier (not that my knowledge is exhaustive). My guess as to your best bet might be to see if you could buy a broken unit for parts. Maybe you could turn something up on the Yahoo Meridian Users group.

 

Edit to add: I was on the verge of mentioning this in your other threads, but the $180 flat rate Magellan supposedly charges for repairs might apply only to Explorists. It seems to me that they used to have something like a $125 flat rate for Meridians. I would still regard that as excessive for fixing your Meridian, though...if they even repair them--they may not touch them as unsupported "legacy" models.

 

The Yahoo group is a good idea, but I already tried that. Of course it has only been a day. We'll see if any late readers reply.

 

I have sent Magellan two requests for the cost of repair, but they don't seem to be able to handle that from the web page form. I guess I'll have to call them.

 

One nice thing about paying for a repair is that my unit has had one flakey feature that others say they don't see. When you press a button you hear a beep to acknowledge that the button press was activated. But it does not always result in the action being taken! In fact, when I hold the power button on to power it up, I can get the beep and let go of the button. But if I do it too quickly (even after hearing the beep) it won't come on! How the heck did it beep if it is not yet on???

 

I also messed up the overmolding by repeatedly wedging it into my cup holder instead of buying a mount. Maybe they will repair all of this, but even then it is still a toss up as I can buy one on eBay for around $100 and likely get a third serial cable... or I can sell my MapSend and two serial cables and maybe even get a few bucks for the old unit. I even cleaned the battery to board contacts while I had it open... :^)

 

But this may all be moot. I just won an auction for a Zire 72 at a very good price and am looking for a BT GPSr to go with it. The Holux 240 is really tiny, about the size of your (my) thumb. I expect I can secure the GPSr to my hat brim and not even know it is there. I will need to get some software for the Palm still. There are a few commercial programs, but no freeware that seems to do much more than provide a compass and the satellite info. I am talking to the author of USAPhotoMaps about porting that program to the Palm. He seems to think it would be a pretty big job. But I am not sure it will be that tough. We'll see...

 

This would be a great way to cache, not only paperless, but just one unit to hold in your hand.

[+Cacheoholic]

How about an exchange? I have a very nice Gold and I’m running low on serial cables. How about your Gold, a serial cable and some cash for my Gold? Email or PM me if you are interested. I also have a Platinum if you want to upgrade but it’s worth about $30 more to me.