The problem with the screen of Pebble Steel watches and personal experience of its elimination

The essence is visible in the photo - on the screen from time to time there are extra pixels that spoil the image. Resetting to factory settings and flashing does not help. In this article I want to tell you how I not only overcame the problem with the screen, but also received the second exactly the same new watch almost free of charge. Looking ahead, I'll let you know that I needed a T4 screwdriver, a small flat screwdriver, tweezers, scissors, and a piece of blue electrical tape .



First of all, I wrote to the Pebble support service by attaching a photo of the malfunction (the one at the beginning of the article) with a comment that I already tried factory reset. I was asked to write on the piece of paper the application number, put the clock on this piece of paper with the screen down and take a picture so that the serial number of the clock and the application number were read on the photo.





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I sent the photo and a few days later it was confirmed that the warranty case and the watch should be replaced. A new watch was sent to me and they didn’t even demand that the old ones be out of order. The photo shows that the old clock continues to fail - in the word "February" the first "r" disappeared.











It would be possible to stop on this happy note, but the old clock was asking for it to be taken apart and studied. Experience suggested that most of the causes of problems with various electronic things are the lack of contact where it should be. Well, or vice versa, the presence of contact where it should not be. Periodic interference on the screen suggested that there was a bad contact somewhere.



Making sure that everything is in order with the new watch, I proceeded to repair the old ones. The back cover of the Pebble Steel rests on four Torx T4 screws, so I needed this screwdriver:







Under the lid was found that.







Round glossy gizmo c red and blue wiring - vibration motor. It was glued simultaneously to the lid and the board with something like double-sided tape. When I removed the cover, the motor, according to the law of meanness, remained hanging on it and had to be carefully picked off with a small flat screwdriver, trying not to damage the wiring. Other difficulties with the analysis was not observed and I proceeded to the inspection.



Almost immediately, I discovered that the clock with the rear wall removed does not work - the screen is completely white. From this it followed that the cover somehow affects the signal transmission to the screen. In the corner of the board, there was a flexible plume going deep into the clock towards the screen. At a loop from above the slice of rubber is pasted. The thickness of the piece is such that in the assembled watch gum abuts the lid. This place is bigger.







Pressing a finger on the gum, I found that the screen is working. I removed my finger - the screen turned off again.







It seems that the designers saved a little on rubber. Its thickness was not enough for the elastic force to ensure reliable contact. I did not completely disassemble the clock for fear of breaking the latches holding the board. Satisfied curiosity by finding a photo in Google. Here she is:







In the picture you can see that I was mistaken - it turned out that this loop leads to the buttons. And the zebra connector of the screen is in the same place on the back of the board, that is, the gum should apply pressure to it.



I folded four layers of electrical tape and neatly cut out a small rectangle, the size of which is slightly larger than a piece of scissors. Then, using tweezers, I put the resulting sandwich on the gum.







After that, I collected watches and have been using them for a week without experiencing any problems (earlier the screen was buggy almost every day). The only “inconvenience” is that I now have the second completely new Pebble Steel and have no idea what to do with them. Probably selling - in rubles, they significantly increased in price. Well, an obvious plus is that some useful experience has been acquired that can be shared with the community.