Arturia Forums
Controllers => KeyLab MkII => KeyLab MkII - Technical issues => Topic started by: RobKeylab on June 19, 2020, 01:39:41 am
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A question about the MkII LCD Quality...
Hi all, I'm new. Just received my Keylab MkII after an eager 2 month wait for new stock. And first impression is... Just Wow!! Seemingly amazing build quality and unbelievable value with all the bundled software.
However...
The moment I switched it on, I sighed and wondered if I'd got a unit with a dodgy LCD.
From any angle of typical use, there's a green haze across the screen, possibly caused by two white/blue points of light on the extreme right hand side of the LCD.
I've attached a picture. Does it look familiar?
I've flagged it to the retailer and Arturia for their thoughts. I just thought I'd cast the net wider for user experience. Because obviously I'd like to know if this one isn't right. But if it's typical, I don't want the fuss of an exchange if it'll be no different.
I appreciate LCDs are best viewed square on. And i have some truly terrible screens on other manufacturers synths. This just seemed at odds with the overall build quality.
Otherwise I love this thing so far.
Yet to delve too deep though.
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Here’s mine. Brand new too, so very frustrated. Did you ever get any resolution?
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Wow. I've had the exact same LCD issues since the first day I got my KeyLab 49 mkII. There's a faint zombie green glow "behind" the blue light.
My theory is that they used cheap 2x16 LCD displays which are available with blue or green background + backlight. However, the internal backlight color tint of the "blue" models are different than the "green" models, simply to make the text readable.
I won't go into detail, but the blue displays have light/bright characters (negative layer), while the green models have black/blueish text. So if you switch the glass piece layer, you end up with a blue tinted display with the green background showing through in the areas that the backlight can't fully reach/illuminate.
The reason I know this, is because I did some experiments with different LCD displays on a Raspberry Pi and Arduino, with the exact same symptoms/result/issues as on the Keylab MKii.
I live in Norway and I ordered my keyboard directly from Arturia in France, so I never bothered to call support or anything. Just seemed like a lot of hassle with returning it and everything. However, it has bugged me since day 1, and it's the only reason why I rarely use that keyboard 😕
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The reason I believe there to be an issue having spoken to some knowledgeable chaps is that there is too much contrast. A 100 ohm or thereabouts resistor or perhaps a potentiometer wired into the lcd should solve the issue. It’s a lot of hassle though and not something we should have to deal with given it’s a high quality product. Another suggestion was to simply apply some anti glare or colored film to the display. It’s a shame that Arturia did not factor in a contrast control into their firmware so at the very least we would have some level of control.