for me it was a big problem. I love my Machinedrum, but the red LED backlight of the original screen gave me headaches just by looking at it for a few minutes.
I replaced it with a white one (similar to Monomachine/Octatrack etc. )
Another thing I should mention, is, that on my older Machinedrum, the red LEDs, which are used for the steps in the sequencer and also showing the played drums, are way too bright for my eyes. I noticed that Elektron uses less bright / more matte ones for their more recent machines. My quite new Monomachine is just nice in that regard!
In my case, since my Machinedrum is a bit older and out of warranty anyway, I took the risk and did it myself. Important note is, that I am not that much experienced with using a soldering iron, to give you a hint regarding the difficulty of the task. The only exhausting thing is the desoldering, since the screen is connected to the board with 20 pins. I can give you guidance and details if you want to, BUT:
Elektron can replace your screen with a white Monomachine screen, too
(and in this case, I ASSUME that this won’t harm the warranty)
The price is around 150€-200€ (work and screen included) and you have to send the machine to Sweden. Turnaround for repairs are 2-4 weeks after they receive the unit.
If you choose to do it yourself, you can save a lot of money though. You can buy a fitting lcd screen in a electronic store for around 30€…
I can understand that you want to keep the warranty, though!
Keep in mind that you can get several different colors, when you buy such a display in a electronic store … white on blue, black on green (Gameboy Classic Style) etc ;D
i wish i had known that b4 … .would have asked elektron to ship me a white one … but my retailer (thomann germany) had kickass prices … so i assume it had been considerably more expensive …
would be awesome if it was an OLED and we could change the colors by pressing a button … synced with the beat, or according to patterns … and flashing, and strobe lighting, and … i am a big fanboy of the winamp milkdrop plugin … so have a video input and display trippy shit on the display… maybe in mk4 in 2022
Though I prefer the “white” screen of the Mono over the “red” screen of the MD, the red screen isn’t a big issue. The white screen has much better contrast.
But that said, I wish the graphics were inverted so the background was dark, and the information was light (similar to the Tempest). Staring into the bright white light can be a bit harsh on the eyes over a period of several hours in a dim room!
Unfortunately, I also made that experience. As far as I remember, in my case it took some more time, but I got worse when I was working with the computer (screen) and the synced MD together and kept looking at one device and then in the next minutes on the other device’s screen… I felt it made my eyes tired.
window size: 72 x 40 mm
Depth: 13.6 mm
Height 70 mm
Width 93 mm
(the sizes don’t have to be exact, the machine’s case offers some space)
and of course, it needs 20 pins to connect ;D
I tried out four different models and they all worked, only keep in mind to adjust the contrast potentiometer after putting in a new display, it seems like the later models need higher contrast settings than the old one I had in stock.
hey bro, which part of gemany r u from? i am in berlin … i didnt know you could replace those displays so easily, and get them fairly cheap… i wouldnt mind a bigger one, but my warranty is good for almost another 3 years
White really is a nice color for elektron boxes. We did an all white octatrack (i am of course biased ) the choice of white pearl finish really transformed the
box. We had a thread here sometime ago. But yeah that color scheme is really nice.
