Restoring a Digma E629 eBook — troubleshooting from battery to E-Ink waveform

It all started when the Digma E629 eBook had been sitting unused for quite a long time, and when I finally decided to charge it and use it again — it refused to turn on. At that moment the device was almost 10 years old, so it was not surprising that the first disassembly immediately revealed a completely discharged Li-Ion battery (3.7V 306573, 1500mAh). Fortunately, this is a common form factor, so I easily found and ordered a replacement.
However, after replacing it… the problem remained. The display did not refresh, although the device was detected via USB and the battery was charging normally. I connected to the UART port (standard speed 115200) and started digging deeper.

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Repairing of monitor Philips 170B4

Yesterday I bought Philips 170B4 LCD 17′ monitor on the sale.
It was very cheap (about 9$), and of course when I turned it on at home, it didn’t work. My OS detected it right, but the screen was total black. Monitor menu worked fine, and showed Brightness and Contrast level equal -1 (minus one). My attempts to restore factory settings via menu made no results. I digged in the Internet and found some reference to “incorrect firmware in that case”. Learned out Service Manual that monitor had EEPROM for saving settings, and got consciousness – in my case data stored in EEPROM was broken.
So to solve this problem you should follow this way: Read More