After a while the mother of all PDAs shows a serious weakness:
It's backlight brightness decreases rapidly.

Initiated by the Independent Newton Support (INS) we developed a high quality replacement-kit for the APPLE MessagePad 2000/2100.

Description

What you get is a coated high quality EL-replacement panel which looks almost the same like the original. The EL-foil was designed by us and produced from a excellent manufacturer. Because our EL-panels have the same size like the original, they simply have to be exchanged and only the two supply lines have to be carried from the old panel to the new one by soldering. The exchange of a small smt capacitor in the area of the supply-circuit of the EL-panel is optional.

The detailed exchange manual, see below, including many pictures makes it easy to get through this replacement.

With a luminance of 15 cd/m² our EL-panel is even a bit brighter than the original one. The lighting colour is nearly identical, means a soft green.

Due to comparing measurements standard EL-foils of SEIKO offered as replacement around the web show a luminance of only about 6.5 cd/m², when built into the MessagePad. According to our opinion this is too weak and of no real use.

Our EL-panel shows an excellent brightness in twilight and does not blind in complete darkness.

While the original EL-panel of APPLE has according to our observation a lifetime of around 400h, only, our replacement sheets have a lifetime of min. 3000h guaranteed by our manufacturer.

comparison frontsite, left backlight4you sheet - right original sheet

comparison backsite, left backlight4you sheet - right original sheet

Installation

You can assembly the backlight by yourself if you are technically skilled.
On the other hand if you are not skilled for that job you can damage your complete MessagePad. (Our warranty doesn't cover this case.)
You perhaps might ask some friends doing the assembly for you.
We do not offer an installation service but you may contact the follwowing address for an offer:

http://www.jksalesinc.com/catalog/                                     USA
and
http://www.hermocom.com/en/services/                               Germany
and
http://www.pda-soft.de/2x00backlightreplacement.html           Germany

What do you get?

These parts are included:

• EL-replacement foil, ready for exchange
• smt capacitor for an enhancement (5%) of the electronic driver circuit of the EL-panel (optionally)
• detailed exchange manual with many pictures in Adobe PDF format, download below