Well the Druck TRX arrived today and it's not going to be very simple but, with some luck, I may win. This post shows views of the overall state; the outside looks OK but, as expected, there's corrosion around the battery terminals and some corrosion or something on some tracks around the edges of the PCB, seems it might have got damp at some time. I did a quick cleanup and conductivity tests on some of the dodgier looking areas and added solder to bridge poor areas and 1 piece of wire where the track was dead.
The biggest issue is that the flat flex (conductive paint/ink
) cable is snapped so no wonder it didn't power on. I tried to take the crimpex connectors off the old end of the cable but bending the cable-piercing tangs caused them to snap so reuse is a no-go; I found some 'CLINCHER' connectors on Mouser and ordered a 12-position, 0.1" one to try out; according to the datasheet for 'ink' (if that's what my cable is) you need part number 67516-712 but that's not available so I ordered a 67516-012LF which is for 'ordinary' (I guess copper) cable but
the datasheet shows a very slight variation in the piercing tangs between 'ink' and 'ordinary'
The 2x20 LCD looks like it's not the original with a lump cut off the corner to make it fit, I can also see dark water? seepage areas around the edges which means the display is probably dud too but I do have one spare that's the same layout, the problem is that my new one has a backlight that makes it fatter than will fit inside the case; I do however have a nice OLED display that make fit and work, we'll see.