I have 2 Nspanels. They both worked as expected. Then the LCD screen on the 1st went dark / blank. The physical switches still work. The connected light still work. I can still communicate with the Nspanel and upload new firmware.
If I pull the Nspanel from the wall and reinsert it the LCD panel will work as expected. But after a few days the LCD screen no longer lights up from touching the LCD screen.
The 2nd Nspanel has never had this problem. The 2nd Nspanel continue to work as expected.
Thanks for your suggestions @helen628young.
(Not sure what happened to your replay here in community.home-assistant.io forums.)
I pulled the NSPanel front off the relay/power module took it apart and re-seated the Nextron LCD panel. The panel work for a few days and then the screen went black again and would not respond to touching it. As far as I know, everything else about the panel was working.
This time when the Nextron LCD when black, I used the NSPanel reset switch (bottom center) and the NSPanel booted up and the Nextron LCD panel immediately started to work.
It’s hard to believe it is a hardware problem as power cycling it or just pressing the reset switch brings everything back to normal with out fail.
But it is hard to believe it is a software problem as I have 2 NSPanels programmed nearly alike. But only the one has this occasional black LCD problem.
I’m guessing their account was deleted because it was a bot which replied to you using generic AI responses with the intention to sneak in a spam link in a future edit.
Well, from what you’re describing, it’s definitely a hardware problem. Probably a component (capacitor, most likely), that’s starting to fail or overheating.
Thanks for your response @ShadowFist . If it is a hardware problem, it likely only involves the Nextron LCD. Because it would appear all other functions (2 relays controlling mains lights, temperature sensor, 2 physical push buttons, ESPHome firmware updates and WIFI) are working as expected.
And if it is the Nextron LCD, that all resides in the first few millimeters behind the LCD touch surface. Which has never felt warm to the touch. Also, this device is only about a year old. Certainly less than 2 years.
The LCD is connected to the board where components a quarter of the size of a grain of rice control it. If one of them had to overheat, then you wouldn’t feel it through the screen. The only way to see it is to use a thermal camera on the open board while it is running, or spray some IPA and see how quickly it evaporates.
Just to rule out a software issue, why don’t you load the code from the other screen on it? I know you said they were nearly identical, but running 100% identical code will provide you with a definite answer.
Since I last posted I adjusted the problematic NSPanel from 0% to 5% Time Out Screen brightness. I can now see the LCD displaying time after the time out period. So the LCD continues to work. I have also noted that resetting the NSPanel is not restoring the touch screen function as I earlier posted. I am now more and more convinced there is a touch screen hardware problem. (Which might be momentarily fixed if I cycle the power.)
I pulled up the HAOS web page on the two NSPanels and found the the Version TFT (I believe this is the firmware that is loaded into the Nextron LCD, not the ESP processor that runs the NSPanel) was old. So I updated it to 4.3.16. That did not fix the touch screen problem.
I checked the working NSPanel. That is at Version TFT 4.3.12. I have tried to update the Version TFT twice on that NSPlanel and so far have not been able to get it to report using 4.3.16.
I think my next step is to pull the NSPanel with the failed touch screen and try to re-seat the touch screen ribbon cable. That may be difficult as it is wrapped in some really sticky kapton tape. Probably will need to use a heat gun to avoid physical damage. Which comes w/it’s own physical dangers.