Canon Speedlight 430EX II LCD Replacement

Written By: midiman127

Comments: 21

Canon Speedlight 430EX II LCD Replacement

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

Time Required

1 hour

Introduction

Tools

Parts

Canon replacement LCD for Speedlight 430EX II

Step 1

My Speedlight 430EX II was still working perfectly with only the LCD display cracked. The back-light was also still working.
Order a genuine replacement part from www.DHcameras.com.
Make sure you have a very good set of tools. The screws on this flash are very soft and a none matching driver will strip them.

Step 2

Remove batteries
Remove the 4 screws at the bottom of the flash
Remove mounting cap on the side of the flash
Carefully unplug the socket from the circuit board.

Step 3

Turn the flash head 90º.
Remove both screws right below the 75 mark. These are the screws holding the smaller back casing in place.

Step 4

READ THIS!!!! This is not a "the bigger the hammer the smaller the problem" step. You mess this up and you will need to duck-tape your flash back together. Also...: make sure you don't snap a plastic tool.
Looking flat into the opening you should see a metal part far in.
With a flat driver try to get between the plastic casing and this metal part to pry it out of the locking notch.
Image 3 illustrates the metal tab you need to press down for the side to open.
One more time: Make sure you are getting between the casing and the metal tab. Inserting and twisting a small screw driver worked for me after a few tries.

Step 5

Remove front casing with infrared sensor by removing one plug.
Detach 3 wires going from flash head to circuit board.
Remove brown and yellow wire from circuit board connecting the battery case.

Step 6

Gently pull flat band out of the circuit board mount. You might use the pliers but don't bend the band.
Move the 3 wires out from the gap between the casing and circuit board.
First: White
Second: Orange
Third: Black. This is the one we need to free.
Now the back casing with circuit board should come lose. Only attached by the black wire.
Also pull out the 2 metal mounting plates.

Step 7

Remove 5 screws holding the circuit board.
Remove screw holding metal tab. The screw is different than other 5. Make sure you leave it in the tab.
Remove screw holding plastic cap. Keep screw in the cap as it is a different size.
Take the circuit board out of the casing flipping it over.
There is a clear plastic plate (red) between the LCD and the circuit board. It might fall out. It is used to distribute the back-light.
Pull the old LCD off carefully. Make sure not to tear the rubber band (green). This is used to transfer the signals from the board to the LCD.

Step 8

Cut the side of the plastic wrapping of the new LCD. Slide it out of the plastic bag directly into position. Make sure you don't touch surface with your fingers.
There are 2 tabs (red) the new LCD needs to slide under.
Now place the clear plastic plate on top of the new display. MAKE SURE it is in the correct orientation. In the image the BLUE notch is a bit larger than the orange one.
Press the edges of the plastic lightly and it will snap into the case.
Remove the rubber band gently from the old LCD and place it into the groove (image 3, red). Make sure it is aligned correctly.

Step 9

Place circuit board back into the casing and attach all screws.
If positioned correctly the rubber band will make connection between the new LCD and the board.
Push the wires back between the side casing and the circuit board. The order is now reversed: 1st Black, 2nd Orange, 3rd White.
Re-attach all connectors onto the circuit board except the flash base.
Insert batteries and hold the cap closed with your fingers. It will not snap closed until the casing is back together.
Turn on the flash and check if the LCD works. Push the back-light button (above Pilot) to make sure it works.
After the test remove batteries.

Step 10

Re-attach the front casing wire for the infrared sensor.
Make sure the plastic foil is back in place the correct way around.
Put the flash head back between casing halves and snap them together.
Attach them with the top screws byt the 75 marks.

Step 11

Run one more test by inserting batteries. The battery cap should now snap closed.
Turn the flash head and make sure all mechanics work including the tilt.
Re-attach the wire of the flash foot and put in the 4 screws.
Congratulations!!! You just fixed your speed light LCD.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

21 comments

Whohoo, great! My flash has a new display. THANK YOU!!!

alizr hort -

My backlight did not work during the first try in step 9, but it did after putting it all back together. Thanks a lot!

alizr hort -

Did you find out what went wrong with step 9?

midiman127 -

Many thanks for this superb Step By Step. It worked! Keep up the great work.

cyberK -

You are very welcome. I like to see other very bold people out there fixing stuff!

midiman127 -

thank you for the instruction, I just fixed my screen! It took me a while unlocking the metal pin, I made some marks on the cover, but that is ok. After that everything is quite straightforward.

Chang Liu -

Glad I was able to get it done, but when I read the directions I missed out on the part of pulling the battery holder out of the front element. The black wire connecting to the circuit board most visible in the last image of step 6 had a much shorter wire on mine and it actually disconnected. Thankfully after much trying and a bit of wiggling to get more length I was able to get it sorted.

Thanks for the tutorial, would not have been able to get it done without it.

Morgan Murphy - 08/08/14

Thanks for all the effort, it worked great. My flash is as new. Many Thanks !

Marcoi - 23/03/15

Awesome guide but dangerous! I fixed my LCD and tested before full reassembly successfully...but...and here's what I don't get...with the batteries removed, I reassembled the case and one of the metal screw retaining clips got dislodged and fell on a capacitor (???) bridging something that caused light explosion/schock. Something held a charge (???)

dextercole - 23/07/15

Yes. Capacitors will have that effect. always be carefull and wear eye protection and possibly isolating gloves. You would need lots more amps to cause serious harm but the unexpected flash gets your attention.

midiman127 - 24/07/15

I cannot for the life of me remove the screws below the 75 mark. Any tricks?

Ricky - 07/04/16

Try to get a screwdriver that is long and big enough in order to avoid stripping the head. You should also get enough leverage this way. You might want to take a trip to the tools store with the flash.

midiman127 - 08/04/16

Hello, Thank you for putting up this guide. I had a recent problem with my 430EX II flash, There was a loud pop and smell of electronics burning and it stopped charging the capacitor after that. We followed the steps and opened up the flash.

The charcoaled component looks like the remains of a capacitor. However, it is a small SMT component located on the back-side of the high-voltage board in first two pictures of Step 6 (the capacitor is on the other side of the big flat component). I assume the capacitor is part of the charge pump circuit that charges the big capacitor (which is intact). It is a ceramic surface mount capacitor in a 1206 package. However, there is no way to tell the capacitance or voltage rating of this capacitor.

Any idea on finding the replacement?

I have pictures in the dropbox folder : http://bit.ly/2kdotjt

Thanks for your time.

Stalin SM - 10/02/17

As components sometimes blow out due to another component being shortened out this might be tricky. I would never recommend trying this as there is A LOT of voltage in this flash. You might find a "dead" flash on eBay with this board in tact?

- Here a picture of a working board https://tinyurl.com/z8vmqfv

- Another good read: http://en-us.fluke.com/training/training...

- I have ordered electronic components from here before: http://www.digikey.com/

midiman127 - 13/02/17

Help!! Once I took the circuit board out a baby spring fell out and now I don’t know where it belongs. And I’m not sure if another piece dropped out because the power button seems to be missing a part that slips into the channel that makes it snap into the on and off position. I thought that might be where the spring goes but it’s clear that it doesn’t. Ughh… I was being so careful too…

Paul Del Pizzo - 09/03/19

Paul, not sure if you already fund a solution. On step 8 you see a baby spring top left for the on-off toggle slider button. Unfortunately my flash is currently assembled. Does that little spring look like that? Sort of like from a ball pen except smaller? Good luck!

midiman127 - 12/03/19

I am not able to find a replacement LCD for my 430EX II. Where did you find yours?

jcastillo - 11/12/19

Good Day, The part is still available on https://dhcamera.com as SKU number CY2-2017-000 (You can search for that)

Or see: https://dhcamera.com/genuine-canon-lcd-p...

midiman127 - 11/12/19

Awesome directions. I was nervous, and I forgot to remove the base at first, so I was struggling with Step 4. Then I realized why it wasn’t coming loose. That was my fault, but otherwise, the directions were spot on. Thank you for saving me $100 in repair costs.

A K - 27/08/20

Thanks for the guide, I was having trouble with on/off switch not turning on intermittently use your instruction to strip unit then cleaned up contacts on circuit board with contact cleaner reassembled and now works a treat.

Graham Brown -

Thanks very much!

I used this as a disassembly guide to fix the on/off switch.

Joshua Porteus -