Replacement for Roland JUNO-G LCD display

Released in 2006, the Roland Juno-G is a 61-note workstation keyboard incorporating the Fantom-
X's sound engine with 128-note polyphony. Since the display no longer works in many cases, the
interactive functions of the keyboard can no longer be used. Roland has no support for the keyboard
and the official spare part is sold out. The Roland JUNO-G LCD Display Replacement offers a
solution to replace the broken LCD unit. The first code was originally written by GitHub user
dpeddi that he published it to his LCDJunoG repository.

What is required for the conversion?

- 1 x Raspberry Pi Pico
- 1x Flash file for the Raspberry Pi Pico (Roland-Juno-G.LCD Emulator v.05 .uf2)
- 1 x LCD display ILI9488 5.0" module (variant without touchscreen)
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004765008440.html?
spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.4da14ae4oMNTP6&mp=1&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu
- 17 x wires for soldering boards together (5 cm long white ones in this case: very easy to
solder as they were pre-tinned https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32822880152.html)
- 9 x jumper wires for connecting headers on the display and soldering on the Raspberry Pi
Pico like this one https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B07KFQ6483
- 4 x plastic bolts with nuts
- Double sided tape
- masking tape
- Aerosol Matt Black
Tools
- Micro-USB to USB-A cable (for programming the Raspberry Pi Pico)
- Soldering Iron & Solder
- Desoldering gun/tin extractor
- Phillips screwdriver/pliers
- Saw (to cut the red board in two)
- Ruler
- Flat knife
Removal of the LCD carrier board
1. Remove the encoder button on the control panel (next to the display)
2. Remove the lower part oft he housing
3. Disconnect the gray cable connected to the keyboard
4. Remove the jack board, it also has 4 screws on the back
5. In the middle you will see a circuit board on which the LCD display is attached from below.
6. On this circuit board there is another board, approx. 5 x 2.5 cm, with two flex cable sockets.
(marked JUNO G LCD BOARD ASSY JPN 733402078)
7. Disconnect the flex cable from the CN 17.
8. Loosen all screws of the LCD carrier board, then lift the board so that you can see the
lower two flex cables that must be pulled off.
9. Take out the circuit board
11. The smaller circuit board on the carrier is held with 4 clips. Remove the flex cables. After that
You can press the clips together with pliers and then remove the board.

Preparing the Raspberry Pico

1. Connect the RP Pico to the USB cable
2. Press and hold the programming button on the RP Pico and connect the USB cable to the PC
3. The Pico appears as a drive in Explorer
4. The file „Roland-Juno-G-LCD-Emulator-v.05 .uf2“ Transferred to the Pico.
5. Green LED lights up, the module is programmed.

Prepare the new LCD module

1. On the back, disconnect the ribbon cable from the connector (you have to slide out the black part
first to open the connector)
2. Use a flat knife to separate the circuit board from the LCD
3. Remove the remaining double-sided tape from the display
4. Cut off the card reader area of the red circuit board as shown here can be seen in the picture.
(This works best with a hobby/scroll saw)
We need to make sure we have room for the new LCD to fit on the carrier board.
1. To do this we may need to remove the yellow plastic from the header on the red circuit board.
2. Now we need to bend over the contact pins so they lay flat as close to the board as possible.
3. We either use jumper cables or solder connection cables directly to the contact pins and then lead
them through the opening in the carrier board.
4. Screw the transparent plate with the LCD module back to the carrier b
Prepare the JUNO G LCD BOARD ASSY JPN 733402078
Remove one of the two flex cable sockets (preferably the socket CN16, then the pin numbers
match). This can be very difficult even with a desoldering gun as the connector pins are very
thin/sharp. The free contacts are required for wiring to the RP Pico. The contacts are labeled with 18
and a 1 for orientation.
The free contacts can now be fitted with the 17 connection cables.

Disassembling the original display

First we need to remove the old hardware from the original display module to then rebuild a new
assembly for the new display
1. We only need the transparent LCD carrier from the old display.
2. Remove screws and black plastic retainers/spacers
3. Unfold the LCD and peel off the white film, now remove the circuit board from the transparent
panel. Use a flat knife to separate the board from the plate. Now here we have the transparent
backing board
Creating the new LCD assembly
1. Now fix the display centered on the middle of the transparent plate with double-sided adhesive
tape. In this way, the entire display area will later be visible through the window in the upper part
of the housing.
2. Wrap the ribbon cable around the edge of the backing plate
3. Now tape the red circuit board to the other side, align the ribbon cable with double sided tape on
the other sides and reconnect the ribbon cable
Prepare the LCD carrier board
1. Attach the RP module to the location shown here.
2. Mark two drill holes and drill carefully.
3. Fasten the RP module with 2 plastic screws (note the distance to the circuit board, possibly
work with spacers/nuts. Danger of short circuit.
4. Reattach the already wired LCD Board Assy to the previous location.

Wiring the Raspberry Pico to the Assy Board and the LCD Panel
Next, wire the JUNO G LCD BOARD ASSY JPN 733402078 and the newly created LCD display
to the RP Pico using the tables below. In this order it makes the most sense.

Connection Assy Board and RP Pico

JUNO-G Pin JUNO-G Pin Funktion Raspberry Pi Pico Pin
18 +5V VSYS

17 GND GND (neben VSYS)

16 +3V (nicht verbunden)

15 RST GP14

14 CS1 GP13

13 CS2 GP12

12 RS GP11

11 WE GP10

10 D0 GP2

9 D1 GP3

8 D2 GP4
 7 D3 GP5

6 D4 GP6

5 D5 GP7

4 D6 GP8

3 D7 GP9

2 BRGT GP26

1 BRGT Vref 3V3

Connection new Display and RP Pico

Display Pin Display Pin Funktion Raspberry Pi Pico Pin

VDD +3,3 Volt 3V3

GND Masse GND (neben 3V3)

CS CS GP22

RST RST GP21

Q/C DC GP20

SDI MOSI GP19

SCK SCLK GP18

BL BL GP17

SDO MISO GP16

Functional test
We now place the assembly we have created outside of the housing and connect it back to the main
board using the flex cable. After switching on the device, the message "Roland JUNO-G LCD
Emulator v0.3" should be displayed for a short time and then the display should show the actual
content.

Preparation of the upper part of the housing for the

installation of the LCD carrier board
1. We put the circuit board back into the case and temporarily screw it in place so that it won't fall
out when the case is turned over.
2. On the top we can now check the fit. The LCD display should now be centered in the field of
view (also check the upper and lower edges)

3. Due to the smaller display, there is now a gap on the left and right. If you hope that an original
display will be available as a spare part at some point, you should use black adhesive tape and
cardboard to cover the gaps.
4. A visually better solution is to blacken the gaps with spray paint. To do this, we mark the area to
be darkened and tape off the areas from the inside that are not to be painted. Masking must be
very clean here because there is a risk that the paint will run under the adhesive tape. You can't
get him off the transparent pane anymore.

5. When all this is done, we can put the carrier board back in place and completely reassemble the
synthesizer.
What are the limitations of this project?
1. The new display area is about 50% smaller, but the display output is identical to the original
2. The contrast control for the display on the back of the keyboard no longer has a function with this
LCD Panel:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004765008440.html?
spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.4da14ae4oMNTP6&mp=1&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu

The contrast control for the display on the back of the keyboard changes the colour with this
LCD Panel:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004765008440.html?
spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.4da14ae4oMNTP6&mp=1&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu

3. The brightness of the new display is lower, but the readability is fully given even in daylight.