I have a very interesting idea.. but is it possible?

Marcface

Well, today my HP DV2000 went and murdered itself, the amazing laptop that it was. So rather than lose my nut and break something with someone, I went and spent about 5 hours googling to work out how I could salvage the screen as a second monitor. Now, everywhere I looked all I could find were folk who weren't willing to consider the idea, stating "just buy a new screen, scrap the laptop, bla bla". But I did alot of googling, like, my face has 'Google' imprinted on it at this stage. So the screen is the LG.Philips LF141WX1. It's a 14.1" LCD screen. The objective here, is to work out how to match up the 18 connections present on the 30 pin plug inside the panel casing to the corresponding pins on a DVI connection and appropriate power supply. The connections on the LCD panel and a DVI connection are as follows.





Now, the wiring confuses the hell out of me here, because most of those wires correspond but under different names, but the biggest confusion is the power supply. I see 2 x 3.3v VCC connections and the third is the one I'm not sure of, a 3.3v DDC connection, the one labelled 'V EEDID'. This apparently means Enhanced Extended Display Identification Data, I'm not sure which pin corresponds to this on the DVI plug though. Also, there is a small board to power the backlights, but this part is less clear. I'm not too bad with electronics but this is definitly a bit beyond my current knowledge, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated! :) I'll upload pictures throughout and we'll see if I melt my face off or actually succeed

BaconZombie

You going to need to buy/get or salvage from you old laptop a control.

Here is a article on does it with VGA that should get you started.

Also for research have a look at HackaDay.com site {plus check out their forums.}

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

I somone on this site (unclerosco i think) did this with 2 laptop screens in his MM Cube build.

AlmightyCushion

Komplett (Ryan) wrote: »

I somone on this site (unclerosco i think) did this with 2 laptop screens in his MM Cube build.

I think you're right (username and all). He designed or modded a case with these screens in it. I believe he made it into a pc magazine as well.

L31mr0d

Wasn't Unclerosco I don't think, I know he got into a magazine for his PC built into his desk. It was... chosen? Was it? Has it been that long that I can't remember, lol, was probably an opteron 165 build or something

AlmightyCushion

L31mr0d wrote: »

Wasn't Unclerosco I don't think, I know he got into a magazine for his PC built into his desk. It was... chosen? Was it? Has it been that long that I can't remember, lol, was probably an opteron 165 build or something

It was rosco.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=53503089&postcount=15

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

It apears i was wrong, it was dubdvd.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=3354256&postcount=303



Maybe unclerosco did a similar thing too, im sure he will pop in soon enough to correct us.

Marcface

Update time.

I went with the following configuration re: the LCD panel to DVI pin.

LCD Pin #. to (DVI Pin#)

1. Connect to ground
2. 3.3V+ (This must be for circuit power along with pin 3)
3. 3.3V+
4. to Hot Plug
5. NC (as stated)
6. to (6)DDC_CLK(SCL)
7. to (7)DDC_DATA(SDA)
8. to (17)
9. to (18)
10. to GND
11. to (9)
12. to (10)
13. to GND
14. to (1)
15. to (2)
16. to GND
17. to (24)
18. to (23)
19. to GND

The ol' cable ended up looking like a lovely mess, but there was no point in soldering it all and making it temporary.




I then had to work out a way around the fact that I couldn't, for the life of me, work out the wireing for the CCFL inverter. Neither could a fully qualified electrician I asked! He was baffled by the placement of resisters.




So I went with a crazy idea and pulled this old inverter from the Cold Cathode kit in an old rig I had layin around.



Now, the output specs of both are fairly close (but far enough to cause a drain on the old 450w psu I used in testing).
The specs of the Cold Cathode inverter are:

3. Input voltage of inverter：12v
4. Output voltage of inverter：680v
5. Current draw：5.0mA

And the requirements of the CCFL in the LCD panel.

Operating Voltage - Min 640v Typ 655v Max 880v
Operating Current - Min 2.0 Typ 6.3 Max 7.0 mA

It worked! There was no magic blue smoke, no popping, the inverter was very hot but stable (yet still did that irritating draining of the PSU, audible through the fan dropping to near noisless).



So then I went and chucked the old nVidia card I had it all connected to into my rig, and popped it all on. The result was extremely disappointing.



But, then, I realised, the graphics card wasn't registered at all, it wasn't installed, didn't show up in Devices. So I went with the assumption that it's because I put it into my third PCI-E slot (x4, on the ASUS P6T SE board). I've never used a board with more than one graphics card before so I'm going to assume this is my problem. Anyway, that's pretty much where I am, half the screen produced a sort of grey/black covering, the other half a bit lighter. Now, some more Corona bottles.

Sorry for the lengthy post! :cool:

Anti

Following this as i've got 4 dead laptops here at the moment.

L31mr0d

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It was rosco.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=53503089&postcount=15

If you read that thread he is referring to dubdvds cube being featured in the magazine in a later edition.

Komplett (Ryan) wrote: »

Maybe unclerosco did a similar thing too, im sure he will pop in soon enough to correct us.

Don't think Unklerosco ever made a cube case. I know Inquitus started one but it was never finished (afaik)


On topic: OP, that DVI connection is seriously ghetto. Would you not be safer just soldering the wires into a spare male DVI connector?

Marcface

L31mr0d wrote: »

On topic: OP, that DVI connection is seriously ghetto. Would you not be safer just soldering the wires into a spare male DVI connector?

Na, it does the job perfectly, and it means not spending 30 quid on a spare connector from Blanch Centre. Couldn't care less just how ghetto it looks, I live in Mulhuddart so I live in the freakin ghetto anyway

RoyalMarine

any update on this?

very eager to see it working

wildefalcon

I love this sort of thing! Used to do it a lot when I was younger.

Fair play to you for having a go, and keen to see how you get on.

WildeFalcon

dubdvd

God I wish I had the time and money I used to have back then and an understanding wife I'm on my 3rd now LOL it's would be funny if it wasn't true . nice mod but I used a couple of dell 17" TFT's on mine but these would have looked a lot nicer best of luck with it

Solitaire

NECROTHREADEDEGED FOR GREAT JUSTICE!!!!



Seriously, we need waaay more casemods and Dremel Time™ in this forum! :cool:

... Hey, stop looking at me like that!! I can't help real life nor retarded hardware prices dammit!