Build Digital Picture Frame from broken laptop

[[email protected]]

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!

 

[[email protected]]

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!

About 30 seconds of Googling found the following links...

<http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51040>

<http://episteme.arstechnica.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=30709597>

 

[mike]

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!

Give it up.
It's unlikely that you'll stumble across anything compatible.
And if you did, you'd still be better off to fix the laptop, sell it
and buy a picture frame.

Pick up a free working 386/486/P1 laptop and use that.
IF you banged on my door, I'd give you one. They are everywhere
cause they won't run current software.

But when you're all done, you'll still be unhappy.
Picture frames are popular cause...well...they look like picture frames.
You're gonna end up with a big box of stuff, unless you let the keyboard
stick out for all to see. And you'll hear the hard drive churning.
It'll be fun for a week, then go back in the basement where it belongs.

I had a cool kiosk computer with a touchpanel on it. Did a bunch of
interfacing to my network, wrote some home automation control
software...was really cool for about an hour. Tripped over it for a few
weeks before it went to the basement.

I've developed a project technique that works well. Imagine the cool
toy you want to build. Get a cardboard box about that size. Draw a
picture of the cool toy on the box and place it where it will go.
If the box is still there in a month, consider completing the project.
So far, I've never finished anything ;-) All the fun is in the planning
and conceptualization anyway...
mike

 

[Meat Plow]

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!

Go buy one.

 

[Barry Watzman]

What you want to do is technically possible but generally not
economically feasible. Getting a controller card in single unit
quantities is going to be next to impossible (price not withstanding),
and if you can find one, it's going to cost you more than what you can
buy a complete monitor for (I've been getting some 19" dual input
(VGA/DVI) monitors with speakers in the $120 range [after rebate]). The
connectors and cables are very specialized and those also are hard to
find and expensive in single unit quantities. There is no
standardization to anything. Almost every model of LCD panel is different.

 

[[email protected]]

Great input from everyone. Thanks for your help.
Well, it sounds like it would be more valuable as an exersize than as
an actual usable product.

Have a Happy Holidays!

What you want to do is technically possible but generally not
economically feasible. Getting a controller card in single unit
quantities is going to be next to impossible (price not withstanding),
and if you can find one, it's going to cost you more than what you can
buy a complete monitor for (I've been getting some 19" dual input
(VGA/DVI) monitors with speakers in the $120 range [after rebate]). The
connectors and cables are very specialized and those also are hard to
find and expensive in single unit quantities. There is no
standardization to anything. Almost every model of LCD panel is different.

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!

 

[mike]

Great input from everyone. Thanks for your help.
Well, it sounds like it would be more valuable as an exersize than as
an actual usable product.

Probably not. Valuable exercises teach you stuff you can use elsewhere.
Unless you plan a future hooking up undocumented mismatched displays and
controllers,
you won't learn much useful. But you will get plenty frustrated by
the lack of documentation. It should be a simple problem of signal
matching, format conversion, logic design. It's more likely to turn
into a BIG reverse engineering project.

Take a night job at a fast food restaurant.
In the few days it will take you to
save up enough to buy a picture frame, you'll actually learn a LOT
about something that you can actually in the future...human nature...
oh...and don't forget you'll also learn Spanish ;-)
mike

Have a Happy Holidays!

What you want to do is technically possible but generally not
economically feasible. Getting a controller card in single unit
quantities is going to be next to impossible (price not withstanding),
and if you can find one, it's going to cost you more than what you can
buy a complete monitor for (I've been getting some 19" dual input
(VGA/DVI) monitors with speakers in the $120 range [after rebate]). The
connectors and cables are very specialized and those also are hard to
find and expensive in single unit quantities. There is no
standardization to anything. Almost every model of LCD panel is different.

Hello Everyone,

I've got a Compaq x1000 laptop that is dead (motherboard or video card,
not sure). I'd like to take the LCD screen out of it and assemble a
Digital Picture Frame out of it.

My question is:
Is the connection used by LCD screens on most laptops standard? Will I
be able to take the cable coming from the LCD in this Compaq laptop and
connect it to the video of another disassembled laptop? (asuming, of
course, that the resolution is supported).

Also, anyone have ideas on what I could use to drive the LCD (other
than parts from another laptop); mini-itx might be too big, and I don't
know how I would connect the LCD cable anyway.

Appreciate your help!