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After seeing 17" portable displays going for £300 on Amazon and used laptop displays for £1 on eBay I decided to give the portable monitor build instructions a go. I followed the instructions in the video pretty much to the letter and it all turned out pretty well! I decided to put the buttons below the screen on the front, and I used plastic standoffs which seemed to work fine. My one tip not mentioned in the video would be to put some shrink wrap around the ends of the braided cable wrap to stop it fraying. The whole thing ended up costing me around £40, excluding power supply. About half of that was the controller board, the rest various bits and pieces like vinyl, standoffs, MDF, cable wrap, glue, drill bits etc.
Posted : 17/05/2023 9:02 pm
Working LCDs for a quid!?
WORT!
Do tell more sir!
Take everything I say with a pinch of salt, I might be wrong and it's a very *expensive* way to learn!
Posted : 20/05/2023 6:43 pm
Topic starter
@marcdraco it's only a TN panel (relatively poor viewing angles and colour) but it's 1920x1200 so I think I got a bit of a bargain even by eBay standards. Still there's loads more cheap panels out there - 15.6" one for a fiver right now and it comes with a free (broken) laptop attached 😎
This post was modified 2 years ago by fredbot
Posted : 21/05/2023 5:47 pm
marcdraco reacted
Sweet! I'll have to give that a look.
Take everything I say with a pinch of salt, I might be wrong and it's a very *expensive* way to learn!
Posted : 22/05/2023 6:10 pm
Question: I did something similar, took apart an old laptop, and used the screen to make a monitor, but nothing is showing up on it. I know the screen works from previous use, and it lights up dimly. the computer is registering it along with all its specs. I have a power supply that claims to output 12 volts. do you have any ideas on what the problem could be?
Posted : 25/05/2023 4:31 pm
Hi. I found that the location of the cable connection from the control board to the LCD panel is a bit exposed when using it in this build. Mine is located along the bottom edge of the panel and is a bit vulnerable to being disconnected. I’m not an electronics guy, but I suggest you that you carefully remove and then reinstall the cable. Check all cable connections. It is very important to secure the connection with tape or other as suggested in the Perks video. Also, you might check that the power supply is working correctly. I’m not sure how to easily test it, but it cold be a malfunctioning board. I try to keep in mind we are using components that are not originally designed for these projects. Good luck. Hope you solve it and experience this cool addition to your computer.
Posted : 27/05/2023 2:13 pm
@ejected It's really easy to break a display physically (as anyone who's done these knows) and electrically too.
The panel will have (somewhere) an ID code that you can use to find out which controller it needs. There are a few on fleabay like this:
HDMI DVI VGA Audio LCD LED Controller Drive Board For B156XW02 V0 1366×768 LVDS | eBay
But you will have to supply your own 12V @ 4A supply. 48 watts seems a lot to me but that's what the manufacturer's specify. If you don't give them enough juice, they won't start and that's assuming you got the right driver as there are myriad different ones.
As a wiser man than I once remarked,
"The great thing about standards is there are so many to choose from".
Take everything I say with a pinch of salt, I might be wrong and it's a very *expensive* way to learn!
Posted : 28/05/2023 1:57 pm