Also, One of my fellow classmates informed me that in the past when he was modifying LCDs, he noticed that if you increase the length of those high voltage lines, it tends to burn out the inverter really quickly. SO, back to the drawing board.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Learning!
One of the benefits of incorporating this project into a school assignment, is I now have the full support and backing of my Digital Arts professor and, even more importantly, students. For example, today I learned some very interesting things. Like my static is more than likely caused by crosstalk between the high voltage lines and the video lines.
Also, One of my fellow classmates informed me that in the past when he was modifying LCDs, he noticed that if you increase the length of those high voltage lines, it tends to burn out the inverter really quickly. SO, back to the drawing board.
I figure it's not too late to use the custom inverter that came with the iMac. The challenge with it is bypassing the inverter on the LCD power supply and wiring the iMac's inverter to it.
Also, One of my fellow classmates informed me that in the past when he was modifying LCDs, he noticed that if you increase the length of those high voltage lines, it tends to burn out the inverter really quickly. SO, back to the drawing board.
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Hey Dave, great to see you back. I have a couple of suggestions. You are 100% correct that the high pitched noise you hear is the high voltage current. For safety reasons I actually dissembled a similar mod. I think your signal problem is due to cross talk, ribbon cable in particular is very difficult to work with. I don't want to see you needlessly spend money, but the easiest thing to do is to get an LCD controller board that works with your panel.
ReplyDeleteThis is the one I'd recommend it supports 1440x900:
http://cgi.ebay.com/5251-Audio-LCD-Controller-Board-laptop-LVDS-DVI-VGA-/280675427179?pt=COMP_EN_Networking_Components&hash=item41598f236b#ht_7910wt_931
The reason is that getting power to your current controller but bypassing the inverter is very difficult. Plus then you still have to keep a bulky power source in your base which is high voltage. I had a monitor power source nearly catch fire once when I accidentally had the edge rest on a conductive surface. This way you can have only this small controller in the base and a contained DC power source. I also have the pinout for the 17" inverter. Hooking it up to this controller should not be a problem. This would then avoid the high voltage wire problem. Look on the back of your lcd panel and make note of the panel make and name. A resource like beyondinfinate.com has most LCD panel pinouts on-line. You can then assemble an LVDS cable of your own from parts of other cables.
ReplyDeleteThere is one more thing to note, however. Apple chose to use TMDS for a reason over LVDS technically over long distances TMDS is more stable. If you still have the native working iMac screen and neck cables you may want to consider going the TMDS route and making a DVI cable from the end of these cables.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively if you stick with LVDS you may want to screw the controller altogether and get a mobo with LVDS out built in. In addition there are PCI add ons that can add LVDS out to a motherboard. I can show you how to turn on and power the backlights from a molex power cable if you go this route. This way no room in the base is taken up by monitor components.