HELP (Salvaged laptop monitors)

[carrnflight]

Is it possible and has anyone salvaged a laptop monitor for use in a sim pit? i currently have three trashed laptops with ok monitors that could be used. i'm knowledgable in electronics and soldiering so those aren't issues.

i looked for a search function to search for this topic first but if there i was not looking in the right place.

thanks
john

[Michael Carter]

As long as you get the controller board and the inverter, you should be fine.

Were the displays working OK when they quit?

[carrnflight]

thanks skunk works

yes all the displays were working fine. have just been unable to repair the other problems. and they were slow machines.

[BlackWidow]

I just saw some info about this when i was looking at mods for the PSOne screen. I do remeber reading that the controllers can get expensive. but i would think you could take the one out of the laptop.

Do a Gooogle search for laptop LCD mods........lots of info.

http://store.earthlcd.com/LCD-Products/LCD-Controller-Cards Apparently you HAVE to have crontroller in order for the laptop LCD to work with a PC.

[Bob Reed]

You have to buy special controller in order to hook them to a PC. These controllers are specific to the monitor being used and pretty high in price.

[carrnflight]

so this may not be a very cost effective idea then! will keep researching the topic and will post if any cost effective work arounds are found.

[Gsey]

For under $200 you can buy brand new 19" monitors now. You wont find a new controller for under that to suit your laptop monitor and then you still need to find your inverter. Ebay could be your friend but with prices of lcd being so cheap nowdays doing the laptop to pc conversion isnt worth the time and effort.

Gary

[Mike.Powell]

The topic of reusing displays from laptops comes up periodically. Unfortunately, it always turns out to be impractical. Laptop display controllers are incorporated onto the mother board. If you pull the LCD out of the lap top, you're missing half the monitor electronics. The actually row and column drivers may be with the LCD but the timing and control electronics is somewhere else, perhaps embedded inside a custom chip with totally unknown interfacing properties.

If you're a hardware guy, it's really hard to turn your back on potentially useful screens. There's a little voice only you can hear saying, "Save me, save me." But when you can buy a brand new LCD monitor, fully working, with all the cables, for under $200, the only sensible action is to ignore the voice and walk away.

Sigh! (Breaks my heart, too.)