How to make a motorized In dash screen

**uanant** · 07-06-2006, 07:48 PM

Hi,
I was trying to use old CD ROM for making motorized touch screen for my car. I took the CD ROM apart and put the screen on top of it to see if it can take the load of the screen or not. Later I removed the back of Lilliput touch screen with speaker to reduce the weight. But the problem I am running into is.
1. Drive is not ejecting the tray or close it after the first action or either ejecting or closing.
2. The LED keeps blinking and would not perform any other actions, every time I have to take the plug out and connect it back and it would do only on action. This is ok for testing inside home but in car would be a really big pain.
3. I would also appreciate if you guys can help to raising mechanism of the screen.

All your comments and help would be greatly appreciated and I would update with pics if if get success.
Regards
Andy

**canadiandream** · 07-06-2006, 08:51 PM

The motor in a CD rom is very, very small. Also a lot of them have sensors (optical??) that detect resistance. This is so if you put your hand on it while opening, it will stop. Often you have to then push to re-initiate the closing mechanism. It may be very easy to disconnect this functionallity, then when you open against the load of the screen it would not trigger this mechanism.

My advice, is use a stronger motor (although a CD is geared well), or build a simple linear actuator. That's what I did, about 20 bucks worth of parts. Write up to follow soon.

**uanant** · 07-07-2006, 07:52 AM

hi,
Thanks a lot for your reply. I was actually thinking to use the hardware and control mechanism with a powerful motor and ran into above problems. I am poor in electronics so couldnot mess with any of the hardware to find out what rating motor would i need to power that unit. Your idea sounds interesting but how would you create on off action so that the screen would come up and then fold back. Do i have to create my own PCB and other hardware to actuate it or anything avaibale off the shelf. A good site i found for good cheap electronics is www.allelectronics.com see if you find this interesting.
I would be eagerly waiting for your post.
with regards
Andy

**canadiandream** · 07-07-2006, 09:40 PM

Must have misread your first post. If you are looking to make the screen go OUT, and then turn UP like the indash units - I would suggest giving up the project. Either buy a indash unit with a broken LCD (should be cheap, check ebay), or just save up for an indash unit. Making something that goes out, and then turns up is really a very intricate mechanism with a lot of engineering behind it - probably a very difficult thing to reproduce with any quality.