Thread: NEC 8.4" Transflective Solution - Custom Kit

I received the cable on Thursday of last week. Duayn did a great job on cable assembly and packaging. I opted for a 12' cable as I haven't ruled out the trunk installation yet. After updating the EPIA BIOS for CRT+LCD, the panel powers on and I can see the BIOS splash screen and POST operations. Once the PC boots into GRUB, the colors are off. I experimented with all 16 LCD choices in the LCD type BIOS selection. From my understanding, this hex code sets the native resolution of the panel.

Note that I did have a loose LVDS cable but I reseated it. I may need to solder this connection as the cable was completely disconnected. LVDS is very fragile! I wonder if I can find a molded Hirose connector with wire stubs that I could just solder and heatshrink tube to the cable wires. I suppose I could also hot glue or epoxy the connector and wires to provide some strain relief, but I am concerned about electrical side effects (i.e. conductivity) of this approach.

I need to check the 262K vs. 16M color selection, but this looks like something else. I hope the panel controller voltage is sufficient. I was concerned about the resistivity of the 12' cable at 30 AWG dropping the voltage. Need to get the DMM and probe 3V pins. I had Duayn use 18 AWG for the inverter power pair (actually two sets due to current limitations of the smaller AWG), so inverter should be OK. The panel controller pulls much less.

Note the NEC 17" monitor as a reference. The flash caused a glare here but not for the NEC panel. With 10K pot turned to maximum (2.5V) the panel is nice and bright. If ERG datasheet is valid, I could upgrade to 950 cd/m2.

I need to get the panel mounted into the bezel and secure the cable on both ends so that the connector doesn't suffer any strain or stress. Then I can take this outside and snap some photos of direct sun. But first I need to debug this cable. What is going on here Sigh, the pitfalls of kitting my own display

Hi thermoptic. Just wondering if you have had any success with the screen? I actually just bought the same motherboard and am really interested in your project. Good luck.

Where is this going, what's the link to the fabrication thread ?

Edit: nevermind, I found the link. I wonder how Therm is coming along.

subscribed!

My 8.4" Xenarc LCD just died .. looking for a replacement - might as well be transflective !

bl3nd3r, attilahooper, Iceman_jkh, and lukers (I know you're out there ), I have been slammed with work in October. The job has leeched away all of my free time and energy. I have upcoming business travel so I will not be able to seriously dig into this until the first week in November.

Rest assured that I will debug the video issue and post pictures in sunlight. I may also post some video (to an external site). For anyone thinking about this custom kit route, I will warn you that the dash installation is complicated! I am having to design my own interposer to mount the IR touchscreen to the LCD and then determine a way to mount the unit into the bezel. I will be covering this challenge in my fab thread.

Sorry to leave you guys hanging but I will return in three weeks.

First off thank you guys for all the research you did for this thread. I was beginning to lose faith that I'd ever be able to put a good LCD in my car. I've already abandoned the idea of having a motorized screen, but I'm hoping this one will be good for a stationary screen. I just have two questions.

My mobo already has a dual dhannel 36bit LVDS output on it. Will I still need to purchase an LVDS I/O controller? Or does the connection on the mobo mean that is already incorporated?

Second, will that LVDS connection even work with that 8.4 inch NEC screen? I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I was reading something about it being 6 or 8 bit color how does that figure into a 36 bit LVDS output?

Here's a link to the mobo

http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/fuz...id-p-4187.html

Originally Posted by thermoptic

bl3nd3r, attilahooper, Iceman_jkh, and lukers (I know you're out there ), I have been slammed with work in October. The job has leeched away all of my free time and energy. I have upcoming business travel so I will not be able to seriously dig into this until the first week in November.

Rest assured that I will debug the video issue and post pictures in sunlight. I may also post some video (to an external site). For anyone thinking about this custom kit route, I will warn you that the dash installation is complicated! I am having to design my own interposer to mount the IR touchscreen to the LCD and then determine a way to mount the unit into the bezel. I will be covering this challenge in my fab thread.

Sorry to leave you guys hanging but I will return in three weeks.

Thermoptic. I hope you have survived the busy month at work and look forward to your progress on this over the next few weeks. What exactly do you mean by having to design your own interposer?

I am working on putting a carputer in a 2001 Lincoln LS and am hoping that either the 6 or 8 will fit into the car. Once I get the dash kit in for the car I am going to take a look and see if it will fit and if this is a viable solution.

Thermoptic (and all),

I decided to purchase a transflective LCD from MotorCityTech.

I still have my Xenarc 840TSV which works perfectly - I thought the LCD had died, but as it turns out, only the 22pF cap on the invertor board blew. I have now replaced it and the entire unit works fine.

Regardless of this, I have always wanted a transflective display. I bought an 8.4" LCD from MotorCity Tech that has had the transflective upgrade performed to it already. It is an exact match to the original LCD in the xenarc . It is also 800x600 native. (I had thought about 1024x768, but the line must be drawn somewhere. And in all honesty 800x600 looks amazing for CarPC/FE's - Desktop/Wordprocessing/Excel is the only thing I think that would benefit, and probably shouldnt be ocurring in the car ).

A Xenarc 840TSV is only $329 USD at the moment + $350 for the replacement transflective LCD would get you a very easy (and relatively not too expensive) xflec touchscreen solution.

I will report back with pics and a review once I install it in my car, but that wont be for a few weeks - until the fabrication is finished, as I dont want the new screen scratched!!

I'll try get some pics out-of-car in the sun in the meantime though.

Hope this provides another option for people to consider.

Thanks
Ice

I have also been following this thread with great interest. I have a large but somewhat inconveniently sized aperture I wish to make use of for locating a touchscreen (8.5" x 5.1")

I recently found this screen.

http://www.trident-uk.co.uk/componen...t_display.html

Any comments?