Thread: 8.4" LCD in WRX dash.

The LCD panel connectors I ordered from Digikey arrived today... and they're tiny!

Actually, I ordered what I thought were the right parts, but they're not what I actually need, I think.

I was close, though.. I was off by 20 pins on one, and the wrong wire type on the other.

Hi-resolution scanned pic attached.


The connector on the left is a Hirose DF13-20DS-1.25, and is a dual-row socket connector with 20 pins.. I meant to order one with 40 pins, and with crimp connectors instead of pins. The pins are spaced 1.25mm apart, to give you some idea of scale.

The 40-pin version of the connector on the left is the kind that fits the LVDS connector on most motherboards.


The connector on the right is a Hirose DF19G-20S-1SD, and is a 20-pin connector used on the LCD panel that I chose. The pins are spaced 1mm apart, and the actual contacts are on the left side of the connector, not the right. The wires can be soldered to the pads on the right side, and the entire thing is about 20mm wide.

The toothy part on the right side is one half of a shield - the other half snaps on top of the connector.


I think I ordered the wrong style connector on the right, because this version is made for super-thin AWG 40 coaxial cable such as this:
http://www.axon-cable.com/product/axon/pico/pico2.htm

There is another style of this connector that can use thicker AWG 28 cable that might be easier to solder to the connector..


The good thing is, the connectors aren't that expensive - I bought each of those two for about $2.50 each.

Edit: Attached a Word doc with the pinout mappings I need.

I placed another order from Digikey, this time with the correct parts.

I ordered:

5 H2234-ND CONN SOCKET HOUSING 40POS 1.25MM $2.70
(5 LVDS connectors for the motherboard)

5 H3107-ND CONN SOCKT CRIMP 20POS 1MM W/GRD $6.60
(5 LVDS connectors for the LCD, with grounding plate)

100 H3151CT-ND CONN SOCKET 28-30AWG CRIMP GOLD $6.51
(100 crimp connectors, to solder to the wires.)

1 MC20R-5-ND CABLE 20 COND 5FT ROUND SHIELDED $12.43
(5 feet of 20-conductor 28AWG round shielded cable, usually used in VGA-kind cables.)

Subtotal $28.24

Should be enough for 5 1' LVDS cables, but I'm buying extra parts, so I'll probably make 2 2.5' cables, one for testing, and 1 for installation.

With the cables being the right wire size, and with shielding, I shouldn't have any problem making a 5' or 10' cable, if it came to it..


The cost for a single 5' shielded LVDS data cable should be somewhere around $15-20 for the parts, not including labor.

The Subaru Impreza factory Gauge Pod housing I ordered arrived today, and it's awesome!

Here's the housing - it consists of the metal support tray, and the ABS plastic cover:





The dimensions of the inside of the tray are:

182mm Wide (Left to Right)
145mm Long (Front to Back)
50mm Tall (Bottom to Top)

The tray has mounting holes and slots on the sides, where screws can be inserted, normally for mounting a radio or other automotive peripheral.

The tray is the perfect width for a Mini-ITX board (Mini-ITX: 170x170mm), and it's about 30mm too short, but that can be solved by making a mounting tray that mounts inside the frame.

This shows the tray set in the dash:


The tabs on the sides of the frames mount to the dash with the use of threaded screws and clips, and seems to be very secure.

This shows the cover installed:


The cover has plastic pegs at the rear that tuck under the dash, and the front of the cover snaps onto the front of the frame with spring clips.

Seen from the front:



The best part of this installation is the available depth of the unit - I measured from the edge of the cover opening to the absolute bottom, and the depth was just about 210mm, leaving plenty of room for installation.

The vertical clearance on the inside of the cover is just about 6cm, so there's a good chance I'll be able to fit a PCI riser card in the rear with TWO PCI slots!


The other thing is that there should also be room on the inside of the cover to fit an 80mm PC fan, allowing for easy cooling of the computer, by exhausting the hot air out the top.

The side benefit is that it could also help defrost my window.

Originally Posted by fantomas

wow...thats beautiful. how much and where did you get it? i'm thinking that if i get this car, i would put my kenwood head unit (which i currently don't use due to lack of room) up in the housing so i can once again have radio and an easier way to control the volume. looks like i'd have plenty of room for the mobo, 3.5" harddrive and an opus.

$66 plus shipping, here:
http://www.subaruparts.com/catalog/?section=575#1136

Scroll down to Gauge Pack Housing, and pick the version for your car.


If you put your Kenwood HU up in the gauge pack housing, you won't have room for the computer up there.

I'm putting the computer up top, the power supply, LCD, and other pieces down in the double-din radio area, behind the LCD.

With a right-angle PCI Riser adapter, I should be able to fit one or two PCI cards on top of the motherboard, and still have room.

I figure at least one of the cards will have to be a Media Center 2005-compatable TV tuner / FM tuner card, so I can replace the AM/FM part of the stock radio.


I should be able to pick up a riser card from Fry's and measure it to make sure it'll fit with two cards.

I got the parts I ordered from Digikey today, and they look like they ought to do the trick for the LVDS data cable that I'll need to build.

The gray pieces on the left are the Hirose DF13-40S-1.25C 40-pin dual-row connectors, which connects to the 40-pin LVDS socket on the motherboard. Most LVDS transmitters use this style of connector. Pin 1 is indicated by the tiny triangle on the connector.

The white pieces on the right are the Hirose DF19-20S-1C 20-pin single-row connectors, and connect to the 20-pin socket on the LVDS LCD panel I've chosen. Not all LVDS panels use this connector.


I've confirmed the mappings of the pin-outs for the LCD, using this mapping sheet, used for a 14.1" AU LCD instead of an 8.4" one, but the pinouts are the same:
http://www.bwi.com/scripts/show_document.php/id/1319 (PDF)

As you can see in the tables in the PDF, the LVDS transmitter positive goes to receiver positive, and the same for the negatives, so there is no crossover from positive-negative like you would have for a normal circuit.


The connectors at the bottom of the picture are the contacts that get crimped to the wires and inserted into the connector shells.

However, since the crimping tool for these tiny things costs a few thousand, I'll use a small pair of needle-nose pliers to crimp the connector, and then follow up with a tiny bit of solder.

The connectors then can be inserted into the shells, with no risk of a melted shell, because you'd do the soldering seperate from the shell.

The contacts can also be removed, by prying up the small plastic tab on the shell with a small and sharp knife, like an X-acto blade.


The cable I got is basically a 5' long ribbon cable, folded to 1/4" diameter, and shielded with foil tape and wire braid, and ought to do the trick for a good shielded LVDS signal.

The ribbon cable itself is basically like what you would get with a 40-pin IDE cable.


Also, I made a mockup of the motherboard and a 1.75" PCI riser card with posterboard, and it looks like there will be room for one PCI card, but not two.. so I should be able to put in a suitable Media Center 2005-compatable TV/FM tuner in there.

What form of manipulation would me necessary to get an lvds to work with a DVI interface? Is the signaling the same? I looked at the pinout for DVI http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html#dvi but don't know enough about what type of signaling is being sent. Since many lcd's ship with a DVI interface (though not on little lcd's strangely enough) on them I have to believe that there is a common interface that lends itself to the strength of a non-analog signal. DVI is what my video card puts out but what would be necessary to hook that up to an lvds interface? Anyone?

Originally Posted by astuben

What form of manipulation would me necessary to get an lvds to work with a DVI interface? Is the signaling the same? I looked at the pinout for DVI http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html#dvi but don't know enough about what type of signaling is being sent. Since many lcd's ship with a DVI interface (though not on little lcd's strangely enough) on them I have to believe that there is a common interface that lends itself to the strength of a non-analog signal. DVI is what my video card puts out but what would be necessary to hook that up to an lvds interface? Anyone?

Actually, no, most LCD's do not natively use DVI at the low-level LCD panel itself.

What you usually get with a DVI-capable LCD monitor is a TTL/CMOS or LVDS LCD panel with a DVI/VGA controller card attached to tbe back of the LCD.


The LVDS and DVI technologies are different, made for different purposes.

LVDS is a TTL/CMOS replacement technology, and is intended for "embedded" solutions, or for laptops where a direct connection to the LCD panel is required.

DVI is a digital replacement for Analog VGA, and is intended for general consumer-use LCD monitors (monitor = LCD panel + controller board + inverter), or in some cases HDTV monitors or TV's.


When I'm talking about a LCD panel, it's the actual LCD panel ITSELF, not a pre-packaged LCD monitor, such as a standard 15" or 17" LCD you would find at Sam's Club, or even the Liliput or Xenarc packaged LCD monitors.

there is a little more to teh DVI story

There are actually a number of different DVI plugs. They are DVI-A DVI-D and DVD-I, in addition the -D and -I come in both single and dual link.


-D is what we all expect DVI to be. It is a digital video signal. -A is mearly analog VGA in disguise, which is why you can buy a VGA to DVI-A converter calbe. -I is a cable that is a combination of the two and can carry either.

WHen you look at the male connectors they have a flat spade with 4 pins around it on one side. The spade is the ground and the 4 pins are the analog signals. On the other side are few rows of several pins each. These lines carry the digital video signal.

DVI-a has the spade and the 4 pins around it but it is missing most of the pins on the other side. DVI-d has all the pins on the other side and the spade but the 4 pins around it are ommited. And as i imagin you can guess DVI-i has all the pins and can carry either signal. You can tell dual vs single link by looking to see is if there is a gap in the rows of digital pins which is the case in single link. Dual link can handel higher res. I don't know where the cutoff is but i believe single link can handle 1080p which is something like 1920x1080.

So why does all this matter? Because lots of manufactures are using DVI-a to make consumewrs think they are gettin a step up when all they're gettin is VGA. If you're monitor uses DVI-a then you can get a VGA to DVI-a cable and use it. Otherwise you need a video card that has a DVI-d or DVI-i out. There are lots of them on the market including a few PCMCIA card ones.