Inspiron 2500 LCD

Sandstorm · 06-10-2004, 05:50 PM

I disected my Inspiron 2500 a few days ago with plans on putting it in my car, however, I wanted to relocate the screen about 1 foot away from the computer, the Ribbon cable that connects the two isisnt nowhere near long enough, I have taken it to all the local places and they are clueless =) I was wondering if there is an adapter or an extention, or if this has to be a completely custom job, I would rather not cut into it as I am not a very good solderer, thanks for the help, BTW, im new to the forum, looks nice.

cdm · 06-10-2004, 09:51 PM

Nope. You can't extend it and even if you somehow managed to, the signal will be useless in a matter of inches.

Sandstorm · 06-11-2004, 02:35 AM

Is there a reason why not or are you just going to say "you cant" and leave it at that, I also said that I didnt want to cut it and asked if they made longer ones? There has to be something for this application...

eCar™ · 06-11-2004, 07:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by cdm

...even if you somehow managed to, the signal will be useless in a matter of inches.

He is saying that you will have trouble with the signal if you used a longer cable.

Ill1 · 06-11-2004, 08:07 AM

It's been done, but I've only seen where the ribbon cable has been cut and extended. There have been varying results and I would guess that the closer you keep the cable to the original length, the better. Do a search and I believe I've seen a Dodge Ram with an extended laptop screen and custom connector.

hydronic · 06-13-2004, 06:06 AM

I have extended my HP omnibook screen cable by cutting it the original very short cable and splicing in a twisted pair cable scrounged from an old SCSI cable. It is now 4 foot long and the scren display is perfect. The problem you have is that your cable is a flat ribbon making the soldering very tricky.

Yuriy · 06-13-2004, 06:34 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sandstorm

I disected my Inspiron 2500 a few days ago with plans on putting it in my car, however, I wanted to relocate the screen about 1 foot away from the computer, the Ribbon cable that connects the two isisnt nowhere near long enough, I have taken it to all the local places and they are clueless =) I was wondering if there is an adapter or an extention, or if this has to be a completely custom job, I would rather not cut into it as I am not a very good solderer, thanks for the help, BTW, im new to the forum, looks nice.

It can be done. There is no extension adapter for it, so you will have to do it yourself.
There are some good news:

1. The signal will not be useless like cdm said, it will work just fine, however, you will need to keep the backlight inverter board right next to the screen or the backlight won't work.

2. It has been done before. I have a setup with a laptop LCD. Although I did not have the ribbon - instead I had a bunch of wires. Nevertheless it works great. Click my signature to see. My cables are 3 feet long and the signal is perfect.

3. Your ribbon only has 9 wires in it - I had 45 in mine.

However - and this is the bad news - if your inverter board is not separate (is a part of the motherboard), extending the backlight wire will make the backlight very very weak, you will not see anything. If it's separate then just keep it close to the LCD.

Now, if your backlight is wired in the MB - you can get rid of it and make your own backlight by using a sheet of paper and two white neon lamps behind it. Those lamps cost around $5 each in Wallmart.

Good luck!

Yuriy · 06-13-2004, 06:40 AM

Good news!
This here proves that your inverter is separate and is a part of the LCD
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW
So now all you have to do is extend the ribbon..

cdm · 06-13-2004, 11:29 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Yuriy

It can be done. There is no extension adapter for it, so you will have to do it yourself.
There are some good news:

1. The signal will not be useless like cdm said, it will work just fine, however, you will need to keep the backlight inverter board right next to the screen or the backlight won't work.

2. It has been done before. I have a setup with a laptop LCD. Although I did not have the ribbon - instead I had a bunch of wires. Nevertheless it works great. Click my signature to see. My cables are 3 feet long and the signal is perfect.

3. Your ribbon only has 9 wires in it - I had 45 in mine.

However - and this is the bad news - if your inverter board is not separate (is a part of the motherboard), extending the backlight wire will make the backlight very very weak, you will not see anything. If it's separate then just keep it close to the LCD.

Now, if your backlight is wired in the MB - you can get rid of it and make your own backlight by using a sheet of paper and two white neon lamps behind it. Those lamps cost around $5 each in Wallmart.

Good luck!

Then please, attempt it and prove me wrong.

Yuriy · 06-13-2004, 11:31 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by cdm

Then please, attempt it and prove me wrong.

I already did, twice.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show-off-your-project/27807-2002-saturn-sl2-install.html

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=27853

eCar™ · 06-13-2004, 11:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Yuriy

3. Your ribbon only has 9 wires in it - I had 45 in mine.

I wonder if that's going to be the difference. Two different types of signals right? Can they both be extended to the same length?

I don't have any idea, I just thought I'd throw that out there.

cdm · 06-13-2004, 11:39 PM

Pretty impressive but no photos of the actual extension.

That would be interesting to see... with 45 wires.

Yuriy · 06-14-2004, 12:02 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by cdm

Pretty impressive but no photos of the actual extension.

That would be interesting to see... with 45 wires.

You just won't give up, will you?

Okay, you made me get up and take a picture of my LCD's back side:

Here you can see the extension cables before I hid them this morning:

And this is how the damn thing looks before extension:

I'm sorry, I lied about the 45 wires. There were actually 42 for the LCD cable and 5 more for the inverter cable, which makes it 47

Yuriy · 06-14-2004, 12:06 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by eCar™

I wonder if that's going to be the difference. Two different types of signals right? Can they both be extended to the same length?

I don't have any idea, I just thought I'd throw that out there.

Correct.
You can extend the LCD signal for as long as you want, but the backlight signal has to be done this way:

The way it works is the computer sends a signal to the inverter board, which then amplifies it and sends to a gas lamp which is the actuall backlight. The key is to keep the INVERTER<>BACKLIGHT cable as short as possible and then you can extend the COMPUTER<>INVERTER cables. Apparently the signal from the inverter gets weaker as the cable gets longer, but the signal from the computer to the inverter can be extended.

cdm · 06-14-2004, 10:43 AM

Quote:

You just won't give up, will you?

nope

But I was curious. Actually i might now try to do that with an old laptop of mine.