Green screen on Lilliput TM-701L

kandyman676 · 08-10-2004, 11:57 PM

I have had my in dash LCD in my car for 3 months, and 2 days. At first it was fine, then would all of sudden a day or so ago make everything green and blurry on the screen while it was on for a while. Thought it was nothing or my old laptop acting as the car pc, and touched the case, and fixed right out. To give you an idea:

Welll, today when leaving for work, i fire up the car computer and screen, and its completely a lime green. You can still read the VGA INPUT in the top corner, and it syncs like usual and shows the usual boot and desktop computer screen, but all with a heavy lime green tint over the whole screen with the graphics all screwed up.

I am using an old laptop to power my pc, so i figured the laptop or lack of power. Disconnected the LCD from the docking station of the laptop, powered on and off, and still green. Hooked into my newer laptop, and still the same problem. Try disconnecting the power, and make it directly into the cigerette light, and still the same problem (currently use a y splitter for the LCD and DC to DC converter for the laptop & dock). Also yanked up the dash, made sure there was enough cord, and no problem.

These leaves me to the LCD itself, so what should I be looking for?

There are no returns on this one; it was a custom job in-dash folding that I bought of Ebay.

DjBac · 08-11-2004, 05:53 AM

I had the same problem!!! But it was a faulty card!! It had 2 vga outputs (asus FX 5900)... When i connected a screen on the DVI output everything was greeny!!!

kandyman676 · 08-11-2004, 10:06 PM

*nods* i first thought the laptop cause it was so old. but it does green also when nothing is pluged into the VGA port. i'm stumped.

GWRedDragon · 08-12-2004, 12:33 AM

Well, if I didn't know better I'd say you have a bent pin on the end of your VGA connector. Quite easy for that or a loose connector to cause the screen to lose some colors but not others. I had a monitor for awhile that was pink all the time, and the problem was that one of the contacts at the end of the VGA cable where it went into the monitor had become desoldered. Personally I'd (carefully) pop open the Lilliput and check the points where the input wires are soldered onto the circuit board. If that's the problem it should be relatively obvious.

rando · 08-12-2004, 01:10 AM

Check the connectors/cables to your housing with a meter. Most likely one of them has a broken wire or loose connection. When the screens are retrofitted to the in-dash housings, the cables probably should be upgraded to something a bit more durable and designed to handle repetative tight bending. Search the forums, I think several people have had similar experiences with the in-dash conversions.

darkhalo · 08-12-2004, 01:31 AM

do you get the same result with the composite inputs?
After trying the composite input, i would check all cable connections and finally open the screen to check solderpoints, and ribon cable.

kandyman676 · 08-29-2004, 01:31 PM

I've gone and resodered some of the points since they looked a bit loose. still got the damn evil green screen. it basically goes the regular lilliput cable (VGA plug and USB), then to what looks like an S-video plug, then hacked into a two 5 wire ribbon cable (one video, one touchscreen), then sodered straight onto the backboard. below are the pics

what is wierd to me is that two of the wires on the 5 ribbon on the VGA share the same connection on the lilliput cable, and then are resodered to the same point on the board.

how do I check this thing with a meter? never used one before. maybe its the VGA plug itself?

GWRedDragon · 08-29-2004, 01:45 PM

Yeah, check the continuity of all the pins from one side of the cable to the other. If you have a meter all you have to do is switch it to "Cont" mode and it should beep or something when the two probes are connected.

kandyman676 · 08-29-2004, 02:02 PM

I have ruled out the VGA cable itself. i just unplugged it from the unit and fired it up to see what would happen. and still getting the green startup screen. that would of been too easy to fix. lol.

when i removed it from the car yesterday, it was fine with no green screen. so i let it sit on playing a movie to see if i could reproduce the result. it did with a green screen about 15 minutes later without even touching the unit while I played some Xbox on another TV.

maybe i should just replace all the ribbons and resoder it all? :-( i rather avoid that if possible.

samc · 08-30-2004, 10:15 AM

It might just be a soldier where the VGA cable connector is well soldiered. I know they use weak *** 5th graders to do the assembling. I had a similar problem with the touch loosing connection and I just beefed it up. I doubt its the ribbon cable, I mean its hard to mess up when your not touchingi t.

RS3RS · 08-31-2004, 02:30 AM

Hmm, I have a pink lilliput screen at the moment. However, I was playing with the ribon cables last night, so one of them might be loose... I've reconnected then like 5 times though with the same problem

MatrixPC · 08-31-2004, 11:39 AM

Most of the color problem with the Lilli is the cheap a$$ DIN connector and it is also the sources of most problem.
If TS doesn't work, twist the DIN connector, TS works, but VGA color fu<k up and the problem goes repeat to the point that you fu<k up the DIN connector or fried the TS controller.

You may try to replace the (9 pins) DIN connector with a serial connector.

kandyman676 · 08-31-2004, 06:54 PM

I am thinking of just replacing the ribbon and DIN connector with some snagless cat5e. would reduce the number of connections and soder points from the LCD controller to the VGA and USB connections.

I rather be dealing with a green screen then a pink one:-P heh.

Just to make sure it was not the touchscreen, i actually disconnected it from the touchscreen controller. Screen is *much* brighter now. I use a hand held trackball more anyway.

Appreciate everyone's help! I'll update if this works out or not.

kandyman676 · 09-07-2004, 01:34 AM

ok, VERY odd..it was the damn DIN plug. I wiggled it, and it went right back to being normal. GRR. tore the whole LCD apart to figure out what it was.

only thing i can really do is replace it with a serial plug end on both DINs.

choyak · 09-07-2004, 02:06 AM

Yeah, that damned DIN plug is like that, on mine the image will just get real dim until I jiggle it again, and then it will be fine until I need to unplug/replug it. I probably will remove and replace with something more robust, but I saw on another post that the wire colors do not match up.