800X1280 narrowscreen??? - Page 14

turbocad6 · 02-01-2006, 02:00 PM

nah, still dimming with a rotary knob for now, after the touch is done & the lcd is gutted & the polarizers & deflectors are changed, if it's still functional I'll start to play with auto dimming

I really hope it lives through the next phase <\crosses_fingers>

<\crosses_fingers>

dmcdlrn · 02-02-2006, 12:04 AM

lol, ok, well I'll tell you what... by then I had better have the solution myself... I can help you for once.

Oh, but for now... I would atleast put a relay in that switches when you turn you dash lights on so that it dims at night...probably 6 bucks and 20 minutes... you don't even have to find power... just ground...

turbocad6 · 02-02-2006, 12:41 AM

I already built a resistor/relay setup.... I've just been avoiding takeing this all apart again because when I do I want to do everything & finish it, don't know how I'll live without it working at all for a whole week or so!!!....

I've been spending all my spare carputer time skinning & finishing off my roadrunner setup, I've ben doing some things custom for my screen setup & setting up iguidance & stuff... did I ever mention how nice it is to have this much screen real estate

dmcdlrn · 02-02-2006, 09:06 AM

Ya, it must be nice. I thought about modding the 14" on my laptop so that it could be in-dash, but in a 2 door standard doesn't offer a ton of space to put an elongated screen to which I am allready going to have to relocate my heater controls so that I can fit the 8.4 in there cause my last setup had a 7" wide.

Now I play the waiting game. I only have 16 of my 18 led's for now... and I don't have my new 8.4 yet, so I havn't bought the aluminum yet either because I want to size the screen up when I get it. I got the message that they sent my screen today... so as soon as I get that I will be getting back to this.... the waiting is killing me!!!

dmcdlrn · 02-02-2006, 08:57 PM

ok, so I got my photoresistors to test with. I found the proper resistance... then reality set in... they are backwards. Did you have a solution for reversing the effects of the photoresistor? More light = less resistance... less resistance = less light on the drivers. I have searched and not found anything to help create a circuit to reverse the effects of this... I thought I might try the12volt.com... but I'm not sure what to think.

turbocad6 · 02-02-2006, 11:38 PM

that's pretty funny..... I only got as far as buying an asortment of variable resistors & a few photo resistors..... there still in a radioshack bag somewhere.....

I'd have to do some research on that one... there has to be a solution, even if it involves a circuit that will give you steps instead of full true variable... I'm pretty sure that a circuit can be built for this easy enough....

another option is to actually have it computer controlled, which the more I think about it, the more this may not be too impractical.....

boris, what would it take to have a variable resistor(photocell) to be an input to a serial port, & have a variable resistance output to control this?

dmcdlrn · 02-03-2006, 12:11 AM

Haha, thats exactly what I did.. buy the photoresistor 5 pack at ratshack... I also picked up some voltage regulators and various parts to make a power supply to feed my liquid cooling system which wants a standard pc based molex.

I don't think that resistance output is what we are looking for though... remember that the function of the pot or resistor or photocell is to reduce the voltage on the control pin... meaning, you put 5k resistance... you feed it like 1 volt... you put no resistance you feed it 5 and it goes out... you feed it infinite then it is 0 volts and full bright.

That being said...0l33l , how hard do you think it would be to hook a say 0-5 volt reference varried by the photoresistor to the serial port or something and get an app to translate that data into a 0 - 5 volt output?

dmcdlrn · 02-03-2006, 06:40 PM

Ok, so I'm not super convinced that I want to get into the computer controlled dimming anyways, so I talked to the supplier and he said he had heard of it being done... but he didn't know so he was going to contact the manufacturer and ask their engineers to give us a solution... He said he would get back to me early next week.

Also got my new screen today! Very pleased.. its got a matte screen instead of the mirror screen that my 7" wide had... this should help with viewability as well. I also have gotten all my liquid cooling stuff orderd and they should be here shortly... I also located my aluminum and it will arrive shortly. I'm only waiting on my diming circuit and 3 more batwings to be available then I'll have all the stuff in place to attempt my solution.

turbocad6 · 02-04-2006, 01:03 AM

did you order the led's from the place I gave you the link to?, If so, your probably talking to zak, right?... I did speak to him a while ago about this & he told me that the manufacturer was working on a solution for this back then..... I never followed up....

oh, & I was using my carputer all day during the day today, & had it in the direct sunlight for a while, you'll have no problem with visability in a convertable with this, it's so bright it looks like paper in the direct sun... hard to explain, but much more than just readable, it looks good

dmcdlrn · 02-04-2006, 01:42 AM

Very good, I'm glad to hear this! I did buy from Ledsupply and Zak.

I have had a setback however.. my new screen is defective... I finally figured out that its the cable, but none the less its not functioning properly and I have to wait till I can get it replaced I guess.

augieman · 02-04-2006, 06:44 PM

turbocad6, how tough was it to separate the screen on the alpine head unit? Was it just one single ribbon cable? Are you using the same cable or did you extend the wires?

I'm in a dilemma right now trying to decide between basic head unit & carPC or just a super touch display based head unit. I've obtained a used factory head unit that I plan on gutting. I also have a great spot up on the dash for a touch screen to come out of.

Either I go with a separate basic head unit (alpine 9856?) and then have a carPC screen come up out of the dash or I could go with an alpine D310 and partially dismantle it. I mount the small D310 screen behind my factory radio display and I have the main alpine screen come out of the top of the dash.

thanks!

turbocad6 · 02-04-2006, 09:32 PM

you won't be able to easily move the screen that far... when you take the head unit apart it's a half din unit & an upper screen assy... take the screen assy apart & you can mount it above the half din base, but that's pretty much as far as you can go without extending the ribbons, which would be a real *****.. check my sig. for my install, I have a bunch of pictures of the head unit disasembled

there may be a possibility of extending the face from the half din main board, but the main board to the lcd ribbon is 10-11" approx...

If your head unit is up high & the top of the dash isn't far then maybe.... I have a cadillac that I drove before this truck, & I did what your talking about , but with an earlier style head.... cva-1003.... I still have it sitting in a lot, I can get pictures to show you how that worked out, if your stuff is close enough then it's do-able... that car was able to pop the screen out of the dash though, partially because the top section was recesed from the bezel that the head mounted to.... & there was just enough reach.... & even then it was tough, I had to have the screen pivot kinda like a trans am headlight for reach, assembling that is kinda tough to do.

If I had your choice of either/or, I'd go with a vga & a carpc for sure

turbocad6 · 02-15-2006, 01:03 PM

....O.K., so I go & decide I can't go without the touchscreen any longer.... it's sitting in my office paid for & collecting dust... the biggest holdup is that I want to take the whole screen apart when I do it, so I decided to forget that at the moment & just get the touchscreen in....

all it took was a few hours... some chopping & grinding of the dash & bezel to acomdate this, as it's really a 15" touch overlay... a 12.1" widescreen touch overlay is not available in capacitive anywhere, so this turned out to be my best option.... calibration will make this work perfect, which it does btw

so I remove the alpine head unit & the screen to cut the dash, then re-install it as I reassemble.... nothing that I haven't done many times before, except all of a sudden my alpine screen don't work!!

just a white screen.... this sucks.... don't know wtf happened.... I think I found another d300 on ebay... supposed to meet the guy to pick it up if he ever e-mails me his info.... this is like getting a whole bunch of parking tickets at the same time..... total waste of cash..

anyway.... this is how the glass touch panel fits....

turbocad6 · 02-15-2006, 01:09 PM

sorry for the chopped photos... I'll fix them later.....

the touchscreen works great..... & it doesn't affect the viewability of the screen one bit really.... if anything I think it might actually be a little better as it has some kind of anti-glare coating with a polorized layer.... it looks awsome in direct sunlight... I'm very happy with it..., now if I can just get a new alpine to chop up I'd be set

dmcdlrn · 02-21-2006, 05:07 PM

excellent, glad to hear that worked out well! Looks great in the light too... can't wait for mine... I recognize that little blue pot hanging out... must be the dimmer

too bad on the alpine however... that kinda crap really sucks and makes me angry when it goes down.

Oh, and holy cow man, don't tell me those marlboros are from today alone!