Motorized LCD display?

messer · 09-27-2001, 01:55 AM

I've been really wanting to do a custom, motorized LCD display unit, sort of like the ones you can buy from eclipse, panasonic, pioneer, kenwood, etc etc. Only half the cost.

Anyway, I saw how Sproggy did his with the servo, but that only flips it, anyone have ideas or links to a track-type system for making the lcd extend out, THEN flip up? I've come up with a few ideas where I'd have to manually pull the lcd out of hte enclosure, but it'd be nice to have it do it automatically with ignition on/off or carpc on/off.

Thanks for any feedback/thoughts/etc

Messer
(replicant on efnet)

az1324 · 09-27-2001, 03:20 AM

See if you can do it for cheaper than this:

Yes. It is completely motorized!

That may be my next purchase.

marsjell · 09-27-2001, 03:21 AM

hi messer,

Me tinx tis is tjeaper:

I've been working on that too, but I decided to make it flip-up (kinda) since my TFT is a bit large (12,1) and would crush my passenger. but I DO have an Idea that works.. uhm maybe it's best to draw a pic:

in the pic there are 3 bars :
1) has a sliding joint, so that it slides out of the case.
2) is the bar where the screen is attached to
3) is a bar

The big round thing is a steppermotor, with a bicycle-chain attached, this pushes bar3 out. Bar3 is just there so to keep the other bars don't fall down.
The blue bars are there to prevent bar1 from sliding down, and to prevent it from tilting to far.
By adjusting the rotation of the steppermotor you can correct the angle of the TFT, when there is a lot of sun or something

I suggest to make something like this from wood first, so that (1) you can see that it actually works and (2) do some fine tuning.
The round holes in bar 2 shouldn't be in the middle of the bar, the should be forming a diagonal line, this makes the contraption more eager to flip up. If you don't nothing will flip up, and stuff might get broken.

The steppermotor can be ripped out of an old 5 1/4" diskdrive, search the web and you will find a lot of sites describing how to interface a steppermotor.If you don't find any sites, mail me (marcel@noduck.nl) I have a lot of stuff like this.

hope this helps...

[ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: marsjell ]

cenwesi · 09-27-2001, 06:09 AM

i have been thinking about this also....post some pics...i actually have about 5-8 servo motor at home + this nice nittle scsi thingin that i also bought to control servo....

messer · 09-28-2001, 01:10 PM

Yes! Please send more pics.. I looked into those stepper motors marsjell, and wow, they are quite the powerful lil things aren't they? Anyway, I don't quite know who i can implement them into the small space I have allotted for this project. Which is approx 6"w x 1"h x 8"d, i guess I could use the large depth to cram all that in there. Of course, if worse comes to worse, I can just get a 20x2 character display

Which is better than nothin. Besides I just wanna get the massive amounts of tunes in my car!!

Take care,

Messer
aka replicant on efnet

UNIQUE-CAR · 09-28-2001, 07:27 PM

why not use a CD-Rom thing?......but your screen is lil big for this way......but it cold be done....the tray PopOut...and the a servor would PopUp.......i had this crazy idea of making it look like the ones on the Volvo S60.....they come out of a hole in the dash......all u need for that is a cd-rom...but it has to be a small screen like under 6

Cyberphox · 09-29-2001, 09:50 AM

I've been wanting to do something like this with my 6.8" TFT for months...Someone build this!!!

az1324 · 09-30-2001, 03:33 PM

I built something that does this a while back. It worked, but it wasn't reliable enough. If you are trying to fit it all in a single DIN slot like I was, it is a chore. The CD-Rom thing won't ever fit in there along with an lcd.

What I did was use a worm drive with a motor and gearbox. I used limit switches to control the motion and sliding rails to hold up the monitor. It worked ok for a while but then it fell apart due to the makeshift construction. I wish I could have gotten custom parts milled.

Anyway, I am interested to see what you guys do with the project, but I think I am still going to sell my LCD and buy the one linked above.

Spiritual Machine · 09-30-2001, 11:18 PM

I just tore apart an old 2x CDROM I had in a drawer so that all that's left is the tray, rails, motor and gears for the movement. If you apply a current to the wires leading to the motor (I used a 9-volt battery), it moves in or out depending on the current flow. There is a gap of 1x3x5 below the tray that could be used for the storage of some components.
Now, since I plan to make a custom dash holder, height isn't a problem. If I could get to LCD to spring up and fold down for security, I'd save some other design problems dealing with an always exposed LCD.
Any other ideas are welcome.

My great concept art:

|--------|
| =======|
|________|

\
\
|--------| / \
| ___/___\
|________

Spiritual Machine · 09-30-2001, 11:22 PM

Well, that got kinda hacked apart.

|--------|
| =======|
|________|

spaceherespaceh\
spaceherespacehe\
|--------|space/e\
|spacehere____/___\
|________

messer · 10-01-2001, 02:57 PM

I see what you're saying, do you have a pic of where the battery needs to attach? I have an old 2x torn apart as well. For me height is an issue but depth is not. I have a new idea that is nto as stealth and does not involve motorized anything, so for simplicity sake, I'll most likely go with it. Unfortunately, its car specific, same with the motorized display. What a shame that its so hard to build something so cool.

Oh and as far as making it flip up, if you can find some specialty springs that are "coiled" to the flip up position you could put them in with the hinge and voila!

Good luck,

Messer
aka replicant on efnet

jssaggie · 10-02-2001, 01:42 AM

Just had a few thoughts... this wouldn't be hard to do. I can get aluminum cut to the 32th of an inch from a computerized router table. If we could get someone to design it in auto cad I could have the aluminum cut. The case to put it in would be the easy part. Not to dog marsjell's idea, but wouldn't all of the bars on the top of the screen make it not look as professional. Let me know what yall think about what I drew. It is not that pretty but it is an idea. Any engineers out there????

My website is on its way!!!

[ 10-02-2001: Message edited by: jssaggie ]

Spiritual Machine · 10-02-2001, 10:31 PM

That's basically my plan. If I have one button for the tray to go in and one to go out, the ripped apart cdrom drive should work as it already has the motor, track and connections made.

Yalan · 10-09-2001, 12:20 PM

ive been building the sproggy servo controller and have been having problems.

I may be a little crap with electronics, but the circuit was taken from the pdf's, components sourced exactly to spec and the boys at uni helped me program the pic.

yet still, no servo outputs and the led's light up in slightly the wrong order (yet more or less right sequence - implying to me that its not completely dead)

Any suggestions people?

replies would be much appreciated!

crazyshaxs · 10-09-2001, 06:40 PM

I was thinking that if someone could get this idea working, I would buy one. So heres my idea:

there are what, 1800+ members to this board? Lets pick one very smart electronic guy, setup a paypal fund, and who ever can send 2-3 buxs to fund the "research" for creating this should send to it. I mean, if we get 100 people to fund 1-2, that should be enough to research and buy the stuff needed.

I would be willing to part with a few buxs to help this community out! C'mon, lets really get the ball rolling!

[ 10-09-2001: Message edited by: crazyshaxs ]