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Sweeeet... now what the hell do I do with it?

Started by ApochPiQ May 30, 2005 at 12:26 AM 15 replies 3.7k views

Original Post

May 30, 2005 at 12:26 AM

I recently acquired a Sharp 4LU4EB LCD panel. It's basically as cool as all get out and was definitely worth the pittance I paid for it. Now, the question is, what do I do with it? I have no idea what to use it for (and, naturally, my geekness demands that I do in fact use it for something) and even if I knew what to do with it I wouldn't know how to go about actually doing it. I assume I'd need some kind of controller PIC to actually send signal data to it... y'know, so it'll actually display stuff. However, my ~~ten minutes on Google~~ extensive research hasn't provided any clues as to how to rig up such a controller or where to get the parts for it. It also doesn't solve the problem of what to use the thing for in the first place. So, for lack of sanity, I turn to the ever-resourceful lounge community to give me some advice and direction on my noble quest. At the very least it should be good for a couple of laughs.

Chokki

May 30, 2005 at 12:28 AM

um, picture? i have no idea what the hell you're talking about, but i'm sure i'm the only one :P

ApochPiQ

May 30, 2005 at 12:33 AM

Toolmaker

May 30, 2005 at 1:06 AM

Rub your penis against it?

lethalhamster

May 30, 2005 at 1:29 AM

Quote:
Original post by Toolmaker
Rub your penis against it?

I thought thats what kittens were for?

Conner McCloud

May 30, 2005 at 1:30 AM

Do you have a datasheet for it? My ~~ten minutes on Google~~ extensive research only turned up a shitty scan which is completely unreadable. It looks like it accepts a straight NTSC video signal, which is kind of a bummer. A serial interface would be a billion times easier to work with.

If it does just take a straight video signal, one thought that comes immediately to mind is to just hook it up to one of those little mini "spy cams." You shouldn't need any real controller that way, which would simplify things. I'll leave the posible uses for such a system to your imagination.

CM

ApochPiQ

May 30, 2005 at 2:04 AM

The same datasheet was all I could find. I got it from a second-hand parts dealer site (don't recall exactly where at the moment) so it doesn't have any specs or anything with it. There's what appears to be a 28-pin input port on the back side of it, but I have no idea what kind of signal to put across it (aside from the vague mention of NTSC which you also found). I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to get an NTSC signal into a 28-pin format, especially since I have no real specs on the pin arrangement or anything like that.

I've seen mentions of the part used in GPS systems and other such devices so I'm sure there's a way to twist it to suit my own purposes...

Conner McCloud

May 30, 2005 at 2:13 AM

Quote:
Original post by ApochPiQ
The same datasheet was all I could find. I got it from a second-hand parts dealer site (don't recall exactly where at the moment) so it doesn't have any specs or anything with it. There's what appears to be a 28-pin input port on the back side of it, but I have no idea what kind of signal to put across it (aside from the vague mention of NTSC which you also found). I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to get an NTSC signal into a 28-pin format, especially since I have no real specs on the pin arrangement or anything like that.

I've seen mentions of the part used in GPS systems and other such devices so I'm sure there's a way to twist it to suit my own purposes...

Bummer. Then your guess is as good as mine. If nobody else has any better ideas, you may try researching other LCD screens. Perhaps you'll find one that has a similar interface, and you can work from there.

CM

doogle

May 30, 2005 at 3:27 AM

Quote:
Original post by lethalhamster
Quote:
Original post by Toolmaker
Rub your penis against it?

I thought thats what kittens were for?

Hahahaha. D'oh.

Ainokea

May 30, 2005 at 3:46 AM

WWDD? (What would doogle do?)

Punch it in it's face(display)! Unless of course you find something cool to do with it.

Promit

May 30, 2005 at 9:35 AM

I think the most ideal thing to do would be to grab a NanoITX board, hook it up to the monitor, put the entire thing in a display box with a window that you can hang on the wall, and write a program to do a full screen slideshow...in other words, create an electronic picture thing.

That's what we did with the semi broken and very old mac laptop my friend got, at least. NanoITX isn't actually available yet, so you'll need to find something which doesn't really need cooling if you're going to do this.

Xiachunyi

May 30, 2005 at 9:39 AM

Maybe these people will have information about interfacing it.

boolean

May 30, 2005 at 9:45 AM

Quote:
Original post by Ainokea
WWDD? (What would doogle do?)

Punch it in it's face(display)!

TEH WINNAR IS YUO!!!!!!

ScootA

May 30, 2005 at 11:27 AM

Take the back off (and the backlight), acquire one of those overhead projectors (like you had in school), attach your LCD over the light and bingo, you have yourself an LCD projector to watch 10-foot high porn on :)

ApochPiQ

May 30, 2005 at 2:12 PM

Actually, I've already got an LCD projector - full screen is 84 inches (exactly 7 foot) at the moment since that's all I can fit on the wall in my apartment. It's teh pwnment.

Anyways, I guess I'll keep looking for good info on this thing. Thanks for the suggestions... well, some of them.

kwijibo

May 30, 2005 at 2:32 PM

That lcd would be freakin' sweet if you ever decide to portable-ise a games console. How much did you pay for it?

ApochPiQ

May 30, 2005 at 3:35 PM

$20 US. It's not that sweet - it's just a black and white display as near as I can tell. Still, it's a cold-cathode backlit LCD, and that's pretty damn cool.

The best thing I can think of to do with it is build myself a really, really simple little console and maybe code up a couple games for it... but that's going to require being able to get a signal to the display first.

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