AEChadwick
Well-known member
I have a crush on my PowerBook 550c and I work hard to make it happy. The screen has been unacceptably dim as the 30-year-old CCFL continues its long slide into obscurity; and i wanted the 550c to have something nice for christmas. (i hope i'm not boring with my repeated CCFL-to-LED posts, i just really want this stuff documented and available to anyone that searches.)
The 550c Inverter Board is Apple Part 820-0569-A, the same as the PowerBook 190 and the PowerBook 5300—so, this mod should work for all three models.
(I only discovered that overlap when I took photos of my 550’s LCD for @3lectr1cPPC; prior to that i had abandoned hope of this mod, assuming the 550c Inverter Board would be as rare as every other part of the machine. Upon discovering the mundanity, I searched ebay for "powerbook 190 inverter board," and found one for $20. sweet freedom.)
This mod was made stupid-easy because the inverter board uses an off-the-shelf CCFL IC... the LT1184FCS. That let me quickly map the pinout of the connector. I’m an idiot, but i know how to use a multimeter. Further, I was able to find the relevant test-pad of each connector, making wiring alarmingly simple and tidy. The 550c passes 16v to the inverter board, which necessitated a converter to 9v (i don't know why, i thought the LED controller board would convert voltage, but i released a lot of blue smoke on the way to the prior solution). (Maybe the 5300 does NOT need the voltage converter...? TBD.)
I keep using the same LED controller board for easy baseline consistency.
Like the previous powerbook 500-series mod, i removed redundant components and mounted the LED controller board in the space.
Unlike the previous 500-series mod, this inverter board requires the PWM-inverted version of the LED controller board.
Taking Apart the Sharp LQ10D32A to get to the backlight was fraught... you're on your own for that, no pictures, be careful. I couldn't fully dismantle it, i just pulled bits up to get out what i needed. The CCFL is in a dedicated little holder; i made a shim to hold the LED strip in place.
With all that stuffed together—voltage converter, LED controller, LED in shim, and wires routed—the screen looks fantastic. Don’t hate me because i have a 550c, just celebrate the potential mod to the 5300 and 190.
Merry Christmas, compatriots.
The 550c Inverter Board is Apple Part 820-0569-A, the same as the PowerBook 190 and the PowerBook 5300—so, this mod should work for all three models.
(I only discovered that overlap when I took photos of my 550’s LCD for @3lectr1cPPC; prior to that i had abandoned hope of this mod, assuming the 550c Inverter Board would be as rare as every other part of the machine. Upon discovering the mundanity, I searched ebay for "powerbook 190 inverter board," and found one for $20. sweet freedom.)
This mod was made stupid-easy because the inverter board uses an off-the-shelf CCFL IC... the LT1184FCS. That let me quickly map the pinout of the connector. I’m an idiot, but i know how to use a multimeter. Further, I was able to find the relevant test-pad of each connector, making wiring alarmingly simple and tidy. The 550c passes 16v to the inverter board, which necessitated a converter to 9v (i don't know why, i thought the LED controller board would convert voltage, but i released a lot of blue smoke on the way to the prior solution). (Maybe the 5300 does NOT need the voltage converter...? TBD.)
I keep using the same LED controller board for easy baseline consistency.
Like the previous powerbook 500-series mod, i removed redundant components and mounted the LED controller board in the space.
Unlike the previous 500-series mod, this inverter board requires the PWM-inverted version of the LED controller board.
Taking Apart the Sharp LQ10D32A to get to the backlight was fraught... you're on your own for that, no pictures, be careful. I couldn't fully dismantle it, i just pulled bits up to get out what i needed. The CCFL is in a dedicated little holder; i made a shim to hold the LED strip in place.
With all that stuffed together—voltage converter, LED controller, LED in shim, and wires routed—the screen looks fantastic. Don’t hate me because i have a 550c, just celebrate the potential mod to the 5300 and 190.
Merry Christmas, compatriots.
