Holy Grail? Cheap LCD controller boards

[Bunsen]

Whilst cruising ebay for LCDs for Taco CCs and other hacks, I found a seller offering cheap controller boards to drive bare LCD panels from a range of inputs - VGA, DVI, HDMI, s-video and composite video, depending on model and price. They claim to be able to drive any LCD as long as you have the specs/data for the panel, and even offer programmable boards - ranging from boards with DIP switches/jumpers for a preset range of panels, to fully end-user programmable boards, and programming devices to suit.

njytouch

Example boards:

$25 DVI/VGA

$70 full-featured kit with remote

$56 programmer

NB: this is not an endorsement. I haven't purchased from this seller or tried any of these boards.

 

[MacJunky]

Is there a non-ebay source for cheap LVDS controller boards? You see them on ebay for cheap, and around elsewhere but waay more expensive.

What gives?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

People prolly' buy em' & can't noodle out how to get 'em to work, so they ePay 'em to get back part of their initial cost. :?:

If it's a new Chinese part, that appears to be under-priced, they're more than likely contract production over-runs bought up and being liquidated by individuals to get around any contractual violations or "dumping" allegations for the OEM.

 

[Gorgonops]

People prolly' buy em' & can't noodle out how to get 'em to work, so they ePay 'em to get back part of their initial cost. :?:

Actually these ship from China... apparently via a *very slow* boat unless you pay oodles extra. They're undoubtedly being sold either by the OEM manufacturer themselves or via a gray market reseller that gets them "off the back of a truck".

On one hand it would be "interesting" to play with these and try to get one of the old LCDs out of the scrap heap working as a stand-alone monitor. (I have a really beautiful 10.1" 1280x768 one saved from an otherwise horrible Crusoe-based laptop.) But on the other, well... getting it "right" is probably something of a trick, what with having to purchase the correct cables/inverters/whatever, and by the time you've bought all the bits it's not going to be cheap. And of course if you break anything in the process (or likely, if the board you buy doesn't work at all) your only warranty is you're allowed to keep both pieces.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, I just edited my post (while you were posting) after checking out the $25 offering.

Which 'Book had the first LVDS compatible LCD? :?:

 

[techknight]

ive got so many LVDS displays its not even funny. I have a tote full of laptop screens ive pulled from scrap laptops. Something like this would be neat.

Ive got cute looking 6.4" 640x480 12bit LCD display as well, but its a parallel display so it wont work. would have to put an LVDS receiver on the end of it.

 

[Bunsen]

I've got cute looking 6.4" 640x480 12bit LCD display as well, but its a parallel display

TTL? They claim they have boards for that too. Contact them with your specs and see what they say.

 

[techknight]

ya its a sharp TTL type display. it came from an SGI 2400 Onyx rack server i ripped apart.