Mac Portable Mods?

[techknight]

the 5126 has a very different LCD. it was intentionally designed to have a backlight assembly. 

The 5120 LCDs do not. Thats why I went with the EL sheet, as its the only thing thin enough to fit in there... 

Now I know they make special plastic that is etched to allow even light distribution with edge-lit LED arrays, but I just dont think there is enough room for that to work. 

You would have far far better luck converting the portable 5126 LCD over from CCFL to LED rather than non backlit to LED. 

Now, there is another option. Front-lit LED. Remember the Gameboy advance SP? and the like? they were NOT backlit. they were frontlit with some type of special optics to make it appear as if they were backlit. 

 

[just.in.time]

That would be a really cool solution, the GameBoy Advanced SP method I mean.  And gentle on battery life.  Ha, I guess I should get my Portable running before thinking about lighting up the display

 

[aplmak]

I gotcha Techknight... I've got spare 5126 displays and just need the rest of the backlight kit... the ROM socket board and cables... But I know your trying to develop a solution for existing 5120 owners...

Plus besides me everyone needs those damn regular torn 5126 display cables....

 

[techknight]

I wish I had some 5126 displays, I want one to retrofit as LED, and make a new control card for it.

as far as the torn cables, that should be relatively easy to replace. Problem is who runs FFC PCB services that would be affordable at low volume?

I can design the gerber PCB/Schematic layout for replacement cables. But I dont have the time or financial backing to get the replacements produced. 

Plus, someone has to unsolder the connector from the old cable and solder it on the new one as I think its proprietary, but I dont know. 

I do want a solution though on that. 

I have learned enough information to create a cross-cable. I have a slightly defective 5120 LCD panel around here that I use for testing boards, and I was going to make a 5126 to 5120 LCD adapter cable so I can test those boards without ripping my 5126 apart. I have only 1 5126, and 0 spare parts

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I'd love to see a Mac Portable Video Out adapter/mod. Would be great for actual presentations.

OR an ethernet card... I know the Portable's PDS is wired differently, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to create one of those cards.

 

[tjjq44]

Even if it seems technically possible to have an ethernet card on the PDS slot, It might be quite hard to design one since it never existed! Another approach should be to use the modem port, even if it may be harder or impossible, i'd be very nice as it'd leave the PDS free sor something else as Ram upgrade for example...

For external video, maybe the pinout of the video port is available somewhere, and if it is, it would be not so hard to make an adapter

 

[BadGoldEagle]

For external video, maybe the pinout of the video port is available somewhere, and if it is, it would be not so hard to make an adapter

The problem is that the video signal is all messed up. It wasn't standardised. Apple was going to introduce an adapter, but never released it.

Maybe if we find the original documentation, this could happen.

 

[techknight]

the video port is identical to the signals going to the LCD, its a flat panel output port. 

 

[BadGoldEagle]

But we can't use that port as is, right?

 

[techknight]

not without an FPGA that decodes the signal into a framebuffer to be used as something else.