CF-28 LCD screen questions

Pardon me if this is a newbie question....I have searched.

I'm a new owner of a 1Ghz CF-28. The LCD panel is 1024x768.

Now, I had read that the Toughbooks have a transreflective LCD that can be seen in full sunlight, but mine is very difficult to see during the day.

Are there different LCD panels? What do I need to do to find the proper one? Could my inverter be going out?

I'm using this outdoors, so it matters.

Thanks!

 

The standard touchscreen on the 28's I do believe are either 400 or 500 nits (I know the 29 is 500, & the 30 TS model is 1000)... nits is a measure of brightness.... Now I have seen hundreds of older 28's come by in my day and I've seen the screen on lots of them be very very dull just from old age. but other than that their is a 12" model and a 13" model... also touch and non-touch models. as far as the inverter is concerned if it seems to take FOREVER to brighten up but then it adventually does it MIGHT be an inverter, which is an easy fix, if it isn't an inverter than it would most def be the backlite, which is a pain in the ass to replace.

 

I'll post the full model number of my laptop tonight. I was never able to make the Panasonic site work to look it up. It has the touchscreen option, though right now I don't have the drivers loaded...I just replaced the HDD and I was not very thrilled with the touchscreen anyway (had to press it to the point that the LCD deformed).

The brightness does not vary as it runs, it's always the same. It's fine unless I am outside...say in the sunlight of the Great Basin deserts, where I was this weekend.

Is it possible that I just don't have a transreflective LCD? If so, is it possible to install one?

I don't know what the difference is, but I would assume from the name that a transreflective LCD would/could work with sunlight passing through the LCD panel and reflecting off the back of the display. I would imagine there would be greatly reduced contrast on such a display; I've seen color handheld GPS units that seem to work like this.

My panel looks like a standard LCD.

 

You have a 1024x768 panel its a 13.3" screen
The transflective is a 800x600 12" screen

I have had both,

With the 12" you can turn the backlight off in bright sunlight as the screen reflects the light back to you. It was designed for outdoor use, but the screen is shinny and reflects a lot of light . (like a palm pilot)

I prefer the 13" screen as its not as reflective
The non-touchcreen models I have found are a bit brighter as they do not have the touchcreen plate sandwiched at the front of the lcd.
Also the scratch sheet on the panel can mark up after time.
(Its replaceable)

As Rob say’s the newer models do have brighter screens.

Alex

 

The 13.3" screen is a transmissive screen meaning it is entirely dependent on the backlight to be seen. Once the ambient light exceeds the backlight power then you will not see anything on the screen. The 12.1" screen is a transflective screen and is a cross between a transmissive and a reflective screen. Indoors it uses the backlight like any other screen but when outdoors in direct sunlight a sensor turns off the backlight and then it becomes a reflective screen. This allows the sunlight to act as the backligt so that it can be seen in direct sunlight. This technology is a compromise between the transmissive screen which has vivid colors and a reflective screen which displays duller colors. The result is a screen that has a slow refresh rate and colors appear washed out. But it is the only one that can truly work in direct sunlight.

 

One other thing is that that was the best technology that was available back then... today instead of using the sun as a backlight Panasonic has developed screens to attempt to overpower the suns brightness (which in my opinion, at this point is impossible)... the 12" screen appears to be like my blackberry at work where the backlight isn't on unless you push a button to turn it on, and it's very very dull.

 

Rob,
If you want bright.
I work with marine displays everyday.
The brightest display is a marine 15” lcd custom panel made by Nauticomp
This 15 “ lcd has 1600 nits brightness and costs over $8,000
The yacht that I the skipper on has 2 of these outdoors on the flybridge and 2 18” + 2 12” 1000nit’s displays indoors in the wheelhouse.
There is so much heat produced by the backlights and power used it will probably be a few year’s before we see 1600 nit screens on a thoughbook.
Maybe the cf-31

Alex

 

Well then!!

 

You sacrifice size when moving to the 12" transflective screen good for outside. With the 800X600 screen size you will need to use the sliders to read the entire screen. Something I hate to do. The 13" screens on the CF-28 are almost impossible to read outside. The CF-29 & CF-30 pretty much fix this issue. The screens are MUCH brighter!

So... To read the screen outside you will need to find a 12" touchscreen and swap them over. IT is not hard to do... Just make sure that you get the same model (CF-28, 800Mhz or 1Ghz) screen when you flip them. The screens from the 600Mhz will work but you must use the complete top in the swap as the 600Mhz doesn't have the "ears" on the side of the screen.

 

I have both 12" and 13" display machines, and the performance of the 12" machines in bright sunlight isn't all that impressive - particularly compared with the Marine displays now available. It seems to me that when the backlight is turned off by bright sunlight that the display needs a good old fashioned "contrast" control - like on a palm pilot.

Does anyone know if there are any special Panasonic adjustment programs that fiddled with the contrast on the 12" screens? It is hard to believe that the peformance I have observed on my 12" machines in daylight would have been considered acceptable by the organizations who purchased these machines new for big $$$ a few years ago. Perhaps we are all missing some piece of information or adjustment protocol that would improve the 12" display performance in daylight.

 

Like I said earlier that was high tech/top of the line back then... I don't think we're missing info because by todays standard (especially with the MODERN DAY marine displays and the CF-30) they are so much better.... compare a CF-28 to an IBM T20... those are of the same time era and i gaurantee that the CF-28 will be much better

 

I wonder what a brand new 12" transflective screen looked like. I can't help but wonder if the long hours of use and prolonged exposure to the sun has caused our screens to perform less than originally designed.

It is very easy to tell which keyboards were left out in the sun, is it not plausable that the plastics in the screen bezel could be degraded by UV radiation too?

 

couldn't have said it any better...

 

The model on my toughbook is CF-28SWPGAKM.

Thanks for the information, everyone. I guess I should have purchased the CF-29 instead, though this is still a nice machine.

I'll look for a 12-inch model. It will be hard, though, because most sellers on ebay don't seem to have that much information. I just put several hundred dollars into buying this one, fixing it up, etc....so I can't afford to junk it.

I did pull the scratched screen protector off (before my recent trip) and it helped a lot, but I still had to pull over and cup my hand over the display to read it.

 

Well, tried to find the most recent LCD thread to ask this question in (although this one is still almost 6 months old).

I have a CF-28M in the patrol vehicle, and work at night. When I run the backlight down to the lowest setting (Fn+F1), it's still fairly bright, and illuminates the entire interior of the vehicle.

How can I make the screen darker? I've seen lots of threads on making it brighter-and don't need that (well, not at night). But greater span of control at the bottom end would be great. Even if restarting and going into the BIOS once it gets dark was required, that's no big deal.

 

Do you have the 13.3 inch or the 12.1 inch screen?


Alex

 

13.3" screen

 

What we do for marine use is put a smoked or tinted plexiglass sheet over the display, secured with velcro, or fabricated with tabs to secure in place
Then black tape over the power and hard drive activity leds

The lastest cf-30 has a lcd brightness spec of 9 to 1,000 nit LCD brightness
and also has included a “concealed mode” which allows users to easily turn all device lights off – screen and LEDs – using a function (Fn) key




Alex

 

I agree with Tomcat... even a simple anti-glare screen might do the trick. The range of the 28 is not as good as the 30 on both ends, so unless you add aftermarket solutions, you won't get any brighter/darker than what you have.

 

Thanks guys. I'll take a look at it.

 

Too bad your software doesn't have a night mode display setting like most navigation programs do. If its police car software it should!
CAP

 

Right now it's not a true MDC, so no CAD software running (part of running a computer in the car is proof of concept). I have off-line software to run license plates, but it wasn't written with nighttime use in mind. Navigation stuff all has nighttime settings, and I use that. But even the menu bars and some windows still create a lot of bright light.

 

Here is a few more tips for night time use that I use for marine use


*Hide the taskbar

*Access the Display properties menu
Under the Appearance Tab
Change Windows and buttons to "Windows Classic style"
And change the Color scheme to " Marine (high color)"

That will tone down the background brightness




Alex

 

Thanks for the tips. That makes a big difference.

 

I would think you could be able to write a batch file and put it on your desktop so you can click on it and change screen settings with just a click. You could write several so that you could change at a whim...

 

Alex, will the reduce brightness extend battery usage or is it just a background? Thanks.
Ron in SG

 

Ron

Its just the background ,so no increase in battery life


Alex

 

Any suggestions???

I have a CF-29E3KGBKM. I found a Sony Ericsson EE52, and was wondering if that could be used in my CF-29E3KGBKM for integrated wireless. I have the account with AT&T. Thanks

 

mleonpi,
You seem to have a gps, so you've got a sled, but if your machine is not wireless ready you will have to buy a lot of parts and do some major disassembly to install the WWAN antenna. I believe the consensus is that its more work than its worth.
CAP

 

Cap,

Thanks for the quick reply.. I guess I should have listed what I have, sorry still kinda new at this.

Pentium M 1.3G LV (Centrino), 13.3Transmissive NON-touch XGA,256MB,40GB, WLAN802.11b+g, WinXP,GPS

Does this give help me out at all?

Mleonpi

 

mleonpi,
I have all the information I need from "CF-29E3KGBKM". You need to move this question to its own thread, no one will find it here.
CAP