CF-28 Touchscreen Swaps between Marks

Is there a way to tell which touchscreens (prior to actually trying it) will swap between the various CF-28 Mk1/2/3?

I have successfully swapped 12" & 13" touchscreens between Mk2s and Mk3s - no modifications were required.

As long as the 600Mhz hinge cover is used, will the 800/1Ghz touchscreens fit and connect with the Mk1 600Mhz machines?

 

From what I've heard said, the 600 screen will not swap over to the 800 unit, due to the way the cables run.

 

Between mk2's and mk3's there is no problem, IIRC, but between Mk1's and the others, I think you need to make some cable adjustments for them to work.

'The truth is out there', just review the threads - there is a lot of discussion on this in a number of them.

 

Electrically they are the same. For some reason though, panasonic swapped the location of the two little connectors on the motherboard when they went from Mk1 to Mk2. It isn't real difficult to peel apart the cabling and swap the positions of the connectors though.

 

Grav knows.... You just need to take the cover off and "make a little room" for the cables to attach to the correct places. As Grav said... The connections are reversed on the 600Mhz... I take an x-acto and carve a new channel in the foam backing to route the cables. If it is done correctly it looks like it came that way from the factory. And it works the same too!

 

Thanks for the thoughtful input. What I found out is:

The cables on the 800/1Ghz screens do appear to be long enough to "swap locations" and fit into the connectors on the 600 MB. The opposite situation however - trying to put a 600Mhz display onto a 800/1Ghz MB - probably won't work - the metal end 600 display cable is too short as is - perhaps more could be coaxed from within the display - but maybe not.

HOWEVER - the hinge plates have been built deliberately by Panansonic so that you can't bolt a 800/1Ghz display to a 600 Mhz case. There is an extra dowel pin on the 600 case that does not have a corresponding hole drilled for it in the 800/1Ghz screen hinge plate. So the 800/1Ghz screens won't "bolt in" to a 600Mhz case. Of course its possible to drill the hinge plates.....but....

The fact that Panasonic made the displays not fit makes me wonder if the connector pinouts are really the same. If only we had the Mk3 service manual...

When I found out the dowel pins prevented the display from fitting, I stopped the project and didn't power the computer up with the 800/1Ghz display connected (fear of smoke).

 

There are quite a few significant but subtle mechanical difference between the Mk1 and the Mk2/3. You've just stumbled onto one of them. I have swapped screens many times between Mk1,2, and 3, and have had no problems. if you un-tape the connector end of the harness, you can spread the two connectors far enough apart that their position can be easily swapped. There is enough slack in the LCD housing that you can plug them in comfortably.

 

Thanks Gravitar.

So I dont have to worry about smoking anything.

So then its just a matter of dremeling off the dowel pins from the Mk1 body (without getting any of the magnesium bits inside) and then it should be good to go.

Sounds doable.

 

The swap of a 1Ghz 13" screen into a 600Mhz 12" screen model didn't work. The 600Mhz machine is unable to correct for the higher screen resolution - as a result the image is duplicated in a four quadrant pattern.

I also tried swapping a 13" screen from a 600Mhz machine into a 12" screen 600Mhz machine - that doesn't work either. So it would appear that the 600Mhz machines are configured from the factory for a particular screen resolution, and therefore screens can't be interchanged.

The machines worked normally again once the displays were swapped back, so no harm done.

Some laptops have dipswitches or EEPROM on the motherboard to solve this type of issue - you run a special program or set dip switches (or both) for the motherboard to recognize the proper display.

Does anyone know of any such program or dip switches?

 

Sorry I forgot about that problem with the 600s, or I would have told you first. The 600s can't automatically switch between screen sizes. BUT.. there's a thread somewhere on this forum that suggests that there's jumpers on the mobo to change the default screen size.

 

Gravitar- I tried the forum search for "display motherboard" "jumper motherboard" and "LCD motherboard" - no hits. The thread may have been lost.

In any event - Do you remember if the jumpers are accessible thru an access plate? If they are not - that would make this mod much less attractive from my perspective.

 

I know that there are jumpers accessible on the 600 through the keyboard plate but not on the 800 or 1000... i don't recall seeing dip switches on the 800 or 1000 mobo...

 

Try this post, and read the thread it is in. I don't know though if this has actually worked for anyone.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2875905&postcount=7

The settings are in the repair manual PDF - I'm not sure what page.

{and from Toughbook in the same thread-
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2914487&postcount=19
}

HTH

 

Toughbook: I don't think the 800/1Ghz have or need any LCD jumpers / dipswitches. I have swapped screens both ways on 1Ghz machines, and the machine will automatically determine the LCD connected and correctly configure the bios - no problems.

Klboo - Yes, your first post is exactly what I was looking for. This weekend I will open up one of the 600 machines and see if I can find those dipswitches. It is odd that I didn't notice them when I opened that compartment to get at the display cable.....

I will report back to this thread what I find out.

Regards

 

Haven't seen this myself, so you might e looking for jumpers instead of switches.

 

I know this is off topic, but I use my TB for a navigation where higher resolution = greater safety...thus i was wondering if there was a difference in the max resolution between the mk1,2, 3 displays that i am not aware of.

 

Nope.. you've got a 12" screen at 800x600 or a 13.3" screen at 1024x768. doesn't matter what it's plugged into.

 

Thanks a lot grav.

 

Another question -- backlights...I've been reading some forum posts and am confused on whether there are more than one brightness of back light that works in the 13.3 screen. I use the tb outside so the brighter and more visible the better. (and the current CCFL tubes are dieing in my TB).
Thanks

 

The information posted by Klboo was accurate. In the Service Manual, Acrobat page 118, schematic page10 X grid 4-J shows the jumpers, JP3 and JP4. JP3 is not used and always remains open. JP4 must be shorted for a 13.3" display, or open for a 12.1" display.

The jumpers are located in the upper center of the keyboard access plate. There are dipswitches in the lower left corner of the access plate area -these are NOT the LCD jumpers but instead control the keyboard for US/Japan.

The jumper needed, JP4, is the one closer to the touchpad area.

Panasonic has provided "half sphere" solder blob areas as well as pads for zero ohm resistors for both JP3 and JP4. The half spheres are easy to solder blob on. The 600Mhz 13.3" touchscreen display M/B I used had a zero ohm resistor soldered in to the JP4 pads to engage the 13.3" display. I just unsoldered and removed it to convert to a 12" touchscreen display. Conversely I added a solder blob to JP4 on what was a 600Mhz 12.1" touchscreen display M/B to convert it to a 13.3" LCD.

NOTE: If you have hibernated the O/S while you make this change the display will not display properly when the O/S comes out of hibernation. Just shut down the O/S and Restart- then the Bios can make the necessary changes and the O/S will recognize them.

Therefore, in summary the following LCD exchanges were tested and worked:

12 & 13.3" touchscreen displays were exchanged both ways between 800 and 1Ghz machines (no changes required at all - doesn't have or need any jumper changes).

12 & 13.3" touchscreen displays were swapped both ways between 600Mhz machines (JP4 change required as above).

12 & 13.3" touchscreen displays from 1Ghz/800Mhz machines were installed on a 600Mhz machine (the 600Mhz main case requires a dowel pin on the main case under each display hinge to be dremeled off, plus some extra wire pulled out of the LCD, plus the JP4 change as above. When dremeling it is important not to get any magnesium dust inside the machine!

I didn't try to put a 600Mhz touchscreen display on a 1Ghz/800Mhz machine - but it would seem like that would work by just pulling some extra wire from inside the display, as no jumper changes or dremeling would be required.

I didn't do any experiments on non-touchscreen displays.

Remember that this is only a small sample of machines - if Panasonic made each Mk (600/800/1G) the same, then this might be true in general - but there is no way to know that for sure.

If I am able I will try to post photos of the jumper area.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

I can confirm the 600mhz to mk2/mk3 13.3 touchscreen works once you fix (or swap) the cable. Thats right, you can swap the cable from a mk2/mk3 display to a mk1 display and it will work with no rewiring.
Ty