Changing from CCFL to LED Display

probably u don't want to hear, that u can use an driller?
I don't see the problem...

 

The LCD frame is made of stainless steel; it has a high nickel content so will be hard to drill, ESPECIALLY if you want to make 100 precision 3mm holes with no gaps between. You'll be much time ahead to simply trim off the one edge with a good pair of aviation snips, or a metal cutting disc on a Dremel. Be sure to remove the metal ring and place the rest of your LCD in a plastic baggie before you go cutting or grinding; there are multiple layers of clear plastic there that will do everything in their power to attract unwanted bits of dust/dirt. Even a tiny one can make a VERY visible "fisheye" if it gets between the diffraction layers.

Once you've opened up that edge and removed the CCFL, applying a little epoxy to your pcb strip to hold it all in place should be all that's needed.

mnem
Illuminati.

 

I've ordered a saw disk for the dremel, that should cut slits for the leds. Drilling 3mm holes seemed to be a bad idea so i just avoided it.

 

I am humbled by the techical prowess of the members of this forum.

I am chagringed by my total lack of understanding, except in general terms, of what the hell you're talking about. You folks are way smart!

Keep up the great work so the rest of us can dream.

Pappy

 

onirakkiss, how hot does your buck regulator get? i've only got space between the hard drive and the motherboard for my power supply. It could get very hot there.

What heat resistant, electrical insulator can i put between the power supply and the metal plate it will be attached to? it'll be held in place with hot melt adhesive.

pappy42: You could always try it, onirakkiss has found some good led strips and a compatible board to use. I'll be trying something a bit more complicated with a second hard drive, hopefully i'll finish it within a few weeks or just end it.

 

If u use an BUCK u will not need any cooling equipment. He works very efficent. It will fit on the original place of the CCFL-inverter on the back of the lcd-display, because it's smaller than the original.

 

I don't have a Panasonic laptop and the inverter isn't on the back. Mine is similar size to this:

 

I was looking on allelectronics.com for some npn & pnp transistors and found some white led's on a strip, ordered to length (3 different color temperatures of white to choose from!).... they have all kinds of cool stuff. I've ordered from them for years, and thought I should pass it along

 

Those flexible strips are gnarly for accent lighting under shelves or in custom car interiors; but a wee bit too large for this application.

One of my favorite accent light devices is the CCFL & inverter board from a junk flatbed scanner...

mnem
Still crazy after all these years...

 

When the lcd panel is completely off, what should it look like when the backlight is turned on? i turned 5 of the leds in the string on and it looked very strange and the lighting was uneven. The bottom of the panel was very well lit, the top was also well lit but the middle was dim.

Is the lcd white or black when it has no power?

Edit: looks like a significant number of the strings of leds don't work. hopefully its just bad soldering. Every single led was tested before it was used

 

This is a panasonic toughbook forum, so probably nobody know details of ur unknown laptop ( I don't know, which model u have) and so no one can help u...

 

The LCD will be white with no power applied and the backlight on; did you use T1 packaged LEDs (shaped like the picture below) ? If so, that is the source of your problem; the end of the package acts as a lens to focus the light, which prevents the LCD substrate from distributing the light evenly across the screen.

You may be able to make a diffraction grating to go between the LEDs and the substrate and diffuse the light to alleviate this problem; but I wouldn't be surprised if you STILL have dark regions in the screen due to the tight focus and low light spillover of the T1 LED package.

The COB LED strips we recommended are designed for use as floodlighting; their design lends itself to this sort of project.

mnem
P1?

 

well, all the focusing is done in the end of the plastic. If it's the wrong ones, you could use an xacto knife to cut the domes off (just stay off the diode inside)(of course, this will be interesting, with no "lens" to direct the beam). I mean, if they are the wrong ones anyway, why not try it? Might work better than the cobs???

 

This is what it currently looks like with 5 leds operating at 20ma, i can fit them in but they look pretty dim and slightly blue

 

Tried a strip based on 75 SMD leds, but it was too dim, i drove them at their limit and they lasted about 10 minutes.

I'm trying again with 1000mcd white smds, and the driver circuit will be different this time

 

Why not replace the diffuser with a custom made industrial sheet better for point light sources and put a few high output rgb LEDs directly behind the LCD?

 

please if you have any video step by step for it, I know noyhing about it, but i would like to try it

Many Thanks