After a lengthy leave of absence I am back with another project idea for y'all. Situation: I have a Raspberry Pi (model B) that's been gathering dust since my last build some years ago, I'm looking to start playing with it again but I don't have a spare monitor to leave hooked up to it. I do however have an old Acer Aspire 5732 z lying around with a non-functioning trackpad, worn out battery and no charger. Mission: To disassemble the laptop and somehow mod the monitor connection to fit to the Raspberry Pi. Execution: Follow these instructions, the tl;dr is as follows: 1) Disassemble laptop 3) Locate model number 7) Acquire appropriate LCD controller 4) Acquire power supply for LCD controller 7) Plug everything together Optional: ?) Make a sacrifice to the mod gods 7) Laser cut a frame for it, or something a little more in line with the Pi's previous home. Quezzies for you guys (and girls?) then are as follows: Have any of you done this kind of thing before and have any tips? Is this worth turning into a legit project thread? What is the meaning of life? Cheers
Q: 1- No, but I'm interested now. I have a ton of laptop screens and found something compatible already. 2- Why the heck not? 3- I'll get back to ya.
So this is going ahead then. Tasks: Create preliminary concepts ✔ (21/12/14) - Two looking promising Order parts ✔ (22/12/14) - Awaiting delivery from China (ETA 22/01/15 latest, ugh) Remaining steps: Create 2-3 more concepts. Filter out the best and develop them. Repeat as necessary. Confirm available materials and manufacturing. Do the detailed engineering design for remaining 1 or 2 concepts. Design specification (CAD, BoM, technical drawings, manufacturing pack) Manufacture parts. Assemble. Profit.
tl;dr did it, works well, currently cba making a legit frame but yeah would recommend doing this kind of thing if you have a spare lcd panel lying around.
Have you got anywhere with a mount for this? I am genuinely interested as I too have several laptop screens and a fair few small computers that could do with a semi decent screen...
In the end I put the lcd panel back into the frame it lived in whilst attached to the laptop and secured the control boards etc to the back with a little hot glue and some carefully cut foamboard so it's reasonably neat. I will revisit this and make something proper for it when I have the funds, but for now it works well.
