2x13 pin headers on a VGA card = VESA feature connector. I finished the translation of the Dutch HowTo, awaiting original author's remarks and approval.
You could be very right, 16 colors on a 12" or bigger screen is probably horrible to look at! However it may be a stepping stone to further improvements on this way of connecting laptop LCD's.
although it may be low quality, if u have the lcd and card y not go for it, it must be better than a 16x2 lcd running from the printer port, plus like wat has been sed it will be the start to many things
Original Dutch to English Translation Pt.1 With approval from the original author Sprite_tm, here's the translation. The original Dutch thread can be found here. Sprite_tm can be contacted at vga2vfb(at)troep.boeitniet.nl 1)Pick your LCD screen Color laptop LCD screens are preferred, if possible from the later 486/Pentium I period. Remove the screen from the laptop and take note of all possible part-numbers from the screen. 2)Find the pin-layout of your LCD screen Chances are that you won't find them at all. That's too bad but **** happens. You might try requesting the datasheet from the manufacturer, but as far as I know they aren't eager to respond to these requests. If you can't find the datasheet you might try to derive the pin layout from similar screens. I can't guarantee this'll work though. You know your screen is good when it has separate digital inputs for RGB signals (in my case each color has three lines, but this could be more or less). If you see 4, 8 or 16 lines labeled as 'UD', 'DATA' or other (not directly color-related terms) lines NOT referring to RGB colors, you can forget about it. Also check the power requirements of the screen and the voltages of the I/O lines (these should be 5 volts; otherwise you'd have to make a level converter. If you're not sure about this, you might go ahead but you risk blowing up the whole bunch! Aside from the LCD screen you will also need to wire up the inverter for the backlight CCFL's. Normally that's a small print located next or near the LCD that has two or four wires running into the LCD. Without backlight, screen contents will be hardly visible. 3)Find an old VGA-card Don't risk blowing up your expensive VGA-card! Get yourselves a cheap ISA or PCI card. Make sure it has the VESA FEATURE CONNECTOR (VFC), a double row 26 pin header (2x13 pins that is).
Original Dutch to English Translation Pt.2 4)Trial and error! And fire up that solder iron too.. Ok, it's time to match the LCD pin layout to the VFC's. It took me some time to realize that most pin-layouts found on the internet from the VFC are actually WRONG. Here is the one that I found to be correct. Next table shows which connections to make between the LCD and VFC Don't forget to power both the LCD and the inverter; I'll leave that up to you.
Original Dutch to English Translation Pt.3 5)Connect the whole bunch and be amazed If you finish wiring it all up and turn on your PC, you should see something on your screen. If not, check the `ENABLE' line of your LCD, perhaps that should be on another pin on the VFC. If the screen is not stable, try reversing HSYNC/VSYNC line polarity by software or build an inverter circuit into the HSYNC/VSYNC lines. If the screen is out of center; correct that with software. Alternative would be building delay-circuits in the HSYNC/VSYNC lines One more thing; this method will only get you 4-bit color (16 colors). It should be able to display at least your BIOS settings screen. I'd like to thank Sprite_tm for allowing this all
It's Official. By the time I learn enough to decipher half of that, we won't need to go through all this trouble anymore. Very good job on the translation and everything though, I'm sure this is going to be a big help to lots of people out there.
How to find a datasheet for your LCD. Find the model number of your screen, google it, and you may find some LCD shops selling it. They may have data sheets on the site for it, if not then e-mail them asking for one. You should make a mod guide for this.
Most LCD screens already have an inverter board attached to it. If not, well another hurdle to take then
if u browseebay u prob can pick up5 reallyold laptopsforabout 50 quid so u can have a few goes if 1 explodes or goes rong or summit
