I've got an old Palm m105, which is pretty much knackered, but i figure the LCD screen would still be good to go. I'd like to wire it up and mount it on my case somewhere, but have no idea where to start. Does anyone know where I could get pin-outs or circuit diagrams? or if a similar mod has been done before? Also I'm not sure how things may or may not be complicated by the touch-sensitive screen. Any information is much appreciated. Thanks in advance [edit] here's the Palm in case you don't already know what it's like. The screen is B+W graphic LCD btw + I'd like to keep the existing backlight if poss. The model is almost exactly the same as the m100 internally and externally.
GEE THANKS I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT ONE. thanks Cabe, didnt see that one, maybe i used the wrong search terms or something... but anyways, the Palm is nuked. I only wanna use the screen. The thing wont turn on any more (yea the batteries are charged )
That's just not going to happen. without the palm you have no controller - and thus the LCD is useless. Unless you're an EE with way too much spare time on your hands, forget about it. Sorry.
Removed- You guys are right, I just don't think that the poster of a thread should be posting things like "gee thanks, I never thought of that". You should obviously do alot of googling before you post. end.
Explicit I think that was out of order. This is not a high res full colour screen as seen in laptops which have the problem you said. Mitch if you can open her up and take photos of the inside there is a possability that either a) we can identify a controller chip or b) identify the microcontroller that contains the LCD driver. This IMHO is a totaly different issue to a laptop LCD screen. Edit: Also the main problem is interfacign the laptop screens with VGA. It isnt that hard to get a Laptop screen to show somethign from a microcontroller or the like. Its just a sod to get it working with DVI or VGA
yup lynx is right, i couldnt find anything that referred to B+W screens. I'll try and get a pic of the insides later today, have to go to work in a min & the palm has funny screws so ima have to force it open, so i dont wanna rush that...
I am with Lynx on this one, palm hacking is an easyish possibilty, most aspects are quite well documented. But you might have to learn some ASM.
WOW what a load of bad vibes I think that there is a common protocol for small digital lcds, like the ones in palms -- thats the impression I got from reading the datasheet for Intel's PXA270 processor (as I do ). Alphanumeric displays all use that hitachi compatible controller, why should graphical ones be different? Sorry I don't know what it's called, but I'm sure there is a standard. ch424
This may by off track with a B&W Palm but Zap tore apart an Ipaq for this media computer. Me may be able to offer some inshight. Look at his web page.
i took a look at that ipaq mod, he's got a working ipaq apart from the battery in it so he could do it all pretty easily with software. Learning ASM isnt a problem, I'm just a little inexperienced with it
OK I ripped it up and got inside it earlier while i was at work bored. Sorry about the low res pics but this is what i got: spk = speaker touch sense = circuitry dedicated to the touch sense panel on top of the LCD RAM = RAM (duh?) CPU = Motorola Dragonball op-amp = a quad op amp IC - only labelled cause u might have thought it was something different LCD = where the LCD joins the board. There's only 1 chip I've not been able to identify (? in the diagram) It's labelled as follows: MX (in big letters) then: C010104 742-2123 B0C8 1C6121A2 Google returns 0 relevant results for all the lines on the chip As it's the only major chip on the thing I've not been able to identify, I'm guessing it's the controller for the LCD screen. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Any model number on the Dragon Ball as there are quite a few varients. My current best guess is that the LCD driver is on that.
the model number is Dragonball MC68EZ328 (aka. Dragonball EZ) Can't find anything on it containing an LCD driver... [edit] o yeah i can - got some technical details here: http://xgistor.ath.cx/files/Emulator/68000/DragonBall/MC68EZ328.pdf just google the model name + number and u get a whole load of crap. Nothing specifically about using the screen alone though... [edit2] this is prob the most useful link i got so far: the official motorola manual for the processor: http://www.da.isy.liu.se/courses/tsea45/doc/MC68EZ328.pdf lookin at it all im figurin it could be pretty difficult to do anything, considering Im not sure why it's broken in the first place. I'm gonna need to get the processor and the RAM going as a minimum.
Acording to the data sheets there must be an LCD controller chip as the output is just a Parralell output similar to how you would drive a normal LCD. The most likly way I see this working is to just use the LCD and none of the other bits of the Palm .
The ic labled '?' is possibly the units rom storing its programs and your phone numbers etc. Driving the lcd is probably done with software by the cpu, however, if its just a parrelel lcd you should be able to bodge something together with a microcontroller. Good luck Col
hmm. i think i'll give up on this one. It's turning out to be much more complicated than I initially thought... Maybe someone else with more experience could do it, I dunno. I'll maybe fine some EE guys at Uni when I get there later this year
out of curiosity have you looked for the LCDs datasheet? I'm sure there is a model number there somewhere.
the LCD is sandwiched between the touch sensitive panel and the backlight panel. It's stuck together pretty tight and I dont want to force them apart, I think they'll just break if I can get them separated.
