I've got an older laptop computer that I don't use anymore, not really worth anything. I was wondering if I can salvage the screen and use it as a monitor for a multimedia install in my car. The screen is in good shape and it's about 15" diagonal. I just don't know anything about hooking it up to a source unit. Has anyone out there ever done that or know where I can turn to get info on how to do it if possible?

 

Good luck with that...

better not be stealing my nick, sucka!

 

It's been done. I didn't actually install it in a car, but the company I interned for had a bunch of old laptops they were throwing out, so I toyed with the same idea. They were older, 13 inch panasonic notebooks. The wiring from the display went right to the external monitor plug on the laptop. From there I went to a creative labs multimedia card of some sort that had a composite video in and a monitor out...among other outlets. I simply wired the display to the card (which was mounted in a desktop for power) and then wired in a vcr as a test source. It worked, except for a few bars of black at the bottom of the screen that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of...maybe the screen was bad. I don't know if any of this is helping much, except that I know what you want to do is indeed possible. The creative labs card, was an older card, but I'm sure they sell similar items...it was a completely hardware based composite video to monitor connection....meaning the card was only mounted in the desktop computer for a power source...I'm sure if you could power the card using some sort of inverter...have to do a little soldering too I guess. I'll try to find the model number of that card...even though it's old. I'll post if I find it. Good luck! Please post if you install it...I'd love to see it.

 

 

Thanks for your detailed reply. Don't go nuts but if you do come across the info., I'd love to see it. I'm not much of a soldering kind of guy so I'll leave it up to a local shop to do the install. I thought it could be done and before I went out and spent a grand on an overhead display I figured I could use that with the appropriate source units and converters.

 

find out the model of the screen and then go about finding a lcd controler card that is compatible with your screen

try www.earthlcd.com

there are controller cards that take vga, composite video, svideo etc in and send them out to the lcd screen. since you already have a screen, you really only should have to worry about a controller card.

 

It looks like you need a converter RCA TO VGA. Should be out there, I believe I've seen VGA to RCA, there must be an opposite unit.

 

i don't think that the raw lcd screen will take the vga input, hence the need for a controller card that can feed the screen with appropriate signal(s)

 

I don't understand why more people don't use these screens? I read about them before when I thought about using one. They're much cheaper than kenwood, alpine, etc screens, AND they actually have normal computer resolution. That way one can actually use window's, etc effectively. Anyone have any thoughts? We should have group buys for these, not for flip out screens.