LCD Mod Opportunity?

MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
edited September 2004 in Hardware
i work at a store as a systems monitor, and we have two old credit card readers that have nice big lcds displays. i was wondering if it was possible to 'borrow' one and use it as an lcd display in a case...is this feasable? has anyone thought of this? if you guys think its possible i can take some pics of it.

Comments

  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    maybe ...but lets see pics anyway!!! Hehe
  • MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
    edited September 2004
    ok...pics are gonna have to wait until at least monday...i did a quick search and came up with this pic

    http://www.xcc.com/images/ncr/NCR_MSR.jpg

    the one i have is an older model and will probably be text-only, but i hope you get the general idea
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    I've seen a tiny lcd mounted to a motherboard before which is what that reminds me of. I think it would be great to have an inexpensive low res small monitor available w/ onboard graphics just for troubleshooting and such. Something that could be easily disabled and replaced by a larger agp/pci vid card. Imagine booting to the bios w/ no monitor!!! I suppose we'd have to include arrow & enter keys or something to maneuver around and select settings.
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited September 2004
    try looking for LCD mods that use the parrallel port

    http://pc-mod.com/articles/lcd/

    just a rough estimate of hooking it up
  • MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
    edited September 2004
    thanks for the input so far guys, ill get those pics up soon!
  • MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
    edited September 2004
    ok...i have the worst luck with image hosting, lets see how this goes...

    http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=5174253&uid=2599382&members=1

    sorry the pics suck im using my camcorder....if you want closer pics just ask
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited September 2004
    Mountain Dew


    First things first. You should get a hold of the spec sheet for the LCD unit you are trying to mod in order to see the pin out assignment.

    It is not a full color display.

    Display 320 by 240 VGA, backlit graphics LCD (monochrome)
    - Screen dimensions are 4.5 in. by 3.4 in.
    - Full bitmap is 9,600 bytes
    - Signature area is width of screen by 1 in. high

    But it does use an RS 232 port which is the same as the LCD display modules that Matrix Orbital and Crystal Fontz use. Here is the RS 232 pin out assignments

    http://www.airborn.com.au/rs232.html

    Now you could possibly use software from Matrix Orbital to enable the screen

    http://www.matrixorbital.com/pages/downloads.asp

    It's a matter of setting the dimensions properly which are listed above.

    Any way you look at it....it's an interesting project to play with and I wish I had one to fiddle about with. It's a challenge to make it work but probably rewarding. You may be able to turn that into a real cool system monitor screen to display system information. Just by tapping a serial port. :)

    If you want to turn it into an article detailing all the steps ...shoot me an email at mediaman@short-media.com and I'll guide you on that. :)
  • MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
    edited September 2004
    okay here's whats going on... i went back and looked for the other parts after looking at what everyone here showed me, and this thing is already rigged up with a serial connector. the only thing stopping me now is the external power plug. its a black and white wire, i know their polarity. im guessing i could use a molex plug to wire the power cords into, but does anyone know what voltage this thing runs on? any ideas welcome.
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