reuse G4 (iLamp) LCD

http://www.applefritter.com/holygrail

this should help. first reply sums it up. you cant. at least not easily. your welcome to try, but your on your own. as Dr. Webster posted, we have a section about that very thing. if you achieve it, you willl have attained the Holy Grail

here's a pic for some insperation:

good luck.

-digital

It is not a notebook, it is a iMac G4 flatpanel.

The cable say TMDS so I suspect it talks some kinds of DVI protocol. So I want to ask more before giveup.

TMDS is the signaling protocol used over DVI, so, well, it's possible you might be able to drive the thing from a DVI port. One "gotchya" I can think of so far. The hardware documentation for the G4 iMacs:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/hardware2.html

indicates that an on-board scaler on the motherboard video chipset is used to allow the flat panel to display non-native resolutions. Most DVI monitors have a built-in scaler and scan rate converter for that. Thus... if I had to hazard a guess I'd say that *if* the LCD is driven by DVI compatible TMDS signalling it's using a really brain-dead TMDS->LVDS driver board in the LCD assembly which is missing most of the features you'd need to make "easy" to use it with a standard DVI monitor port. (There would be no reason for it to have a scaler, as noted, nor would it necessarily need things like a VESA DDC channel for identification and power control, etc, etc.) Thus it may technically "work", but you'll have to hard-program the video card in the machine you're driving it with to output a suitable video mode for it. ("Suitable" meaning the one fixed resolution the panel natively supports.")

If you can find the pinout for that connector it might be an interesting experiment, granted.

--Peace

What if I got a board with LVDS adapter? Can I connect it?

What if you drive the screen at it's native resolution only?
I'm planning a similar project with my 20" iMac G4, hoping to get a 15" to play with first.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2721274

Otherwise, http://www.ieci.com.au/products/Product_Page2.asp?Product_ID=3540
and
http://www.impulse-corp.co.uk/Industrial%20Computer%20Boards/Product%20Pages/peripheral_display_PCM-3538R.htm
or similar might be needed. And I don't fancy that.

half post removed and completed in the next comment. sorry.

admins: please remove this post.

i have taken apart my broken 15" screen and it turns out to be a samsung LTM150xl-01p.

then i took that apart as well and found the interface chip: a silicon image si I151ACT100 and with that i finally got a pinout for the connector on the motherboard.

the connector on the motherboard has 21 pins, but uses only 19 of them. the cable is 1on1 on both sides, except for the connector formfactor. if you look at the motherboard side, pin 1 is on the opposite side from mthe cable, counting towards the cable. the flat connector on then screen side counts from right to left if you hold the cable with the connector facing up, as it is connected to the screen.

1 green Vcc
2 blue Vcc
3 brown/black GND
4 red/black GND
5 black RX2+
6 red RX2-
7 clear RX2 shield
8 Brown RX1+
9 Orange RX1-
10 clear RX1 shield
11 yellow RX0+
12 green RX0-
13 clear RX0 shield
14 Blue RXC+
15 White RXC-
16 clear RXC shield
17 purple ?
18 -
19 grey ?
20 pink ?
21 -

I think 17, 19 and 20 have something to do with either DCC or just a tie to gnd or Vcc to identify the screen to the motherboard. i have to dig up my scope to be sure.

Thinking about it, the screen seems to me regular, ie not specially build for apple, so it could be that it is a fixed resolution with a single resolution DCC

I have not measured Vcc yet, but i suspect it to be 5V.

We've been discussing the same thing over at:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=224698&page=3

It's an intriguing subject for those of us with broken G4 iMacs on our hands. Keep up the investigation!

it turns out to be 3.3 volt for the electronics. the lamps get their power via another connector running on both 3.3 and 12 volt. 12v olt for the power, 3.3 for the controller electronics. Its a pity that it is impossible to completely blackout the screen, but only dim it to 25 percent. otherwise it could be a nice lightsource in stead of the screen. Make it a real iLamp ;-)

the three other lines on the video connector remain a mystery to me, as the internal video chip does not seem to use DCC at all. If i disconnect the screen and attach a regular vga screen, the resolution options do not change. :-(

Reading a post somewhere about using the external screen as a extended desktop confirms that this is not possible with the 700 and 800 Mhz 15" imac; cripled video hardware...

you could have more luck with a 17" here. I am curious about the internal video connector on those machines. there should be DCC signals there because there was a 15" and 20" option for those macs.

Ok, it really is looking like the best approach is to throw out the (beautiful, well-lit, dead-pixel-free 20") LCD that came with it, and buy one whose dimensions match the original exactly. I've seen pictures of a cracked-open arm, and there appears to be room for cables, though you'd have to strip them, and I don't know where you'd out the power converter from any monitors currently available..

I bought a Macbook recently, so I'm going to compromise on some sort of remote control setup (iMac as screen for MB) for now, but I'm sure when iLamp's useful life has come to an end, I'll gut her and put in Mini (or Nano by then!) innards.
I love lamp.

Zombie thread a bit, but the best approach would be to sell off the still good LCD panel and stick in another monitor, assuming that one wants to do all the warranty voiding work to do it over just using the new LCD monitor as-is.