Laptop recycle.

[dlpriest]

I was wondering exactly what I should do with my old Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop, had it for a few years now and it's no longer of any use for any sort of gaming or otherwise.

I'm planning on constructing quite an expensive desktop and I was wondering if there was any way to include this little laptop that has served me very well in the past. I struck upon an idea.

The internal components when free of the chassis are really quite small, that is a given being it a laptop but then I began to think, could the entire laptop be made into a window mod?

The LCD connects to the motherboard via a roughly 3" cable turning the LCD panel around I can put the back of the LCD panel against the back of the 5150 motherboard. Basically what I want to do is fabricate a brand new aluminum side panel for my case, big enough so that I can have three access panels on the side that can be opened simply by turning a few thumbscrews. My hope is to mount the internal hardware of the laptop inside the desktop with brackets in such a way that the LCD would be where a window would normally go. Lengthening the keyboard connection so it could have a seperate access panel on the side panel below the LCD, and a small access panel beside that one for all the laptop ports (Wiring them all to a homemade board)

I plan to liquid cool the desktop components inside so there is plenty of room above the video card(s) for the laptop components, with there being no CPU heatsink.

I think I might be the only one who can picture what I'm trying to accomplish here, hopefully when all is said and done if the idea seems plausible I hope to have the laptop keyboard used only in an emergency situation.

To accomplish this I'd like to take a normal USB keyboard and install a toggle to switch between (this is a very redneck way to do this) 2 different USB cables, one running to the laptop one running to the back of the desktop.

And a similar way to switch video on my monitor, from laptop to desktop.

Here comes the kicker.

Somehow I'd like to get the laptop to monitor and display the following information about the desktop.

Temperatures, fan speeds (Going to need case fans as well as the water cooling), Water flow rate (I imagine I can find some sort of sensor to test this)
System information, ram usage, cpu usage ect.

It's 7:19 AM here, I've been awake for awhile, the caffeine pills have me in their cruel grasp, I beg many pardons for the incoherent nature of this entire post.

Any ideas? Scrap this idea? Feedback very much appreciated.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Sounds awesome! :D

I think I know exactly what you're trying to accomplish here. (Of course, you could always send the laptop to me... ;) )

The only truly tuff one I see is getting the laptop to display the info, and that's because I despise software!

[chedabob]

thats an ace idea. you gave me an idea. now if only i could get that god damn hunk of junk working i have downstairs.

[The Black Pumpkin]

I assume the hunk is a laptop? I've had a little luck with laptops. Lemme know if I can help.

[fragged]

Tis a good idea

I've wanted both a screen on my side panel and an external laptop to display temperatures etc but never thought to combine them

Also I found this link a couple days ago, hope it helps Invent Geek LCD Window Project (http://inventgeek.com/Projects/LCDWindow/Overview.aspx)

-Fragged

[chedabob]

my laptop needs a power supply, but i begrudge paying £40 for one cos it has a proprietary connector and requires 18v input.

thats deffo a plan. i could wire up something to control it, and then mount it under my plexi.

[dlpriest]

There are guides out there that will show you how to turn your old laptop battery into a power supply, researched this when my old 5150 motherboard began having power input issues.

By the way, the Dell Inspiron 5150 is probably the most notorious system for motherboard failure..due to a couple of design flaws that overtime actually chisel away motherboard components, for a laugh type "Inspiron 5150 motherboard" into google and browse away.

[Logic Zero]

A bit offtopic but does anyone know if its possible to change just the laptop screen into a standalone screen (aka a normal monitor that plugs into a pc)?

Could be a variation but handy for other things

[Airbozo]

A bit offtopic but does anyone know if its possible to change just the laptop screen into a standalone screen (aka a normal monitor that plugs into a pc)?

Could be a variation but handy for other things


I would also love to know the answer to this question. anyone?

[dgrmkrp]

i'd say it's possible... as long as the control unit for the screen ca either be replaced with a stanalone pcb or if it is a standalone pcb.. cause in a laptop they might save space ;) and use the mobo's pcb to wire the lcd.. actually, i'm 99% sure they do that... so we can't just borrow the screen.. a bit of electronics might be needed... still, if anyone has a laptop to experiment (i'm waiting to get one first.. should be in a week or two..hopefully.. back to school.. err.. university) ;) if i get my hands on an lcd... it's going down, baby >: )

[silverdemon]

I have a "broken" laptop... it actually runs fine, I have just installed the latest Vista version and it runs nice... only thing is the screen.. it kinda broke off.
So I now use the computer/keyboard part as a computer and have an external monitor connected.
which means I have a laptop screen which I don't use much at the moment...

it is an Acer Travelmate 220 (I will get details of the screen soon) If someone could tell me how to make it into a normal monitor for a normal computer, it would be very nice :D

[edit] screen is a LG-Philips LP141XB, 14.1", 1024x768

[The Black Pumpkin]

No ones actually used a laptop screen as a standalone as of yet, so good luck! (And trust me I've looked...)

If anyone wants to do it, they've got a long experiment ahead of them.

to chedabob: Have you looked on ebay? That's where I got the needed parts to salvage my laptop.

[Airbozo]

Well, I was just talking with a friend at a major graphics card company (and no I am not in canada), and he told me that if it is a fairly recent laptop, the lcd screen will plug directly into an onboard video card (knew that already). and that the connector of said lcd is standard across all (or most) laptops and all someone would have to do is get the pinout information for the lcd to gfx cable and create an adapter. Heh sounds easy enough... Now where to get that info...

Just a thought, but my company has a great relationship with a company that makes custom cables, so I will send them an email to see if they can come up with something (thanks to my bud here at work for suggesting it). Hell they made me a custom cable to connect my sgi presenter 1280 to my O2 (since I could not find the cable anywhere)

EDIT: (presenter link) http://www.schrotthal.de/sgi/presenter/dirindex.html

[chedabob]

multimeter?

[Airbozo]

multimeter?

more like logic analyzer to figure out all the signals...

[silverdemon]

yeah, the pin information is all I need... but I don't know where to find it...

[Airbozo]

Well it turns out that the signals are NOT compatable and you would need a converter card. Kind of rules out the _inexpensive_ solution. These guys can help you. I would call them with the model and see if thier card works.

http://store.earthlcd.com/

[chedabob]

im sure i saw some guys hack a laptop lcd for vga input, but from the way the article was worded, it sounded like it was the first of its kind, because laptops use some crazy pinout, and it requires heaps of hardware. id assume that maybe the display driver is onboard, rather than on traditional lcds behind the display. (hence why there is no bulge on the back of laptops).

spose you could possibly just extend the ribbon cables, sit the laptop inside the case, and mount the lcd somewhere. then run windows and sammurize. you would have to take external sensor input though, cos otherwise you would get the laptops temperature, not your pc.

EDIT: Damn those earthlcds are cool, but so expensive. their 2.5" touchscreen is like the price of 2 ds lites. Whos up for homebrewing some DS?

[silverdemon]

I found a link to a story about some french guys who did it...

here (http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/03/using_a_laptop_lcd_with_a_vga.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890)

there is a bit more work to it than just soldering the connector on...
I also found a datasheet for my screen, with pin out and stuff...
we'll see if I can get it to work;)

[chedabob]

^^

thats the one i was saying about

turns out that on a pc it goes GFX Card -> Lcd display driver -> Panel, whereas on a laptop, it doesnt have the lcd display driver. the laptop talks straight to the panel, in a non-standard format. not VGA, so you have to write a lcd driver that converts vga to lcd (its almost the same for each lcd, but i guess with slight variations, for things like pixel counts and timings).

[Cannibal23]

me and my room mate acctually have that exact model of laptop. mine is sitting right next to me at this very moment. the problem your going to have with useing a laptop lcd panel is going to be interfaceing with the lcd driver chipset. you would have to get down and dirty and really into the electronics logic of it. once you got that figured out you could get some kind of programable interupt controler chip and make it do whatever you want. when you say the screen broke off can you be more speciffic? there is possably somethings that you could to do fix it. i have taken mine appart countless times so i know all the little bits on it. maybe if you describe the exact problem we can find a solution so that you have a fully functioning all one peice system again. failing that you could always dissassemble it and sell the parts on ebay. the screen should fetch a good chunk of change

[dlpriest]

Unless you're going extremely slimline, why bother messing about with the LCD pin-outs?

The total height of this motherboard inside my 5150 is a little under an inch when you remove the stock heatsinks. The LCD panel assembly is around a half inch, so combined with a spacer (Motherboard on back of LCD panel) you're looking at a total thickness of around 1 and 3/4".

Working on making a case to house the motherboard and LCD screen with mounting hardware at the moment. Doing it in the cheapest fashion you can imagine, using old greybox side panels..cutting them into the pieces I'll need and using a small handheld riveter I found over at Canadian Tire.

Just looking around the interweb currently for laptop deals..Dell has nice little laptops, (my preference) for $500 and up, If I were a bold man I'd buy those things in bulk, turn them all into window kits, package em and start a website.

But I'm not a bold man.

Well, time for work.

[Reyer]

http://www.ocforums.com/archive/index.php/t-181128.html