Mechanicle working monitor.

[sirkillalot617]

Maybe some of you have seen the screen that comes out of something that looks like a dvd drive.
http://site.sharkacomputers.com/images/thermaltake/lcd/lcd-pp1-lg.gif

Id like to make something simular using a touchsceen Iv figured out how to make a controler and everything except Im stuck On what type of motor and gearing system to use.

It needs to come out Like a dvd tray and flip up so you can see it.

Here is a demonsration of what I would like to create.
http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/mozart_tx/MozartTX.htm

Click on features,
then click on 7" drive bay,
Then Live demo.


If I havent provided enough information feel free to ask.

Thanks
Sir K.

[Nagoshi]

First, you COULD use a DVD tray to make the screen pop of the unit. Then, to raise it, how I could explain it... a gear somehow sticked on the screen, and a motor to make it lower/raise the screen...

Or if you know how a DVD tray works, you could possibly hack the tray so that you could make it open like a DVD, then the screen would somehow raise and the tray enters not fully in the "drive", in one motor spin. Cause you're gonna be stuck with 4" of useless space behind your screen if the tray doesn't get back in the drive. :)

[blk03MitsuES]

i would just find a cheap flip out screen that you seen on you're average honda civic. seen them run about a couple hundred bucks. you can hack it or spend a little bit more and find a flip out screen that actually has a touch screen.

[MaxOC]

i have an idea, but i cant draw it up for a few minutes, sorry busy, but basically. just have a dvd tray and have a hydraulic arm on as high as you can in the drive and when it comes out so far the arm stops moving and the screen pivots upward

[MaxOC]

heres a sorta pic of how itd work

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/azminisk8r/dvdactuatorclosed.jpg

that one is it closed

and then opened
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/azminisk8r/dvdactuatoropen.jpg

[sirkillalot617]

Thanks for your replys Im abit confused on how I would go about making a hydralic ram.


i would just find a cheap flip out screen that you seen on you're average honda civic. seen them run about a couple hundred bucks. you can hack it or spend a little bit more and find a flip out screen that actually has a touch screen I have already well basicly got the screen and I wanted to do it myself to gain more knowledge as it were.

Thanks
Sir K

[Redundant]

Sketchup was being an ass so I drew a picture on MS Paint for you:

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/8637/popuplcdbyredundantqx7.png

I didn't bother adding the tray motor to pull it in and out in the picture and it might be easier to hook the motor to the pulley directly.
To make the LCD lighter, try to keep the weight near the bottom or put the driver on the tray if possible.


Fear my MS Paint skills. :lick: :rolleyes:

[MaxOC]

eh taht design need 2 motors though, unless you electronically time it or something

[sirkillalot617]

yes I understand what you mean but what type of thing would I use to give this type of movement.

[Maz]

use gravity. complexity is the mark of an inferior designer. Have a slide that is capeable of moving a little more than half the screen, hook the screen to the slides so there is more screen under than over the pivot where it is connected to the slide. when the slide moves out, the screen flips down.


Second idea:

Have a slide that has the stroke of the length of the screen. attach it to the bottom of the screen(when facing out).
attach fabric to the top of your screen, and to the top of your drive bay only as long as the total height of the screen minus the distance from the pivot point to the top of the bay.

either way would work, depends whether you wish it to fold up or fold down.


would work, mechanism to push lcd out needed but simple mechanics pretty much accurate.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a250/DarwinBug/Drawing1.jpg

[sirkillalot617]

sorry Im finding this very hard to visuallise Im going to try make a model of it to help me.

[Crimson Sky]

It would be very very difficult to build this at home unless you have lots of tools and experience. I'm not trying to discourage you, but in order to make a device that is robust and reliable is quite challenging. Here are some obstacles to consider when building this:

*Unless you rig a flat ribbon cable to the LCD for video/power, you will have to work out how the motors will move that stiff VGA cable with ease.

Here is a link to a company (http://www.smallparts.com/)that makes all the miniature gears and stuff you'll need

[jdbnsn]

If you look at the top diagrams in Maz's example, you can attach springs, rubber straps, pretty much anything with the right amount of tension to top/back of the panel in order to initiate the upward movement screen as it slides out of the drive bay. Otherwise, as the screen slides out it will simply fall. So you attach some type of rollers to the bottom of the screen on both sides and devise a track for it to slide on like a drawer. To move the screen out of the drive you will need some type of actuator. You could use and old cd-rom drive mounted inside the case and connect the bottom of the screen to the disc tray so that the drive tray pushes the screen out. Write a simple autoexec.bat batch file to send the command open drive X: on start-up to push the screen out when you turn the computer on, and windows will close the drive pulling the screen in when you shut down. I used to have that batch file saved somewhere, not sure though.

[sirkillalot617]

It would be very very difficult to build this at home unless you have lots of tools and experience. I'm not trying to discourage you, but in order to make a device that is robust and reliable is quite challenging. Here are some obstacles to consider when building this:

*Unless you rig a flat ribbon cable to the LCD for video/power, you will have to work out how the motors will move that stiff VGA cable with ease.

I like a challenge and thanks for the weby. on the cable I am trying to make a lcd controler that uses usb and for the power a local electritians said hed lend me a hand (friend of the family).

jdbnsn

I like the Idea of using a cdrom drive to power it and now I understand thanks.

[sirkillalot617]

heres an idea I had I dont know if it would work what do you think.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l168/sirkillalot617/screenSmall.jpg

[DaveW]

Hmm...i think i see what you're trying to do, but i don't know if the maths will work out.

-Dave

[Nagoshi]

heres an idea I had I dont know if it would work what do you think.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l168/sirkillalot617/screenSmall.jpg

Actually, it COULD work. With some improvements, and two "pins" on each side of the screen so that the screen stays in place when it's opened.

Also, for the "autoexec.bat" file thing, some stuff you need to know :

Windows XP doesn't use the autoexec.bat file, it doesn't even read it, so it's useless. The drive closes itself in the BIOS to detect any disk in it. And, as far as I know, Windows doesn'T close drives when shutting down.

[Daruvian]

For the opening/closing on startup, if you have any programming knowledge at all, you can write a small program to do it and just have the program hidden in the background... If you need an example, let me know and I'll whip one up...

[sirkillalot617]

For the opening/closing on startup, if you have any programming knowledge at all, you can write a small program to do it and just have the program hidden in the background... If you need an example, let me know and I'll whip one up...

Thanks I will get in touch.


Actually, it COULD work. With some improvements, and two "pins" on each side of the screen so that the screen stays in place when it's opened.

could you draw it on my Picture to show me what you mean.

[Nagoshi]

could you draw it on my Picture to show me what you mean.

What i've said wouldn't work, just realised the screen is hard and can't be flexed... lol. What I wanted to mean is that the pins at the top of the screen would have moved the screen upwards, but the drive box would limit it because the screen would get stuck there.

The way you drawed it should work, except when you'll close the drive the screen will fall hardly.

[jdbnsn]

Also, for the "autoexec.bat" file thing, some stuff you need to know :

Windows XP doesn't use the autoexec.bat file, it doesn't even read it, so it's useless. The drive closes itself in the BIOS to detect any disk in it. And, as far as I know, Windows doesn'T close drives when shutting down.

You are right about windows not closing the drive automatically, for some reason I thought that was a built in feature. But I know that this works because I have done it before. Problem is, it was a long time ago when I was building an HTPC and never finished it, didn't write the batch file myself, and can't remember how we got it to work. My Dad wrote the file to work in command prompt before windows ran, and we tested it, it worked. Now if I could just prove it...

[sirkillalot617]

The way you drawed it should work, except when you'll close the drive the screen will fall hardly.

Yes I agree but I trying to find away to get it to slow down maybe something on the pins(rollers) or the a program to slow the dvd drive down when closing but the one I have seems to go quite slow when it goes in sop it may be ok.

[Crimson Sky]

the only way to slow down the speed is to gear it correctly. You'll also need a large amount of torque to push/pull an LCD from a horizontal to a vertical position. A friction gear (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXRHV9&P=M)is also needed on the hinge point for the LCD, or the screen will not stay upright or close properly.

[Eclecticos]

You could try doing it this way with a hinged lid easier. . for a homemade project to say the least.
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/9828/flipupdx5.jpg

[DaveW]

+Rep to eck for a very useful contribution.

-Dave

[sirkillalot617]

Quite good _eck but i dont know if its compact enough.

[sirkillalot617]

will not stay upright or close properly.Im still working on the closeing bit but as for staying upright I was thinking of having a small pin that pops up operated by a spring then when I press the close button it also releases the pin. Allowing the screen to slide back down.

[Xpirate]

Also, for the "autoexec.bat" file thing, some stuff you need to know :

Windows XP doesn't use the autoexec.bat file, it doesn't even read it, so it's useless. The drive closes itself in the BIOS to detect any disk in it. And, as far as I know, Windows doesn'T close drives when shutting down.

For XP you can still make an autoexec.bat and config.sys. They are named different and in the (windows)/system32 directory. They are autoexec.nt and config.nt. I am pretty sure that they run when you open up a command prompt, but I don't know if they run every time windows boots up.

[Nagoshi]

For XP you can still make an autoexec.bat and config.sys. They are named different and in the (windows)/system32 directory. They are autoexec.nt and config.nt. I am pretty sure that they run when you open up a command prompt, but I don't know if they run every time windows boots up.

Just looked, and it is a DOS loader. Thanks for that, I know understand how to use my Sound Blaster under DOS games. :D

[sirkillalot617]

thanks everyone for helping with the program to run it I have been to the local car shop to look at touchscreens with broken controlers.

[blk03MitsuES]

thanks everyone for helping with the program to run it I have been to the local car shop to look at touchscreens with broken controlers.

so you did look into car flip outs :p

[sirkillalot617]

ye I did look at some of those but at 150 quid I aint paying that.

[Nagoshi]

so you did look into car flip outs :p

The only problem you would encounter with car screens, is the resolution. How are you gonna make it work on a Windows resolution?

[Crimson Sky]

The only problem you would encounter with car screens, is the resolution. How are you gonna make it work on a Windows resolution?


If he has a 640x480 LCD he will need to get a secondary PCI card like an older nVidia to run the monitor at that res. Newer cards dont support that, if he plans to use VGA. If it's just going to be run off the main graphics card say with a composite input, he can just set up the monitor as a secondary or do a span between the two with nView (assuming its an nVidia). Most small LCDs these days are 800x480 or 1024x768 max res.

[Maz]

just put the autoexec.nt file or a shortcut to it in the startup folder.

[Nagoshi]

If he has a 640x480 LCD he will need to get a secondary PCI card like an older nVidia to run the monitor at that res. Newer cards dont support that, if he plans to use VGA. If it's just going to be run off the main graphics card say with a composite input, he can just set up the monitor as a secondary or do a span between the two with nView (assuming its an nVidia). Most small LCDs these days are 800x480 or 1024x768 max res.

ACtually... Yes, newer cards does support 640*480, it's Windows XP/Vista that doesn'T support it in its normal activities.

Besides, most car screens should have a non-standard resolution, depending on the size of the screen and if it's cheap or well made.

[Crimson Sky]

ACtually... Yes, newer cards does support 640*480, it's Windows XP/Vista that doesn'T support it in its normal activities.

then whats the point--if he plans to run XP then he needs a legacy card that does support 640x480 in windows.

[Nagoshi]

the cards DOES support it. I play Warcraft 3 at 640*480 under XP. It's only that the desktop can't display 640*480 because the UI would be waaaay too big. I could install Windows 98SE and run it at 640*480. Im sure we could do a small registry hack to set Windows' at 640*480.

My point is that both new cards and Windows XP/Vista can support AND display 640*480, but the graphic user interface would be too big to be worth it. And ALL newer screens supports AT LEAST 800*600, so what's the point on keeping an "useless" setting on there? Imagine you are under Windows with your Start button taking 1/10 of the screen. Remember the Win 95 times when we were using 640x480? It was waaaay too small.

The thing is, we need to know if the screen will be able to handle the 640x480 resolution...