Mechanicle working monitor.

[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 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.

[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.

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.