DIY LCD MkIII - IMOG edition

IMOG was generous (or fool-hardy) enough to let me modify a 17-inch LCD he bought. It arrived earlier this week, and luckily I have this week free so I've managed to get alot done already.


It came apart far easier than I had anticipated (see images 0 and 1) so the build progress was insanely fast. I've already managed to complete about 95% of it. A few detail pieces will be done tomorrow.


The rear leg is solid anodized aluminum and slides along a track to allow angle adjustment of the monitor.

The inverter is safely caged with clear thermoplastic mesh to protect wary hands from coming in contact with it's high voltage circuitry, and instead of tucking away all of the cable I decided to make them complimentary to the shape of the whole unit.

The front button faceplate is a thin piece of polycarbonate covered with aluminum tape. This allows the status LED to optically illuminate the edges of the sheet. This piece was particularly confusing to make but I managed to cut out the rectangular button holes by using an X-acto knife and a hammer.

Things are still a bit of a blur as I've never managed to make this much progress in only one day.

All that remains for me to complete are some grip-feet and a faceplate for the monitor and power connectors.

Oh ****! That is bad ***! Thanks dude!

It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! Woohooooo!

Wow... really neat! Makes a plain LCD look a lot more interesting.

Ooops, can someone move this thread to alt. modding please?

I was wondering why this was in Community

holy moses from egypt!! that is incredible Captain Slug!!!!!!!

I.M.O.G. said:

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I know. I.M.O.G. enjoy your new lcd. Lucky fool!

Damn...Slug your mods are always the best.

Drec said:

Damn...Slug your mods are always the best.

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I second that. I am a big fan of your mods Capt!

Nice Mod Capt! What kind of screen was that? My current project includes some LCD modding as well, I like the look of that one...Hope mine comes out like that! Cheers

Hypnos said:

Nice Mod Capt! What kind of screen was that?

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Cornea MP704

I finished the few remaining pieces last night. It glows nicely in the dark.

The faceplate for the connectors fits snugly.

And I added some rubber grip-feet to these "toes" that I made out of acrylic. This is the first time I've actually been required to use the bonding solvent I got from the plastics shop.

And here it is earlier in the day, getting friendly with my Upont TX3

That looks really awesome, for the button pannel, would you like a real brushed aluminum one?


PM me or something if you do.

Jon

How much did all of this cost, IMOG?

Captain, you never cease to amaze me with the stuff you do. You did a great job on that monitor. I am still waiting for the next big project. I mean you are wipping these out in a day now. You need to step it up a bit . Hehe just messing with you. Keep up the good work.

*IMOG slaps self in the face

What happened, what did I miss? Last I remember I was looking at slug's pictures, but that was almost 24 hours ago?

17" unit cost me $290 shipped to Slug's residence. The mod cost about $60 (estimate, not exact) including shipping.

JFettig, the brushed aluminum is a nice offer thanks. Slug chose to do this though because the button panel illuminates from the LED this way I believe. If he would want to try something with your offer, I've told him from the start that he's free to do whatever he wants with this thing, and I can drop a few bucks wherever necessary.

Sweet job on the Mod Capt. for a slug you sure work fast. LOL

Where did you pick this screen up? it looks good, and seems like a nice price. I looked up the specs, not bad either

Wow...100% improvement. It never ceases to amaze me how much extra bezel space they tack onto the edges of the monitor. I really like the 'industrial' look of the metal frame, as well as the new clear faceplate. I think that LCD would go perfectly with an acrylic case w/polished parts inside, as well as a brushed aluminum case.

Personally, I would have made the LED only illuminate the edges of the plastic, but that's mainly because I always think how items would work in my bedroom...

I think if I ever migrate from CRT's (19" NEC/Mitsu is as deep as I can go now) I'll definately mod the LCD as such. It would go perfectly with my Lian-Li case.

Currently waiting for Slug to get the faceplate from jfettig.

@Hypnos: Got it from nut581, he hardly ever used it. The specs look good, but I'm guessing the response time is definetly understated (I think cornea reports 20ms). The contrast and brightness appears okay with specs. Bought new, It is slightly more expensive than the cheapest 17" LCDs you can find around, so I wouldn't expect this to be a superb gaming monitor. Should expect some ghosting I would think, as the response is definetly above 16ms, and likely above 20ms also. Its a good monitor for the price though IMO, according to specs... I'll report back once I get to see the display - slug knows more than me right now.