Re: In car PC with LCD question

["John Hegarty" <john@xxxxxxx>]

Keith,

Many thanks for the reply.

I checked the laptop and it does show 50Hz for the TV display and
60 for the built in LCD. Therefore I think it maybe the LCD display
that's duff - I will see if I can take it back to the shop (this
time with my laptop to test another one :-) ).

I take on what you say about the resolution of the LCD. I did some
experiments using a 640 x 480 resolution on my TV with large fonts.
My guess was that it would be sufficient for low res GPS using Route
66. But even with a black and white picture on this 12v LCD I am now
starting to think that the resolution just isn't going to cut it :-(

If I don't have any luck with the external screen I am going to take
the laptop apart and see what the interface is between motherboard
and its screen. If its simple (i.e. only a few wires) I am going to
try extending it and see how long a cable it will cope with before
the picture gets unusable.

In the mean time, there must be a huge market for 12v, VGA , small
screen, LCD's ???

Best regards,


John.



--- In ukha_d@y..., "Keith Doxey" <lists.diyha@b...> wrote:
> Have you checked the refresh rate of the Laptop output.
>
> It may be running at 60Hz causing the LCD to think it is NTSC.
>
> One BIG problem you will run into is that small LCD displays
intended for
> Video use are at best 960x234 pixels so you are unlikely to be
happy with
> the results even if you succeed in getting it to work.
>
> A small Colour CRT monitor would also be useless as the shadowmask
in the
> tube would not be fine enough for the image you are trying to
display.
>
> A small B&W CRT would probably give the best resolution at an
affordable
> price.
>
> Trouble is, we are ahead of the technology. We want it before it
is made, or
> before it is at an affordable price. Just one of the problems with
being at
> the cutting edge :-)
>
> Keith
>
> www.diyha.co.uk
> www.kat5.tv
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Hegarty [mailto:john@xxxxxxx...]
> Sent: 17 March 2002 08:44
> To: ukha_d@y...
> Subject: [ukha_d] In car PC with LCD question
>
>
>
> Apologies, this is a bit off topic. I am trying to cobble together
a
> in-car PC using an old laptop I had spare. I've got GPS all
working and
> have sorted out how I am keeping it charged. My only problem is the
> display.
>
> The laptop has a Composite video output (aka TV OUT) presented as a
> phono plug which works fine when connected to my TV. Unfortunately
it
> only gives a black and white picture on my 12v 5 inch PAL LCD
display
> (made by Centurion). Now my understanding is that this is normally
due
> to trying to view NTSC on a PAL screen. So I have just tried
another
> (newer) laptop that has a selectable NTSC/PAL output - and the
display
> is still black and white in either mode :-(
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts on where I go next ? Are there small
12v
> TFT displays with VGA inputs out there that are affordable ?
>
> One last resort thought I had was to pull the laptop apart and see
if
> the interface to its own LCD was something that I could easily
extend
> the 3ft from under the passenger seat, to the console where I want
the
> diplay. Is this even possible given the delicate timings of laptop
> displays ?
>
> Many thanks in advance for any advice.
>
>
> John.

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