Can I turn my lcd laptop monitor into a desktop monitor?

very well summarised ... :lol:

yeah, it's a shame this guy on ebay doesn't sell the converters any more. I sent him an email just after I bought one and he said he will sell lots more of these. Just after that he seems to have disappeared. He didn't even leave feedback for the transaction. I should have bought more converters there and then. :-/

I was so glad I finally found a cheap source and now it's run dry...

 

I thumbed through this topc looking to see if anyone posted a similar question but did not see anything so...

Does anyone know if there is any sort of adapter for use in a "working" laptop through which you could connect a PC VGA or DVI card to so that you could use the laptop display as an ad-hoc PC monitor?

Think along the lines of servicing 'headless' computers or PC's that need to be unplugged and moved to a more convenient location to do hardware work on, and then you want to verify things are looking good before hooking them back up in a hard to access area...

 

was teh ebay sellers name Ricky wong or tywong in his email? I bougth a controller from him that is compatible with several lcd's, 80$ includign shipping from hong kong. i got the item yesterday and it had the wrong size cable for the lcd. So now I have to wai tuntil after the Chineese new year for the correct cable.

 

Stej - what you want is called "Remote desktop" just fire up the machine and connect via remote desktop to make sure everything works. most newer PC's will boot up just fine without monitor keyboard and mouse hooked up. then just remote in and check it and shut it down to move it. EASY! (I do this all the time )

maybe you could buy a USB Video Capture device(see this sampling,: "http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/results.aspx?key=usb+video+capture&sr=1&platform=all"), and then run the pc output to it and then look at it that way( if the PC has a composite (TV type) Video out on it's card.), but whats the point? if you have pulled the PC OUT somewhere enought to get to it's output, and you are doing work on it, then you should have enough room to hook up a small LCD monitor and take a look without the need all this crazyness. (unless I just don't understand your question.) look into a remote control solution and you will find what you need. (I use Dameware and Proxy for remote connections and I can control any PC on my network 100% as if I was there!)

 

Remote desktop = VNC which is a lot easier to use than setting up teh windows remote desktop, or if you have a non-windows machine.

 

I talked to sellers girlfriend couple weeks ago and was told that John(seller) will reply my email soon. but i havent heard anything from them till today...


I have also been trying to get hold of such kit using the search engine.. not much luck till now...


anyways, please let us know if you guys have found anything..

thanks,


mike

 

kreyon/brad, thanks for the replies...

kreyon, I don't think you misunderstood the question so much as just steered your answer towards your own line of thinking. I'm very familiar with RDC/VNC software and I'm afraid it just doesn't fit the use behind the reason I was asking. I'm talking about servicing PC's that may be in questionable states and you NEED to physically be at the console to maybe watch post or get into the bios... yeah, if you've got the back of a PC accessible you could certainly connect an external LCD and dispense with the 'craziness'... but in this day and age I say it's more crazy to carry around a separate LCD monitor from site to site when the laptop I'm already taking with me brings lcd, keyboard, and a mouse to the table .

Anyhow, it was just a thought and considering the original subject matter in this topic I thought it was a good place to ask. It would be the most 'convenient' way to achieve basic console conectivity 'in a pinch'.

 

Maybe a TV tuner with VGA/DVI Input? A tv tuner sounds liek it would solve your problem but make another, I don't know of any TV tuners that support vga/dvi input.

 

Steje,
I really don't think that what you are looking for is possible. at least that is to say that there is no way to seperate the keyboard and mouse and monitor from the laptop without destroying it. you would have to tap into the ribbon cables that allow the mouse keyboard and monitor to work, and as soon as you try to power them up, the laptop will also fire up, and then you are going to have to do things on both systems at the same time. there is no good way to seperate the devices to be able to use them for the purpose you are suggesting. ( all the devices built into the laptop have ability to input new ones but there is no 'output' for keybaord and mouse, and the monitor output cannot be used as an input either.) <-that's the biggest reason this will never work. not to mention that part of the Guts of these items are built into the laptops motherboard to reduce space, which makes tapping into them nearly impossible if you want them usable. and then will the machine you are using recognize them? Hmmmm.... I just don't think so, possible but not probable.

it would however be real nice to find a portable console unit, perhaps a device with a keyboard and touchpad and a 7 inch monitor in one unit. but I am afraid that would be the only reasonable way to accomplish your task.

the only other thought I have is that there may be a USB solution to this problem out there somewhere, which would let you connect a special USB cable to both units and give you control that way, but I have not tried to look for one. I wonder if this is possible and if so would it require special software on both machines. and it may only work on newer machines that use USB devices as a standard.

Just some thoughts for you.

 

Hey everybody im working on the same laptop conversion project and i think it's going to come to buying a converter kit off of ebay unless anyone can tell me how to solder the pins or w/e

yesyesuk i saw that you were the only one in the thread that had pics of a working product so i was wondering what kind of kit you got i know that you said the seller disappeared but i want to know what kind u got please email me at Guitapik14@gmail.com that would help me out a lot

anyone else can email me too if u have more advice or suggestions/ideas i have a NEC NL10276BC26-01

thanx!

 

I was looking through ebay and I came across http://www.mini-itx.com/ .
Depending on the price range, someoen built a laptop like pc on this with one of these motherboards. Youcould email teh guy and ask for directions or a price. You could do what you are trying with this, it would just cost a bit more money.

 

OK Steje: I was thinking about this and I think the best way to make this work and still be small and portable would be to use a small form-factor laptop (like a toshiba libretto) and Gut the device so that all that is left is the keyboard mouse and monitor, then you would have to replace the output connector for the monitor with an input connector and solder it right to the input for the monitor that the motherboard used, and esentially do the same for the keyboard and mouse. this would give you a small form-factor console unit that you could easily stash in you laptop bag (and would be very light weight). I think this would be your best bet until someone makes a small console unit like this as a commercial product.
something like this http://www.eclipsemount.com/er1-15.html but smaller would work great! ( I use a similar product daily, and they are great!) here is another great page full of these types, and some are pretty compact, http://www.nti1.com/kvmdrawers.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=nti2&gclid=CLGRsp2u0YoCFQd7UAod0iKx5w something like this that was as portable(or more) as your laptop is what you need. if you explore the first link I found where they will make custom ones for you, so maybe call them and see if they can create what you need.
or maybe a KVM splitter found here: http://www.nti1.com/kmsplthd.html might get what you need. as long as the box is connected to the server it can have multiple consoles.

see your biggest issue is that you are trying to use a laptop. if you had a PC in the room where this was going to happen then you could use a KVM switch or whatever to get the signals. (all it takes is one PC setup) laptops are not designed to be used in the way you want(monitor is Out only, and keyboard and mouse are not outputable in their normal configuration, they are only able to recieve input from addon(external) devices), but desktop PC peripherals are designed just for that, so they would work fine.

hope some of this helps!

 

To do that you would need a logic board that accepts vga in and is made for your lcd. For the keyboard/mouse, it would be easier to just buy a small keyboard and moutn it in there and just use a regular mouse. i am actually working on a set-up like this right now. I had an old panasonic toughbook cf-48 that randomly quit working. Its been gutted out and I'm using its lcd and mounting a logic board in its case.

 

yes, that is what I am talking about!!!

Now, check this out!
I have Just discovered that one of our Dell 2850 servers in California has a remote access card in it that allows us to get a console screen from here in Florida accross our VPN that makes it work as if we were there! and that is Exactly what you are looking for! I am unsure how common these are as this was the first time I heard of it and it was by accident as my Boss was checking on one of our servers. like I said it is on a Dell 2850 server and works in realtime and works well! (it was funny as he had no idea I was on this forum and talking about these ideas and all of a sudden he was yelling "Cool, hey Jon come take a look at this!" and I was floored!)

I will find out more information on this card and how it works and give an update later today or tomorrow.

 

having oen of those would be awesome. better than vnc?

 

Ok, this is what I have found.

from Dells Website:

of course this is for newer servers, but it's still Cool! it's the DRAC 5 controller card that is the ticket! it's continuous video means it's always sending the video just like a console!

check out this link! holy cow this thing is awsome!!!
http://www.dell.com/content/learnmore/learnmore.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~id=drac_power&~lt=popup

I am speachless! it covers what Steje was asking for and so much more! I knew I liked Dell! if you have this card installed and configured you need only plug you laptop into any open network jack on the network and Connect to it. this is the true ticket. you have control over power and everything, and it could be acroos the planet from you, as long as you can access it's network connection. Like I said we were useing this across the US. today with no problems.


what do you think?

 

oh yeah, and you can watch it POST and edit BIOS from it too!

 

I must find one, this is awesome. if it can be turned on by remote too, that would eb the ultimate tool.

 

Well it says that you can power it off, and back on(not reboot, but power down, and power up!) remotely as if you were there! so I think it will!

 

Heres my project, i want to turn an lcd laptop display into an lcd tv with an s-video connection.
Lcd screen is from a compaq lte 5280. it has a connecter from the lcd thats a 41 pin connecter, from that 29 wires come out and plug into the main board of the computer, on the other side there are 2 wires that go into a brightness toggle and 5 wires come out from there, I assume thats the power. What do i need and what should i do next?