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Obtaining Used LCD Parts?
davebarz asks: "With LCDs having already passed several generations and become affordable for the average user, one would think the biggest question would be which LCD to buy. But what about for geeks with no budget and no desk space... for instance, college kids? As friends' LCD monitors stop working due to particular components such as inverters or backlights, it's hard to resist trying to take their panel off their hands and try to fix it for oneself. There's nothing difficult about changing backlights or inverters, but after getting just such a monitor from a girlfriend, I've found that it's nearly impossible to find parts. The actual LCD panel works fine, so why throw out a $400 monitor when all it needs is a $30 power inverter? So, my question is, to where should one go to find out exactly what part one needs and then buy a suitable replacement? Specifically, I'm in the market for an inverter for a Gateway FPD1730. The inverter appears to be an Ambit model, but they're no help since they're exclusively OEM. Can Slashdot provide me with any help?"
Of course once you have become an OEM you'll need to figure out what to do with the 1000 part minimum order you just got ;-)
I hope you were trying to be funny, since most OEM suppliers would not sell a part developed for a specific OEM to anyone else, at least that's how it works in my business.
BMost of electronic component companies would be quite happy to send you a "sample" (or two) if you project an impression of someone who is designing "the next greatest gadget I can not tell you about right now" and you are evaluation their components for the "gadget". Sometimes if their real product are chips they would sell you an evaluation board. Well, for those you'd have to pay, but I suspect that what they charge for these boards is still below what it would cost you to assemble one (even assuming that college kids work for their girlfriends for free BUT tend to burn a part or two in the process of hand-soldering the board ;-) ).
Paul B.
Odds are reasonable that it died from some other cause (knocked off desk, smashed display; staffer tripped and dumped coffee into the works; tech snapped one of the aformentioned delicate ribbons; etc) and that the part you need still functions.
If you can locate a ready local supply of such, you might be able to not only fix the original but merge some of the junkers to make working displays as well. Doing this well requires either a large shed or a low-rainfall region. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
This is one of the best ask slashdot's ever. Thanks for all the info everyone. I have several dead LCDs sitting around and haven't managed to find the time to research the parts and narrow down what searches work.
You just saved me a huge amount of time. Maybe someday now I'll have a desk that's not 75% covered by monitors!
Cheers!
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
They don't. They use a completely different protocol called LVDS.