Removing screen from Thinkpad T40 laptop

[LeedsFan]

Wasn't sure if this should go in this section, but here goes. I built a two player control panel some time back inc. trackball and spinner. I now want to place a laptop inside the CP with Mame installed so that everything is in one. 

I thought about removing the laptop screen and mounting it on the back of the CP. I'm not sure how easy it would be to do this. I didn't design the CP originally with this in mind, but it shouldn't be too hard with some brackets etc. My main concern is with the removal of the top half of the laptop and the subsequent extending of the video cables. I assume I will need to extend these as the screen could be up to 6 or 7 inches from it's base.

Or maybe leave the laptop intact and use a separate LCD screen? How viable is this? Just thinking that the laptop would have to be "open" to switch it on. In which case I wouldn't have the room. Any thoughts?

[severdhed]

that would be alot of work...the cables that attach the screen to the laptop are proprietary..you would have to manually cut and splice longer wires in there...i wouldnt recommend that.  i would either try to position it so the laptop maybe sits  in there at an angle so that the screen can still be attached to it

[LeedsFan]

i would either try to position it so the laptop maybe sits  in there at an angle so that the screen can still be attached to it

hmmmm.... I don't think that's gonna work for me. It could be done but the result would look.... well... a bit of a mess quite frankly.  I'm starting to think that maybe a separate external monitor would be better. The monitor could be removable for portability (going to friends) and that would leave one cable out the back of the CP to connect. The result would be like my own "arcade in a box" kind of thing. That's what I'm aiming for. 

[severdhed]

that's probably a much better option.

[Bender]

you can flip the screen around so it faces up when the laptop is "Closed"
I don't know if you have enough room but if the laptop will fit in the space closed then it should work.
If you do it that way you shouldn't have to extend the cables
I did it on one of my projects and it worked great in the end (after a bit of work to get it apart and put back together again) and I can run the whole thing off the battery

It's a little hard to tell on this pic but the keyboard is right behind the screen, you just have to use a USB keyboard and mouse to work on it

[thecheat]

You absolutely will not be able to just splice a longer cord into a laptop LCD. LCD screens use a flexible plastic sheet with copper traces etched on it which are difficult to solder if you have enough space but the traces are usually 1/32" wide with just about as much space between them.

What you MIGHT be able to do is remove the hinges and mount the LCD panel on the bottom of the laptop - assuming there is enough ribbon cable in there. Usually the cable is wound around one of the hinges and there can be an extra inch or two of slack.

You're better off removing the panel entirely and using an external LCD, much less trouble to do that. If your panel is in good shape, you might be able to sell it on Ebay and recoup some of the money spent on the external screen.

[thecheat]

you can flip the screen around so it faces up when the laptop is "Closed"
I don't know if you have enough room but if the laptop will fit in the space closed then it should work.
If you do it that way you shouldn't have to extend the cables
I did it on one of my projects and it worked great in the end (after a bit of work to get it apart and put back together again) and I can run the whole thing off the battery

It's a little hard to tell on this pic but the keyboard is right behind the screen, you just have to use a USB keyboard and mouse to work on it




What he said (while I was composing my post ). I did the same on a digital picture frame, the Dell I used ended up getting its motherboard hot-glued to the back of the LCD panel and works great.