Glass Cockpit

I like free broken stuff that I can fix. Even better is repairable free stuff that's still quite modern. As I've mentioned before, I often rummage through the scrap bins at work and find the occasional shiny thing. Recently, there was a large amount of broken desktop computer LCD displays so I took it upon myself to rescue as many as possible.

I've fixed three so far. My wife had one until I swapped it out for a better panel from my own stock and gave the fixed one to the coworker who tipped me off about the trash treasures. I'm keeping the pair of 19" panels I fixed. They almost match. While true I didn't think to look for the plastics so they would be cased properly, it doesn't matter. I have the bare panel modules, with their control circuitry mounted to the back, positioned right next to each other. Based on the bezel that was still attached to one of them, my gap of less than 1" is far better than the 3" between panel active areas I would have had with the bezels still in place.

I do need a permanent mount, though. The panels became rather hot while in use before I taped computer card slot blanks to the tops to keep air flow to the panel and keep the exposed Kraft paper facing of my insulation from overheating. I think I'll build a wood frame with a channel cut up the center of the frame to hold the panels, a few tiny cooling fans and hooks for wall-mounting. Finish off with a strip of black tape on the steel frame sides in the center and that's that.

I was able to repair two of the three Dell 1800FP panels I've had around for a while. The remaining one will require a new logic board to regain functionality.

I think my next trick will be to fix the 32" LCD monitor I still haven't gotten to. If I pull the processor and solder it back on the right way, it should work again. I just haven't done it yet. I need to, though. That display is getting in the way a lot.