Pi-Portable & or Monitor.

[pejko]

Hi Kevin thank you for reply , it didnot worked for me but than i found that i had to turn it on with the button board, then remove the button board just than it works without the button board ...strange but it works
Thanks again have a nice day
Pejko

[bleep42]

Hi Kevin thank you for reply , it did not worked for me but than i found that i had to turn it on with the button board, then remove the button board just than it works without the button board ...strange but it works
Thanks again have a nice day
Pejko

That's probably right, I never turn the monitor off with the buttons, so it would always be on anyway.
Regards,
Kevin.

[kohsamui]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this great project.

I about to build something similar. I have an old laptop screen and I have ordered the controller board already.

I have a few questions and would appreciate if someone could help me with it.

1. Why is the Pi not powered with the micro usb, why do you connect it to the pins of the Pi?
2. Why do we have to connect the voltage regulator to the CN3, can't we connect the voltage regulator directly to the DC power supply input?

Thanks

[bleep42]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this great project.

I about to build something similar. I have an old laptop screen and I have ordered the controller board already.

I have a few questions and would appreciate if someone could help me with it.

1. Why is the Pi not powered with the micro usb, why do you connect it to the pins of the Pi?
2. Why do we have to connect the voltage regulator to the CN3, can't we connect the voltage regulator directly to the DC power supply input?

Thanks

Hi, the answer to both questions is that you don't.
I connected the power direct to the Pi simply to get rid of the relatively large USB plug.
I connected the main input voltage through the regulator, so that I can use any voltage from around 11v to 40v, the video board direct will only tolerate from between 7v to 12v. I simply re-used its input socket as it was there and available.
Regards.
Kevin.

[gauthierbouche]

Hello.

I recently bought the same controlle board and a lcd laptop screen. I wanted to make a portable monitor for my laptop, but I have some problems. The board works perfect when I plug it in at 12v. It goes on and off. But when I connect the screen. It goes 3 seconds on, the screen flashes en goes back off. And I don't know what I am doing wrong? I'd didn't change the cables just connect it. Does it matter how much current you put on it? Or just 12v? For the moment I use 600mA.

[bleep42]

Hello.

I recently bought the same controlle board and a lcd laptop screen. I wanted to make a portable monitor for my laptop, but I have some problems. The board works perfect when I plug it in at 12v. It goes on and off. But when I connect the screen. It goes 3 seconds on, the screen flashes en goes back off. And I don't know what I am doing wrong? I'd didn't change the cables just connect it. Does it matter how much current you put on it? Or just 12v? For the moment I use 600mA.

Hi,
Depending on the screen you are using, 600mA sounds a bit low, I would try a more powerful supply, 1A or even 1.5A and make sure you have the correct board and cable & driver (from the supplier).
Regards
Kevin.

[kohsamui]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this great project.

I about to build something similar. I have an old laptop screen and I have ordered the controller board already.

I have a few questions and would appreciate if someone could help me with it.

1. Why is the Pi not powered with the micro usb, why do you connect it to the pins of the Pi?
2. Why do we have to connect the voltage regulator to the CN3, can't we connect the voltage regulator directly to the DC power supply input?

Thanks

Hi, the answer to both questions is that you don't.
I connected the power direct to the Pi simply to get rid of the relatively large USB plug.
I connected the main input voltage through the regulator, so that I can use any voltage from around 11v to 40v, the video board direct will only tolerate from between 7v to 12v. I simply re-used its input socket as it was there and available.
Regards.
Kevin.

Hello Kevin,

thanks for your reply. Got my board and managed to connect my old laptop speakers, which is already a success.

So I could connect/solder the Raspberry directly to the DV input with a regulator in between?

PiGuts.jpg (39.4 KiB) Viewed 6004 times

Thanks for the clarification

Claudio

[bleep42]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this great project.

I about to build something similar. I have an old laptop screen and I have ordered the controller board already.

I have a few questions and would appreciate if someone could help me with it.

1. Why is the Pi not powered with the micro usb, why do you connect it to the pins of the Pi?
2. Why do we have to connect the voltage regulator to the CN3, can't we connect the voltage regulator directly to the DC power supply input?

Thanks

Hi, the answer to both questions is that you don't.
I connected the power direct to the Pi simply to get rid of the relatively large USB plug.
I connected the main input voltage through the regulator, so that I can use any voltage from around 11v to 40v, the video board direct will only tolerate from between 7v to 12v. I simply re-used its input socket as it was there and available.
Regards.
Kevin.

Hello Kevin,

thanks for your reply. Got my board and managed to connect my old laptop speakers, which is already a success.

So I could connect/solder the Raspberry directly to the DV input with a regulator in between?

PiGuts.jpg

Thanks for the clarification

Claudio

Hi Claudio,
You could solder a 5V voltage regulator to the 12v input to the display driver board and use that to power your Pi yes.
However why? as I explained in the post, the display driver board has a 5V regulator built into it, which is quite capable of powering your Pi and maybe a few other bits, like small disk drive usb hub etc. So unless you need lots of power I would use that, saves you using a separate 5V regulator.
Regards,
Kevin.

[hunty1980]

Hi Kevin,

Great post and huge thanks for all the help you are providing. I've managed to build something similar and now want to wire an old laptop speaker to the control board. I noticed on your project you'd done something similar and wondered whether you'd be kind enough to walk me through how this is done?

The laptop speak is 2w and has 2 wires - (red and black)- however the output for speakers on the main board has a 4 pin connector.

Any help would be appreciated.
G

[bleep42]

Hi Kevin,

Great post and huge thanks for all the help you are providing. I've managed to build something similar and now want to wire an old laptop speaker to the control board. I noticed on your project you'd done something similar and wondered whether you'd be kind enough to walk me through how this is done?

The laptop speak is 2w and has 2 wires - (red and black)- however the output for speakers on the main board has a 3 pin connector.

Any help would be appreciated.
G

Hi G.

The sound out connector is the 4 pin connector on the right hand side of the board, looking from where all the external plugs are located, should be labled CN20.
The two middle pins are ground, the two outer pins are Left and Right speakers out, so simply connect a speaker between one of the ground pins (your black wire) and Left out (your red wire) and preferably another speaker from one of the ground pins and Right out, as well, otherwise you'll only get one channel.
That's it, you'll need to set your Pi to output sound over HDMI and the volume can be controlled with the + & - keys on the button board, the ones that also control brightness, contrast etc...
If you have 3 pins then you can safely experiment, but I would expect that the center pin is ground and the pins either side Left out and Right out.
Regards,
Kevin.

[hunty1980]

Hi Kevin,

Great post and huge thanks for all the help you are providing. I've managed to build something similar and now want to wire an old laptop speaker to the control board. I noticed on your project you'd done something similar and wondered whether you'd be kind enough to walk me through how this is done?

The laptop speak is 2w and has 2 wires - (red and black)- however the output for speakers on the main board has a 3 pin connector.

Any help would be appreciated.
G

Hi G.

The sound out connector is the 4 pin connector on the right hand side of the board, looking from where all the external plugs are located, should be labled CN20.
The two middle pins are ground, the two outer pins are Left and Right speakers out, so simply connect a speaker between one of the ground pins (your black wire) and Left out (your red wire) and preferably another speaker from one of the ground pins and Right out, as well, otherwise you'll only get one channel.
That's it, you'll need to set your Pi to output sound over HDMI and the volume can be controlled with the + & - keys on the button board, the ones that also control brightness, contrast etc...
If you have 3 pins then you can safely experiment, but I would expect that the center pin is ground and the pins either side Left out and Right out.
Regards,
Kevin.

Kevin - you're an absolute legend - all sorted. The hardest part was forcing the Pi to use HDMI - it kept giving me an error, but worked out that it was something to do with PulseAudio, so uninstalled that and used the default ASLA and working like a charm.

Huge thanks for all your help.

Greg

[subodhverma21]

Hi,
I am not a elctronics guy, but Pi3 owner. I tried to build a monitor for my pi3 and faced following problem:
I bought from ALIEXPRESS.com (chinese site)
a B156HAN01.2 LCD screen - EDP type
along with compatible LCD controller board - M-NT68676.2A
I connected these two with 12V - 3.75A adapter
LCD controller board lits up but the screen didnot budge.
NOw my problem is how can I check if the monitor is OK or not so that I can ask for replacing.
I am badly stuck.

any help is appreciated.

[bleep42]

Hi,
I am not a elctronics guy, but Pi3 owner. I tried to build a monitor for my pi3 and faced following problem:
I bought from ALIEXPRESS.com (chinese site)
a B156HAN01.2 LCD screen - EDP type
along with compatible LCD controller board - M-NT68676.2A
I connected these two with 12V - 3.75A adapter
LCD controller board lits up but the screen didnot budge.
NOw my problem is how can I check if the monitor is OK or not so that I can ask for replacing.
I am badly stuck.

any help is appreciated.

First, the B156HAN01.2 LCD is powered from the M-NT68676.2A controller board, it doesn't have a 12v input?
The 12V only goes to the M-NT68676.2A, there will then be a 30 pin connector that connects between the M-NT68676.2A and the B156HAN01.2, this must be connected the correct way round, you should also have a small board with buttons on that controls the menus and brightness/contrast for the display.
With nothing else connected to the M-NT68676.2A except the 12v power, the button board, and the B156HAN01.2, you should be able to power the display up and get a menu on the display. If you can't even get this, you need to check all your cables and make sure they are all connected correctly, if they are I can't suggest anything else.
Regards,
Kevin.

[subodhverma21]

First, the B156HAN01.2 LCD is powered from the M-NT68676.2A controller board, it doesn't have a 12v input?
The 12V only goes to the M-NT68676.2A, there will then be a 30 pin connector that connects between the M-NT68676.2A and the B156HAN01.2, this must be connected the correct way round, you should also have a small board with buttons on that controls the menus and brightness/contrast for the display.
With nothing else connected to the M-NT68676.2A except the 12v power, the button board, and the B156HAN01.2, you should be able to power the display up and get a menu on the display. If you can't even get this, you need to check all your cables and make sure they are all connected correctly, if they are I can't suggest anything else.
Regards,
Kevin.

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply.
you have pointed out correctly about 12v supply for the board only.
I am sending you picture of the connection.
The controller board is showing green light. Input signal is HDMI from Pi3.

I have looked at panellook.com to check the details required for lcd screen.
----Signal Systerm : eDP (2 Lanes)
----Signal Electrical : Voltage Input 3.3V (Typ.)
----Current Input 400mA (Max.)
----Consumption 1.2W (Max.)

There is a jumper setting in the board for 12V, 5V, 3.3V. Default is 5V.
1. Should I change this to 3.3V for the LCD (currently 5V)?
2. Or is this 5V jumper setting for the Inverter ?

[bleep42]

Hi,
I don't know about the jumper, if it should be 3.3v the damage has probably already been done, try asking the company you bought it from?
The green light means the M-NT68676.2A is turned on and getting a HDMI signal, it would eventually go red if there was no signal and a message would breifly be displayed saying no signal.
Are you absolutley certain the flat cable between the board and the display is.
1. up the correct way, that type of cable often only has the connections on one side of the cable?
2. the correct orientation, ie pin 1 on the M-NT68676.2A goes to pin 1 on the display?
You can probably change the link to 3.3v without causing any problems, but don't set it to 12v.
Otherwise you need to contact the supplier.
Regards,
Kevin.

[Daily]

Awesome project! Curious if you could tell me/show a diagram of how its wired to the GPIO pins on the raspberry pi? Any help would be great!

[bleep42]

Awesome project! Curious if you could tell me/show a diagram of how its wired to the GPIO pins on the raspberry pi? Any help would be great!

Hi, As always Google, or DuckDuckGo is your friend!
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=raspb ... 63HXrmVsFg
I use pin 2 and 6.
Regards,
Kevin.

[bleep42]

Awesome project! Curious if you could tell me/show a diagram of how its wired to the GPIO pins on the raspberry pi? Any help would be great!

Hi, As always Google, or DuckDuckGo is your friend!
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=raspb ... 63HXrmVsFg
I use pin 2 and 6.
Regards,
Kevin.

Hey,
Thanks for the response to my question on your thread. I figured out which pins I want to use, but was just wondering how the wires attach to those pins. I see in your pictures the red/black wire from the regulator go to pin 2 and 6. Do the white wires that come from the switch and capacitor splice into the red and black and use the same pins? I tried to do some googling but couldn't find it.
Thanks,
Shane

Hi Shane,
I take the 5v from the display driver board, via the 2 core white wire to the switch/capacitor, (the capacitor is to try to reduce voltage drops when there is a power surge, like plugging in a USB device) that then goes on to pins 2 and 6 on the Pi.
The red/black wires are also connected to pins 2 and 6, puerly to supply 5v power to the USB hub. The actual connector I use was one I had around, it is simply a 3 in a line connector, with the correct spacing and push on connection, I soldered directly on to the top of the plug connectors, I only used the 2 connectors at either end of the three, which correspond to pins 2 and 6 on the GPIO.
Regards,
Kevin.

[bleep42]

Oh! That makes so much more sense! One last question. Where do the red and black wires attached to the Out +/- on the voltage regulator go to? Again I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all of my questions. I am learning a lot just from this project and have been having a blast doing it!

Thanks,
Shane

Hi Shane,
Sorry I didn't get notified of your message!
So that I could use almost any DC power source and so that I could re-use the video card DC input connector. I disconnected, (cut or unsoldered can't remember which) where the DC power connector middle positive pin solders onto the video card, so that I could 'break into' the DC input.
I then took the DC input connectors Positive (middle pin) to the voltage regulator, red wire far right, and brought back the now reduced DC voltage to where I just disconnected the the middle pin from on the circuit board, the other red wire which goes under the board, so I've soldered that to the solder pad of the DC power connector middle pin, on the under side of the board. Because the Negative (Black wire) is common, I just found a suitable point on the Video card that was 0V, I think I actually soldered it to the negative of the DC power connector, just because it's nice and big.
Hope that makes sense.
Kevin.

[TheMightyA]

PiPortable.jpgPiGuts.jpg

Hi Pi People, I had some bits and pieces lying around, which I've kept over the years because they 'could be useful' mainly a nice LCD screen from a dead laptop, but also a miniature hard drive from a portable music player and of course a Pi. So I decided to build a Pi-Portable https://picasaweb.google.com/1058669909 ... rHK9sKXwwE It can also be used as a straight monitor, as I've brought all the connectors (VGA, DVI-D, HDMI) out to the rear, in this case the Pi can be powered down with the toggle switch, also on the rear panel.

The main problem was getting a driver for the LCD panel, I found this one M.NT68676.2A which I was able to buy and have programmed for my LCD by a company on Ebay and cost about £25 including a button board and custom cable for the LCD.
I also wanted to be able to run my Pi-Portable from almost any DC power source, car battery, laptop power supply, laptop battery...; the LCD board needs 12v, but will run happily down to 7v and the Pi 5v. Luckily the LCD board provides a very stable 5v output, which on testing was able to power a Pi, hard disk and USB hub, with WiFi and Bluetooth dongles plugged in. So all I had to do was power the LCD board; I did this with a variable voltage switching regulator, it'll take any DC input from 11v to 40v and output 9v which I use to power the LCD, the LCD board then powers everything else.
The top of the base box is steel, re-purposed from a video recorder metal top, the bottom tray is sheet aluminium. I needed the top to be strong as the lap top hinges were going to be bolted to it, and they are quite stiff to allow the screen to be angled.
Because I knew the base unit box would not be heavy enough to be hinged like a laptop, I had to turn the hinges around, so that they hinged the other way to normal, this was a real bugger, but I eventually managed to get it reasonable, it won't quite fold flat, but is good enough for me.
I obviously had to fold, drill and file the base unit to accommodate all the bits. Folding was done with just a vice and a thick steel edge like a chunky steel ruler and pliers/mole grips, and G clamps. All holes were drilled and then filed to the appropriate shape for whatever was going through them.
All the components are bolted to the base with nice small headed screws and bolts, there are a scattering of stick on felt pads as feet.
Almost as an after thought I realised the lap top had a pair of mini speakers, so I was able to wire them to the audio amplifier built into the LCD driver board, I can also plug in a pair of head phones, or better speakers to the rear panel, which automatically cut out the built in speakers. So with audio over HDMI I also have sound.
The keyboard & mouse are now wireless, using a wireless USB dongle, I'm using Noobs to dual boot Raspbian and Risc OS, and this keyboard & mouse works perfectly wit this. (I haven't updated the photos for this, so the mouse is shown with a cable)
Hope this is a bit of inspiration to someone.
Regards, Kevin.

Major Components.
LCD driver spec. http://www.drivestar.biz/files/M.NT68676.2A.pdf
Bought from:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M-NT68676-2A- ... 3f23541e55

Variable switching regulator. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LM2596-Voltag ... 2c6d713559

4port hub. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200892610415? ... 1439.l2649

Micro IDE to USB. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Micro-IDE-1-8 ... 2c55939251

Short HDMI cables.
Male/male http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330667385586? ... 1439.l2649

Male/female http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360743434609? ... 1439.l2649

8Gb SD card :- http://swag.raspberrypi.org/collections ... gb-sd-card

Stickers :- http://swag.raspberrypi.org/products/stickers

Keyboard & Mouse:- http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-mini-w ... kset-n69jx

Alright so i am very veyr new at this but slowly working my way around the pi and what it can do. If i were ro try and make it portable with a small 7 inch screen could i power it with a portable charger? What is the purpose of the regulator?

[rollmeister]

I read the manufacturer pdf states 12v for input and this really works stable at 9v?

Connecting the output of the input power 9v to the dc in jack should work also, correct?

Thank you for your effort in documenting this.

[bleep42]

I read the manufacturer pdf states 12v for input and this really works stable at 9v?

Connecting the output of the input power 9v to the dc in jack should work also, correct?

Thank you for your effort in documenting this.

Hi,
Yes, certainly my board works fine at 9v, it even still worked at 7v, but probably not much lower as it has to be able to generate 5v for it's own chips, I couldn't see any dimming of the back light, mine is LED, not sure if it would still be ok if flourescent.
Regards,
Kevin.

[duke2k7]

Very cool project man, well done!