GWIZAH's FAILED TFT ATTEMPT PART 1


Okay here is my first attempt at adding a TFT to the I-opener. I purchased this TFT from TRCXS on Ebay for a cool $30. Yes it arrived nicely packaged and
it was NOT doa. so I began tracking down some Data sheets for this particular TFT ( an NEC NL8060AC26-12) . I happened to find several references to a model no#
NL8060AC26-11 but couldnt find anything about a -12. So I emailed NEC thanks to the kind response from people on the bbs and asked for info regarding this TFT.
according to a guy at NEC it was a special part made for an IBM thinkpad and they had no information regarding this TFT. so he FWD me the .pdf datasheet for the NL8060AC26-11. since there is only a diffrence of 1-digit in the model #'s I figured screw it. I bit the bullet and decided to try upgrading my buddy's I-opener to a TFT
screen.


Here's what happened.

After I obtained a Hirose DF-9 41-pin connector from a discarded Laptop screen harness, I proceeded to take a look at some info posted by Programmer on the board
detailing his mappings of the I-opener LCD connector cables. Here are my findings:

Cut-n-pasted from an Email:

Heres the pinouts for the NEC TFT

Pin No. Symbol Function
1 GND Ground
2 DCLK Dot clock
3 GND Ground
4 Hsync Horizontal sync
5 Vsync Vertical sync
6 GND Ground
7 GND Ground
8 GND Ground
9 R0 Red data (LSB)
10 R1 Red data
11 R2 Red data
12 GND Ground
13 R3 Red data
14 R4 Red data
15 R5 Red data (MSB)
16 GND Ground
17 GND Ground
18 GND Ground
19 G0 Green data (LSB)
20 G1 Green data
21 G2 Green data
22 GND Ground
23 G3 Green data
24 G4 Green data
25 G5 Green data (MSB)
26 GND Ground
27 GND Ground
28 GND Ground
29 B0 Blue data (LSB)
30 B1 Blue data
31 B2 Blue data
32 GND Ground
33 B3 Blue data
34 B4 Blue data
35 B5 Blue data (MSB)
36 GND Ground
37 DE Data / Display enable
38 Vcc 3.3 v
39 Vcc 3.3 v
40 Vcc 3.3 v
Theres one more pin, which is 41: MODE Timing mode select, which is listed as H=Fixed mode, or L /open (assume it means not connected) = DE mode

And heres the I-Opener LCD pinouts

I-opener CN2

Pin No. Symbol Function
1 G4 Green Data
2 G5 Green Data (MSB)
3 R0 Red data (LSB)
4 R1 Red data
5 Vss/Ground Ground
6 R2 Red data
7 R3 Red data
8 R4 Red data
9 R5 Red data (MSB)
10 Vss/Ground Ground
11 B2 Blue data
12 B3 Blue data
13 B4 Blue data
14 B5 Blue data (MSB)
15 Vss/GND Ground
16 G0 Green data (LSB)
17 G1 Green data
18 G2 Green data
19 G3 Green data
20 Vss/GND Ground
21 Notch Not connected
22 LP/Hsync Horizontal sync.
23 YD/Vsync Vertical sync.
24 XCLK Dot clock?
25 Vss/GND Ground
26 VCON Contrast
27 DISP/ENVEE Enable VEE? Display enable?
28 Vdd/3.3v 3.3v
29 Vdd/3.3v 3.3v
30 Vdd/3.3v 3.3v

Okay assuming, (there I go again...making an ass outta myself) the pinouts are correct, I get this:

TFT pin LCD cable Pin Description
24 1 G4 Green data
25 2 G5 Green data (MSB)
9 3 R0 Red data (LSB)
10 4 R1 Red data
7 5 GND
11 6 R2 Red data
13 7 R3 Red data
14 8 R4 Red data
15 9 R5 Red data (MSB)
27 10 GND
31 11 B2 Blue data
33 12 B3 Blue data
34 13 B4 Blue data
35 14 B5 Blue data (MSB)
17 15 GND
19 16 G0 Green data (LSB)
20 17 GND
21 18 G2 Green data
23 19 G3 Green data
3 20 GND
N/C 21 Not connected
4 22 Hsync
5 23 Vsync
2 24 XCLK / Dot clock
1 25 GND
VCON 26 Contrast?
37 27 DE / Disp / Envee
38 28 3.3v
39 29 3.3v
40 30 3.3v

Okay, so now that your all confused...
Basically I soldered the wires on the I-opener LCD directly to the pins on the Hirose connector. Yes, my friend said it was fine. uh huh.
so heres a look (dont laugh) at some of my handiwork with the torch.


crappy pics, DV cap from my camcorder.LCD cable connected to the TFT connector. No, those tiny black dots are NOT
burn marks. They are ink marks for counting pins.

So I tested the cable with a regular voltimeter to see if there was continuity between the connections, AOK.
so I then checked and re-checked my soldering while keeping an eye on the voltimeter.

Okay, ready to start the machine...well the screen is backlit and I see colors!

crappy pic, cant see the colors. uh-oh....

not good...notice how the screen slowly washes out to black

awww man...

Well, a black screen.

and If I reboot... same thing happens. blank screen, white horizontal streaks mixed with vertical streaks....slow fade to black...
So did I hose my screen? Are my connections retarded? Am I? The .pdf from the data sheet for the I-opener is up at the top of the
page for anyone who wants to help me out. I'd really appreciate it if you did.


Check back soon! Hopefully I'll get this thing working.

11/10/01