Another crazy portable hack of mine

Either you are going transparent, or you will be installing an "indeglo" EL sheet - which would be cool

You're disassembling a perfectly fine Portable LCD?

c

BACK LIGHT!!!!!   to the NON BACK LIT!!  LOL   WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  

Uniserver nailed it!

I have an extra one of these displays so I dont care if I kill it or not. Chalk it up to scientific research. hahah...

I am thinking about going with an EL sheet, A5 size is a bit too small especially given the electrode sizes on the boarder. 

So I am going to look for an A4 sheet and cut it down. But I need to find out if they are cuttable, and they are a bit pricey! If I can cut the material down, I do have to leave the electrode in place at least on 1 of the edges. So, most likely i will compensate for that, and just fold the electrode underneath so its not blocking visible areas. 

The visible area of the LCD panel is roughly 216MM x 140MM. Just under the A5 sheet size. at least horizontally. 

I havent decided on color. Maybe aqua blue? or white? I dunno. 

but... There is the matter of getting the "wires" out of the panel. the Zebra stripe LCD connector strips run around all 4 sides. so... I am either going to have to fit HV wire in between in the corners, or drill holes in the PCB in unused areas. Traces are everywhere and spacing is really tight... but I think I can find a remote location and drill a hole. But I have to keep the creepage distance to a minimum, because the first arc-over from HV to signal trace = BANG. goodbye LCD. 

I'd look for the most power efficient color, that's also still usable.

Powering the EL sheet is definitely doing to be an interesting experience. I may have to roll my own inverter. Not sure yet. 

12V inverters are kind of big on power consumption, so the internal 12V regulator on the logic board will not suffice. the 5V inverters on the market dont have enough output current to run a large A5+ sheet. 

So, I think i will use a regulated output inverter off the main 6 to 7.5V B supply. The voltage is relatively low. 100 to 200v. at rouhgly 400Hz. Easily doable with a re-wound CCFL transformer, and a 555 timer circuit. 

I thought about LEDs, and laser etched gradation sheet (used in modern day LED panels), but not enough room underneath to put it. 

I wish I would have thought of an EL sheet lol

hey that stuff is pretty cool!

Yup. its going to be fun to get it in there because of all 4 sides of the panel being used for electrical connections. 

But ill figure out a way. 

Certainly one of the coolest hacks.  I'm looking forward to it.

This is going to be interesting!

Technight. I have a spare non back-lit display you can have if you want it. The LCD part is damaged from heat or pressure. So that part is no good. But for practice/parts it probably is fine.

would be great if you can figure out a straight forward process.

maybe ones could send you their screen!?  for a price.

Well I ordered the A4 sheet. Expensive, but at least it comes with the inverter and wiring. 

So, The seller did say I can cut down the sheet, and fold over the electrode, and it would work fine. So we will see.... 

As far as wiring the inverter into the portable, I have yet to figure out how I am going to do that. I think I will pick off the system standby signal from the PMU IC (yes, I know which pins those are, haha). 

Once I have that, I can then allow the inverter to be switched on or off depending on whether the machine is in standby or powered on. 

As far as electronic brightness control from the OS, Well thats not possible unless I develop my own little hardware with a custom control panel that speaks to it, Or.. if someone would graciously let me "borrow" a 5120 to 5126 apple backlit conversion portable/kit. 

This would allow me to reverse engineer the control logic they created, and I can adapt it over to EL/LED. No issue.

Ya, the sheets can be cut. Seems weird, but they can. I used to play with EL sheets long, long ago.

My EL sheet was shipped out today. 

So hopefully I dont botch this 60 odd dollar EL sheet while cutting it.

Major updates on this front. Wowee what a nightmare.... began to question myself a bit. But I am the mad scientist after all..

Ill post further details with lots of pictures a bit later when I get off work.

Ok, Got my A4 EL sheet in today. 

Here is what it looks like behind the screen powered-off:



And with it on: 



I asked him to send Aqua, but he was out of stock so I ended up getting light blue. So not quite Indiglo. But close enough. I think it looks cool regardless. 

With that out of the way, Its time to figure out how to cut this thing down to size, and get it to fit between the panel and the driver electronics. Not an easy task. Considering I need to pick it right the first time, as i dont want to kill this $60 sheet of A4 EL stuff.... Also the inverter is HUGE. I still havent figured out what to do about that, yet... 

Here is the electrodes on the panel itself:



Also, Here is the electrode connections from the inverter, Clearly sticking out from the edge of the EL sheet. This wasnt going to work, for one its too thick so I Cant fold it back, and have enough room to put it back together. It just had to go. 



If I cut that out, Then what can I do about it? Well I can scratch through the laminate on the backside of course! This allowed me to reconnect the electrode wires from the inverter. 

So, after some careful cutting, you end up with this: 



Now, that leaves just the top electrode to deal with. What to do about that? Well fold it out of the way behind it! Well, this is ok, but you have to make sure the fold is just before, or on the edge of the visible area. Folding the EL sheet in a visible area, can cause delamination or electrode distortion, killing the light in that section. Keep this in mind. 

Here is the folded electrode, you can just see it sticking up:



Here is the backside mount of the original wires: 



Test fit: 



And lets light it up!



So, now its time to get it back into the LCD assembly. Well, this is where I ran into yet another problem: The original electrode wires were too thick! Well, I had to cut away some of the top folded plastic, I also had to cut back a tiny bit of the Zebra strip (conductive rubber between LCD glass and PCB). And solder in some 30 gauge wire. This is very thin wire, But its thin enough JUST to fit... Luckily its not causing any problems, because the inverter carries anywhere from 90 to 150VAC. 





Here is a picture of it off. Yes you can still use it without the backlight on



Now another problem: I had to make a new LCD ribbon cable between the motherboard and the LCD. The one I had, someone pretty much screwed it, scraped it, severing some wires. So, I decided to grab an old U-ATA133 IDE Ribbon, and make up a new one: 



And Here are the results: 





It works... YAY!!!!

Still more to do, Figuring out where to mount the inverter, And see if I can coax bbraun to make me a small control panel  enable/disable the backlight and brightness. 

The inverter pulls 560Ma at full brightness. This drops substantially when you slowly bring the voltage down to the inverter. 

I will likely make a small decoder/driver card that goes into the ROM slot for the control panel in system 6/7 to work. 

That inverter looks big. Wonder how small it is out of box. I think the factory units had the inverter in the display.

That is SO crazy sweet.

Wow, thats pretty cool.

Out of the box its huge, it has a monstrous transformer in it. 

There must be better third party inverters/voltage boosters that would work for size constraints.

Well it was a large A4 Sheet so it came with that big inverter. 

But.... Because I cut it down, it should be much better now. 

But my goal is to make a small expansion card that goes into the ROM slot. I will use a CPLD to decode the address bus to allow the control panel to work, but have a small MCU on it to act as the inverter controller. Ill use its PWM output to drive a mosfet, into a small transformer at 400Hz. the PWM will be the brightness control.  

This is SO neat!

This makes me want to get a non-backlit Potable just so I can get one of these installed in it! It looks brigher and better than the backlit's old CCFL lamp, too (which, besides being old technology, likely hasn't aged well).

That being said, I wonder if one of those EL things can be retrofitted into a backlit Portable, using the original control circuitry?

c

^ It should be possible, sorta. All it comes down to is voltage and the voltage curve. The original, let say, ran at 12v but by 6 volt it may be off. With EL, which operates at a higher voltage, there may be an issue with the dimming "curve".

Just guessing though, you guys know more about this stuff that involves magic smoke and unicorns.

Yeah, I'd imagine the EL panel would need, at a minimum, some sort of "glue" to make it compatible with the voltages and curves of the old backlight circuit. Then what about the original CCFL tube and reflector? Remove them? A backlit LCD is structured differently from a non-backlit panel, so I'm not sure how that would work.

Techknight would know best, I think.

c

You would need to change out the CCFL inverter for an EL inverter, and would need supporting circuitry, if not fully custom in order to convert the control signals from the portable, (should be PWM), to the signals needed to run an EL panel. 

Basically, an inverter changeover would be the only thing needed here. CCFLs run at 800V to 2KV. EL runs around 90 to 120v roughly 400Hz. 

They make these EL panels in various colors including white. but i stuck with light blue, I really wanted aqua. but light blue is good, looks nice

Aqua Green is what is in the emate, I believe. 

I did not know CCFLs ran at that high of a voltage!

Yup, and at a much lower current than EL.

EL runs at a low voltage, and higher current.

The reason why EL inverters are larger than CCFL, is the frequency. EL frequencies are anywhere from 400hz to 800hz or so. while CCFL runs well above 18khz. maybe even 20 to 30khz. 

Easiest EL inverter is taking an old wall transformer, you know, the old 120v to 12v or 9v, and use it in reverse with a 555 timer and switching transistor. 

Is it possible to make an EL inverter small enough to fit inside the Portable?

c

Probably. But we gotta see if it can deliver the current to the EL without overheating

Wow. I like this!

Small pie fan?

Well, The results are bittersweet. 

Here is the result after assembly: Looks nice! BUT... and I mean a big BUT... 



If you look at the LCD, After its been on for at least 15 minutes, it begins to "develop" the film pull lines as if it were tunnel vision:

These displays are sensitive to this I suppose. I didnt use much heat when pulling the transflective film off, But I did pull hard. I am wondering if I damaged the LCD from doing this, it looks like I did.



Was worth a shot I guess. Next time, I just have to use more heat and pull slowly. be VERY careful. I was pulling on the sheet, HARD.. the tunnel vision "creases" appear to be at the points where I rested after pulling. 

Oh well....Its not really affecting it that bad. 

there is also a black line that develops on both sides of the LCD as well around the same time. This could have happened before I took the LCD apart ,as I have no idea if this LCD was good or not. I got it for parts, and started with it. This could have been a problem before I even started. I dont know. 

Its not affected whether the EL is on or not, it still shows up after awhile. Just like tunnel vision. 

Not sure what you mean by black lines, but my 170 has some odd black lines/edges. Looks like it was just part of the production process - primitive back then.

As for the creases, you maybe can try massaging to see if they go away. Also did you clean the display back with alcohol or something? My other though may be that its residue.

Nope, screen is clean. 

I think the LCD is actually bad. Take a look at this: 



That was after about 45 minutes or so? of being on. 

Just powered it down, and it seems to have the creases and if you look very carefully, the About Finder "burned in" to the screen.. With the memory etc still present. The LCD panel itself seems to be holding a residual charge which isnt normal. 

Thats definitely a bad LCD. Since this is an active matrix LCD, there are little PolySilicon transistors on each pixel. There should also be a ground plane in the panel to dissipate the charge when its not in use, etc, but its not functioning for some reason. 

I am sure you do not want to take it apart again, but I wonder if the EL sheet is causing the ghosting issue?

Its not. does the same thing if I leave the EL sheet turned off. Although it is not out of the realm of possibilities, considering the EL sheet is a big capacitor essentially, and its not grounded to the chassis (inverter is seperate) 

Ill just leave it alone, its not like its going to be on 24/7. 

I do have another spare LCD that I might go ahead and destroy, Maybe. 

The LCD I used was from a parts machine that was busted up in shipping, shredded ribbon cable, (that I had to fix), and a bad motherboard as well. I bought this portable last week just for hacking. I was going to convert it into a modern machine considering I already have a 5120 and 5126 for my collection. This third one was specifically for hacking. 

But since this one has cracks that I had to glue all back into place, I decided to not proceed with the PC conversion. Instead, I decided to use this as my hack/mod/hotrod machine. So the first thing I started with was the backlight mod. Of course, it was missing the battery when I got it, and they nearly destroyed the machine by removing the HDD. they basically shredded the floppy, and LCD ribbons. somehow. I had to rebuild the LCD ribbon, and replace the floppy ribbon. 

Regardless, i had no idea if the LCD was even good to start with. But I have a whole upper display head assembly that I got from Uniserver a couple years back for testing/parts. It seems to work perfectly fine. 

I could mod it like i mentioned, and use this first LCD attempt as a test LCD for benching logic boards and leave it at that. 

Maybe if you try another, bake it for a while first to get overall heat up. Then with a helper, that pulls evenly, use a heat gun again. Heck, with the right oven temp one may not even need the heat gun. Just a thought.

Well you cant get it too hot. Because the reflective material film is sitting on top of the polarizing film. Trick is to remove the reflective material without damaging the polarizer. 

All I can say is Mike is a genius!!! He is the man!!!!

It was the LCD panel for sure. 

I grabbed my Test screen which i know for a FACT is good. Performed the same proceedure peeling the film off, and cleaning the adheasive. 

Works fine. no tunneling. 

Good to hear!

Techknight... can those two caps on the back of the non-backlit be replaced with tantalums??? There are other tantalums on it.. not sure why they used electrolytic... I would assume there has to be a reason?? No?? I know I've asked you this question before but since you were pulling apart a 5120 LCD I figured you'd see those little guys on it and know what I mean...

And I mean the two on the back of the LCD display of the non-backlit... a 10uf 16v and 220UF 10V

i am beginning to see that apple used elecrolytics because they are much more tolerant to things like voltage spikes and reverse bias.  because even apple knew then the possable dangers of tantalum caps.

https://youtu.be/u1Gsf9Lzkyg

https://youtu.be/u1Gsf9Lzkyg

i guess youtube videos are not auto inserted from a link.

Lots of factors. Price, Availability of that value, etc.. can factor into the choice between ceramic, electrolytic, and tantalum. 

Also, all 3 types of capacitors have their own parasitic effects as well. For example, the Ceramic capacitors will vary their capacitance based on the voltage applied across the dielectric. This effect may be undesirable for that part of the circuit. I do know this wrecks havok in vertical deflection circuits, it distorts the waveform. 

Oooooooo!  That's cooler than I imagined.

If you can put together a bit of hardware to make it plug-and-play, this would make an awesome kit to sell.

I have a question... can the LCD form a Macintosh Portable be used with a CRT Macintosh?  If so, can you make a backlit LCD 128k?

Maybe, but I do know the LCD is proprietary. 

Very good work!

Ooo.  Someone with a spare Portable and a Compact care to examine the innards?  A cool lit LCD 128k or 512k would be pretty darn cool.

I have a 512x256 Planar EL display i was going to interface, but the lack of some vertical resolution sorta killed the project before I got started. There has to be pixel/timing room for the front porch and back porch periods of the sync pulse. (blanking interval). 

awesome mike, have you done any battery life tests?   do you think this will consume much less then a 5126 back light setup?

I dont know, and no I havent. I have to design a new inverter that can run between 6 to 7VDC. The one I have is for 12V only. 

Man that stuff is cool.  I just Lycosed it on the tubes, and found out that you can almost cut it like vinyl, then run jumper wires between the little pieces.  Make illuminated signs.

Now I want to make a tiny Apple logo where the badge is normally, then make it glow.  :O

This makes me regret not getting that portable at a computer meetup  for $15 in 2012.

I sold one, then gave the other to the computer teacher at my brother's school.  Oh well.

I think I am the one you sold it to. Backlit? 

I don't remember, honestly.  I had 2 of them with bags.

Any updates on this?

I'm toying with the idea of getting a non-backlit Portable, and applying this hack to it, but it won't work for me if this hack isn't finished to the point that it's self-contained (i.e., if the inverter board that can run off the Portable's power supply hasn't been designed/built yet).

c

Not yet. But I do really want to finish it though. 

I am stuck at that part where I need someone to loan me an apple official non-backlit to backlight upgrade kit. I need to duplicate the I/O card so it works like stock. 

Here's a picture of one in case it might help:



Since it goes in the rom slot I wonder if it causes a 5120 to identify as a 5126?

On a side note, if you make any more ram cards let me know please...

I know, ive seen it. I need it physically in front of me. 

I have a few RAM cards left. My last batch though. 

I have one of these upgrades, but unfortunately the display cable has been torn apart. At the moment it's in Ferrix's hands to get it back to work. Since I live in Europe, though, it'd be a little difficult to lend you mine, you'd probably be better served if someone a little closer to you could give a hand!