Questions on GameCube LCD Screens

[Blaine]

I picked up two Intec GC LCD screens on the cheap (I figure they were mislabeled in the store), thinking that I could use them in a variety of ways.

However the more I look around, the more it seems there is little to no documentation on how  to input an RGB signal.

There's a plethora with regards to the PSone screen.

I spent a good amount of time searching the threads at benhecks.com to no real avail. There is mention and talk about an 'rgb mod' but no one ever explains how it's done.

Actually you'll get a few people who say you can't do it and a few who say it's hard.

Has anyone, in past travels or experiences, encountered any knowledge about how this is done?

Personally, the price I paid was worth it even if I have to stomach composite on the LCD (*shudder*) - I'll just have to use it for video instead of games.

[phreak97]

open it up, see if you can find out what the manufacturer of the actual lcd inside is. you might have more luck googling that.

[atom]

Yeah, stop looking at it as an Intec GCN screen, and look at it as an rgb monitor. Inside you should have a circuit board, an audio amp, and a screen. There are probably about 7 wires going to the back of the lcd. RGB, H+V Sync, +5v, GND. There is also a chance there is a pin for switching from 15 to 31khz rgb, mine did.

[Hojo_Norem]

Yeah, stop looking at it as an Intec GCN screen, and look at it as an rgb monitor. Inside you should have a circuit board, an audio amp, and a screen. There are probably about 7 wires going to the back of the lcd. RGB, H+V Sync, +5v, GND. There is also a chance there is a pin for switching from 15 to 31khz rgb, mine did.

What make and model of LCD screen is that?  (assuming you aren't talking about the one that the OP mentioned)

[Blaine]

Yeah, stop looking at it as an Intec GCN screen, and look at it as an rgb monitor. Inside you should have a circuit board, an audio amp, and a screen. There are probably about 7 wires going to the back of the lcd. RGB, H+V Sync, +5v, GND. There is also a chance there is a pin for switching from 15 to 31khz rgb, mine did.

What make and model of LCD screen is that?  (assuming you aren't talking about the one that the OP mentioned)

The Screen is a Casio CMV54NTO4P

So far the only info I've been able to find has been a pseudo pin-out

1l2l3l4l5
6l7l8l9l10

1.None......Use to turn the screen
2.Pink
3.White
4.Red
5.Black
6.None......Use to flip the screen
7.Green
8.Yellow
9.Blue
10.None

But my wires do differ. I have:

1. None
2. Pink
3. White
4. Blue
5. Black
6. None
7. Green
8. Yellow
9. Red
10. None

The Red, Green and Blue are in a different bundle from the remaining wires.

No off chance these are what I think they are, are they? Sounds too easy and my layout doesn't match the one I found online.

Any thoughts about how to proceed?

[phreak97]

try using a multimeter when the thing is running to find the voltage line pin, and try with it off and on the ohm setting to find the ground pin, then you have 5 pins, which are probably red, green, blue, and either composite sync and something else, or h sync and v sync.

[atom]

Mine was a sharp inside a Mad Catz. My red as R, my green was G, and my blue was B. My black was ground, and I cant remember the other ones.

[Guest_Blaine]

try using a multimeter when the thing is running to find the voltage line pin, and try with it off and on the ohm setting to find the ground pin, then you have 5 pins, which are probably red, green, blue, and either composite sync and something else, or h sync and v sync.

Okay, Finding the + and ground is easy enough.

On the off chance the video wires aren't the red wire,green wire and blue wire...

How would I determine which wires are the syncs and which are the RGB?

Is there anything in particular I could do with the multimeter or would I just have to run video into it and start pulling wires?

As well. How would I know wheter or not I could run VGA into the screen?

[phreak97]

start sending it video and hope for the best i guess.. and dont test with vga.. try that after you get it working.

[viletim!]

This device connects to a Gamecube...is it not possible to trace wires from the video output?

I don't know much about these devices but I'd assume that each video signal would be coupled through a capacitor of some sort at the input. If the sync is of the TTL variety it will likely got straight to the input of a chip of some sort, possibly pulled to vcc or ground via a resistor.

[Blaine]

Okay. Here's an update.

Running video into the screen I checked for power and ground with my multimeter. With no success. I have an auto ranging meter and couldn't find the voltage and couldn't find the ground on the ohm setting.

So I started to pull out crimped wires and here's what I found-

Of the 10 spots (Left to right, top to bottom) we have 7 wires:

Empty|Pink|White|Blue|Black
Empty|Green|Yellow|Red|Empty

And here are the results

2) (pink) Pulling the pin caused the video to scroll vertically.
3) (white) Pulling the pin cause the video to scroll vertically as well.
4) (blue) No change?
5) (black) Pulling the pin caused the video screen to power down, touching it to the housing accidentally caused the video to return. Possibly the ground?
7) (green) Pulling pin caused the video to scroll horizontally.
(yellow) Unknown [because...]
9) (red) Pulling pin initally caused no change, however, whenever it touched the metal shielding the screen powered down. worst of all, it touched the empty pin 10 and the entire unit (before only the screen turned off, the audio remained) will no longer turn on.

um... help?

[Blaine]

I thought maybe the car adapter I used broke.

I don't know because apparantly I can't use a multimeter. I got no reading from the stupid adapter but that means nothing because I never got a reading from anything.

[Blaine]

Please?

Anyone?

[Aidan]

Ensure your multimeter works. Test it against a battery. If your multimeter doesn't work, you won't get any further.

[Blaine]

The multimeter WAS broken!

No wonder I couldn't get a reading. I set it to continuity and it read short no matter what the probes were doing.

Ha ha ha.

Nice part is the assholes at radio shack refused to take it back because I didn't have a reciept.

Another radio shack took it back even though they knew they didn't sell it to me!! They looked up in the computer that they didn't sell one of those in two months, but the dude still took it back.

Very cool of him.

Okay. Now that I have a working multi-meter and a small picketing campaign to mount. What do I do?

[Aidan]

If the screen still doesn't work when you've powered it up in it's normal state, then it is possible you might have killed it's controller by connecting pins that shouldn't be connected together.

However, first, check that there is power getting to the various parts!

[viletim!]

Blaine,
From your pin-pulling test it doesn't look to be an RGB monitor at all! If it was I'd expect the video colours to change as you pull a video line out while the others remain. I remember someone mentioning that the GC can out put digital video. Maybe the monitor uses this...

[Guest]

1.   None   brown   turn the screen
2.   Pink   red   Blue
3.   White   orange   Red
4.   Red   none   No pin
5.   Black   gren   GND
6.   None   blue   flip the screen
7.   Green   purple   Syn
8.   Yellow   gray   Green
9.   Blue   white   12v
10.   None    brack   bright

What i get from my lcd!!!

[Guest]

My msn is jungle_soldier@msn.com
and frist color is the color that i get from this forum the second is the color of wires from my lcd and the names are from the coversor board (compisite to this lcd!)

[NFG]

My I suggest you register an account, so you can edit your own posts when you make mistakes?