CD32 Laptop

[Ilwrath]

Yep.... The LCD Panel will be far and away your most difficult of problems.  From my understanding of it, many different laptops have different standards on their LCD panels, and none of them are exactly compatible, or easy to support from a standard video signal.  I've looked for a solution to put a 800x600 LCD panel from a laptop into a VGA-style analog signal, and I haven't had any luck finding anything even close to what I need pre-fabricated, and even less luck finding any information on the Toshiba panel I have.  :-(

Does anyone know how exactly the PAWS laptop case A1200 worked?  Did they basically have an analog-enabled LCD display that they built the case around, or did they custom make an interface?

[Ilwrath]

Poorly. The one PAWS system I did see never did work right and the PAWS guys worked on it all day. $2500 US case, and you had to supply the A1200.

Hah!  Yeah, I remember that.  (We were at the same demo at MAE - I'm Tom from the old DCG.)

Their external scan-doubler didn't work much better (shorted out an A1200, I think!).  Not one of their better showings.  The PAWS trackballs were cool, though.  I still have mine stored away, somewhere.  

If one is looking for an Amiga laptop, a decent used system and UAE for Linux might be the best bet.

Yep.  Very true.  But what we're looking for is a use for an old LCD display.  I have no idea how to build any type of interface for it, though.  ;-)

[Ilwrath]

I've been looking into the possibility of using the AverLogic AL250/AL251 in an external scandoubler... Perhaps this would help solve the LCD panel issue... Since Amigas do have both Digital and Analog RGB output.

I doubt it.  The core of the problem is that most laptop panels use a proprietary Low-Voltage Differential (LVD) connection.  And grouping it as a "connection" isn't quite right, as each manufacturer uses a DIFFERENT implementation of LVD.  (I've yet to hear for sure if they are logic-wise incompatible, or if they just each toss all the pins into different shaped connectors)  But, as if all that wasn't bad enough, the laptop manufacturers guard the specs on their interface as a trade secret.

So, the problem is much less focused around getting your Amiga to output a reasonable signal than it is focused around getting your panel to accept and display ANYTHING.