patrik wrote:
http://a26.lambo.student.liu.se/index.php?section=hard&project=vgalcd
That particular Sharp panel seems to be an 'easy one,' being standard VGA and having published specs. A lot of the... ghettoer... controllers are built for it and its equivalents- specifically, those based on the Chips & Tech chipsets of that bygone era.
There are really only three or four laptop-panel interface standards, if that many, but then come issues like timings, bit-depths, voltages and pinouts. Further, the same panel might come in a number of different interfaces- meaning that one digit of difference in the part number can mean nothing (different production run, different backlight tube, whatever), or total incompatibility.
I'm not sure if manufacturers really make a concerted effort to consider the pinouts "trade secrets," but they keep changing their lineups (fast moving industry, that), and tend to work on-contract for specific firms (Dell, or Dell's subcontractor needs X thousand displays with Y specs for a particular laptop)... thus, they've little impetus for providing spec sheets to the "general public." Sometimes the European branches have more info available than the US sites, as there seem to be tougher laws on availability of support over there.
In any case, the pinouts may/may not vary based on whim and the phase of the moon- they might be using their own standard, they might be using the standard of the laptop-maker who contracted for the panel, they might be using a custom layout to match a cable for a particular implementation (small notebook hinge, etc) ... and/or you might be missing a separate, tiny interface board. (Search eBay for 'laptop LVDS board' or similar, and you'll see some of the external circuitry used to bridge from the panel to whatever the heck the standard interface is on a GeForce2Go/mobile Radeon). Again, those may/may not use custom connectors or pinouts themselves, depending on the application.
Now, if you live in Korea, it seems like you can call up a few distributors and get, say, a shiny XGA Samsung panel, and all necessary interface hardware and cables, for less than a packaged desktop monitor. In the US and elsewhere, it's more that the *aftermarket* guys (rather than the panel manufacturers) have a Good Ol' Boys club going- why sell to hobbyists at cut-rates, when you can make $300+/controller off the embedded and videowall market?
I imagine the situation will begin to improve in the next 12 months, as more tech 'leaks' out of the Asian market, and the Slashdot/Ov4rcl0ck4r scene picks up on it. Searching sites like
Alibaba turn up Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers with interfaces ready to go... the state of documentation and panel support would likely be poor right now, but all it takes is one Thermaltake/Eyetech/Individual Computers/Genesi to pick up the tech and turn it into something ready for the advanced consumer, with premade cables and panel-compatibility lists. (Of course, they could build their own designs based on, say, Silicon Image?'s chipsets, but the costs of tooling up for such probably puts them in as bad a spot as EarthLCD and the like. The boards from the asian manufacturers nobody's heard of are no-doubt going into the cheap packaged panels now on sale everywhere.)
Anyhow, point is that, with the spec-sheets and a good chunk of electronics knowledge, it probably wouldn't be *too* difficult to build your own panel interface that'd work with a fair chunk of modern LCDs... but you'd still have to source the connectors and cables, *and* probably deal with at least one surface-mount or BGA chip that might cost upwards of $30 for a single unit. Not much of a DIY project for those without a PCB miller and a high tolerance for frustration.
