9/6/14 TV Project Begins

Today I went to the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences with a friend of mine to help launch a sturgeon tracking drone performing system testing. I met Dr. Tom Consi and one of the grad students working in the lab named Joe.

While leaving the building after the flight I picked up a 32" TFT LCD screen that was left for scrap. After bringing the screen home and figuring out what it was I decided that I want to turn it back into a fully functional monitor. My first thought was to run the screen directly off of an Arduino Uno but after further research I found out that isn't really possible. LCD displays require 3 components to operate, the screen itself, an inverter to convert AC to DC for the back light, and a driver board to interpret signals coming into the TV (via DVI, VGA, HDMI, etc). This means that at the very least I will end up ordering an inverter board for the TV. This screen is the same screen used in a certain brand of Phillips TV's so finding parts is actually pretty simple.

Although I would still kind of like to create my own Arduino driver for this TV, I located a company on e-Bay who provides a fully functional LCD to TV/monitor (inverter, driver, and power supply) kit for under $40. They don't have my exact model listed on there site but hopefully on Monday I will get an email saying they are able to get parts.

Of course all of this is assuming the LCD itself actually works. From a visual inspection there are a few scratches on the screen but overall it looks pretty healthy. Until I hear back from my e-bay friends I think I am going to hold off manually turning on the back light as I am not sure exactly how to do it. Because the cost of parts is so low I am going to assume on the presumption that the LCD is functional (here's hoping I don't regret this later!).

Once/if I get the TV working I plan to build a nice wooden enclosure around the screen. I am thinking of hooking up one of my Chromecast's to the TV so that can be included in the wooden box design. Depending on cost it would also be awesome to include some form of build in speaker system (cheap sound bar maybe?) to this case. When I get some free time I will draw this up along with a stand in Rhino. Hopefully I can take my 3D model and break it down into 2D pieces to be cut/laser cut at the Milwaukee Makerspace. I have not yet joined but I think I will. $40 a month is a small price to pay for 24/7 access to heavy machinery.

That's all for now, until I hear back from e-Bay this project is at a stand still.

The Beginning

Welcome to my own little slice of the Blogger world! My name is Alex Hamm and I am currently a student studying Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. I have only been here on campus for a few weeks but already I have accomplished and learned so many things that it seems only fitting to record and catalog these adventures for future reference. My goal is to document each and every project that I undergo while studying here at UWM. Blogging is a great way to visualize progress and provide a timeline of events exactly as they unfolded. I hope one day that I will be able to look back on this blog and see just how far I have come. Enjoy the ride!

Alex