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Power FC must have.....HOT new mod. for the PFC Commander !!

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Old 08-20-04 | 12:53 PM
  #76  
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From: Chi -> Maidstone
link?
Old 08-22-04 | 11:56 AM
  #77  
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this was what I was talking about for a in car computer. All you would need is a screen and the rf mouse and keyboard that you could store in one of the bins.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...116928935&rd=1
Old 09-09-04 | 11:38 PM
  #78  
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So dose anyone make a touch screen that fits nicely in the din yet? There is one company that makes an overlay for any monitor, but didn’t seem like a viable choice.
That would be the way to go IMO.
Just cut all the crap and have everything from right there. Integrate a synaptic touch pad into the console and you are so set up to do everything.
I bet the datalogit guys would even incorporate a scroll bar for changing parameters without the need to use a keyboard if enough people were to ask.
Old 09-25-04 | 06:05 PM
  #79  
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Originally Posted by skotx
No, the buttons are tiny LEDs. I argue that the screen backlight is EL because it's a thin white filament, it's the same size as the screen, it's got two connection points, and it lights up green (the whole thing) when power is applied. I didn't notice any LEDs behind the screen itself, but it's been over a year ago since I played with this.

To get to it, you have to remove the LCD from the board by bending the metal tabs from the housing. I'll warn you now, it was very difficult for me to re-align the contact points from the LCD to the PCB when I wanted to put it back together. I was getting some pretty weird display results until I got it right.

I haven't tried to change the backlight color. I was just poking around when I mounted the screen in a DIN slot.
Ok. Had to bring this thread back up as I need a couple of things. First off, on either side of the display there's a row of mini LEDs, about 7 of them that light up the display. Those can be swapped for any color that you want, provided they have that color in that size. Secondly, does anyone have a good source of polarized film for LCD screens? I want to reverse the polarity so it will be easier to read and the film they have on there now is on pretty good. I don't want to kill the glass so I'll just add a layer on top. Provided they have a suitable blue or red, that's what I plan to do over the winter. With a colored text and a dark background I think it will be much easier to read.

Any info would be great!

And as far as having issues when removing the screen. So long as you don't remove the rubber strip from the glass, you should be fine with the display when you put it back.

Last edited by Railgun69; 09-25-04 at 06:33 PM.
Old 09-28-04 | 11:40 AM
  #80  
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Anyone?
Old 11-23-04 | 09:43 AM
  #81  
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railgun did you try this yet?
Old 11-23-04 | 11:20 AM
  #82  
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Not yet. But it's still on my to do list. I haven't found a suitable supplier yet.
Old 11-23-04 | 11:25 AM
  #83  
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Not knowing a lot about this, here's my question:

Is an LCD screen just a monitor?

In other words, if you wanted a larger commander screen could you just unhook the wires that go to the commander's small screen and hook them up to a larger screen?
Old 11-24-04 | 05:13 PM
  #84  
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Essentially that is what you can do with the datalogit, but it would be difficult, and not nearly as good as just using the datalogit watches.

Ejmack1 and a few others found a nice 7” touch screen that fits nicely in the double din, and I think I am going to go that direction. But there are issues with which screen to get because the lilliput has a better picture in my opinion, and the Xenarc seems to be of better construction and doesn’t seem to fail as readily.
Old 11-25-04 | 01:52 AM
  #85  
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Originally Posted by capt. bill1
Not knowing a lot about this, here's my question:

Is an LCD screen just a monitor?

In other words, if you wanted a larger commander screen could you just unhook the wires that go to the commander's small screen and hook them up to a larger screen?
No because the size of the screen is what the PFC expects to output to. Each pixel on the screen has an X and Y coordinate. If you get a bigger screen, you'll have to tell the PFC that and adjust accordingly. What would be something like X4 Y8 on a 300X200 screen won't be in the same position as on a 800X600 screen. You'd end up with the same size text a corner of the larger display.
Old 11-25-04 | 11:06 PM
  #86  
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Got ya. Thanks.
Old 11-26-04 | 12:53 PM
  #87  
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railgun, have you found a supplier even for just the LEDs?
Old 11-26-04 | 02:41 PM
  #88  
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I will probably go through ledtronics. They have a massive selection. Though, I've never soldered anything anywhere near this small, so I don't even know that I should try. I still need some polarized film.

I need to make sure I have the right size. I need about 24 total I think. 10 per side of the display and one for each button.
Old 11-27-04 | 08:28 AM
  #89  
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Thanks I am going to try the LED portion of it myself. Hopefully I wont ruin a perfectly good commader.

I don't know enough about the polarized film part; good luck with that. It would look awesome reversed.
Old 12-19-04 | 09:04 PM
  #90  
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Ok. Here's where I may need some help. These are the LEDs that are along the display panel. I have to desolder it from the PCB yet, but that's the easy part. I've never seen surface mount LEDs this small. Does ANYONE have an idea about a reference part # or something along those lines? If worse comes to worse, I'll do an EL panel, but not blue. If I can get a good red, I'll go that route.



Here are the LEDs for the buttons. I don't know if blue will work as it depends on the P/N of the ones I need. Some don't come in blue and if they did, their luminosity isn't all that strong, though at night, I wouldn't want an ultra bright thing anyway, so we'll see.

Old 01-01-05 | 12:40 PM
  #91  
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any updates??
Old 01-01-05 | 01:05 PM
  #92  
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Everything regarding this mod is in this thread now.

https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/power-fc-commander-mod-378933/

But no. Still haven't really gotten anywhere.
Old 01-04-05 | 03:49 AM
  #93  
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hello guys,
well I think that the best thing to do for a nice display of Power FC at your car, is combine it with a small PC like LPC-401X ( http://www.littlepc.com/products_p4littlepc_401X.htm )
Here at Greece we have small PCs that come with a remote control. The idea is simple: put the Small PC under the seat of the co-driver. Buy a TFT display in order to "see" your stuff (DivX, DVD, video-clips, MP3, etc). Connect the PowerFC with the serial port and then run the program at the Small PC (it is a PC after all). Display results at your nice TFT display, which is touch screen BTW.
I think that this is the perfect setup, even if it costs. But you are building not a PowerFC monitor only, but a ICE perfect unit.

I love playing MAME at the traffic lights...
Old 01-17-05 | 06:54 PM
  #94  
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New to the board, so resurrecting this thread. Here's an idea that is pretty far out but not quite science fiction. The Audrey has a 5 inch color touch screen and can be picked up for about $80 on ebay. I have one in my kitchen for Internet surfing but I saw someone had installed one in their truck. It runs QNX (a version on unix and can be hacked to run Linux) and has a serial port. If Dataloggit or equivalent could be ported to unix...

Seriously, a linux version of dataloggit would open up a world of possiblities for using laptops, pdas, etc.

http://www.3rdmoon.com/crusso/audrey...isanaudrey.htm
Old 01-19-05 | 04:57 AM
  #95  
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i found this cool web site that test every kind of led's and has links to where to buy them.



Old 01-19-05 | 04:59 AM
  #96  
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oops i forgot the link

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/ledsmd.htm
Old 01-19-05 | 07:43 AM
  #97  
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Cool. I don't know if those are still small enough, but for the button ones, that will work.
Old 01-19-05 | 08:33 AM
  #98  
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are you sure that the commander ones are smaller the web site says that the Panasonic SMD LED is a little bigger than a grain of salt i could not imagine trying to solder anything smaller.
Old 01-19-05 | 08:53 AM
  #99  
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They're small. Look at this thread. My server's down at the moment, but I'll have it back up so you can look at the pics. They're tiny on the display itself. Definitely smaller than a grain of...anything really.
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=378933
Old 01-21-05 | 09:22 AM
  #100  
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The pics are back up now. You can see what I'm talking about.


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