clear lcd screen computer case free sample
I saw a really cool video of a PC case called "Snowblind", that had a transparent LCD Screen as a side panel. I was amazed over how cool it was. The only problem was that it was really expensive. Therefore, I tried making my own! In this instructables I will go through how I made it, and how you could make your own. The best of all, since it was made from an old monitor that was thrown away, it was basically free! I just added some LED strips on the inside of the case to get better contrast on the screen. You could probably re-use the monitors backlight, but it"s safer and easier to just get some cheap LED strips.
You will have to reverse engineer the controller to find the power connections, and solder a new power connector on. This way, you can use the ATX power supply that powers your computer. I used a multimeter, where I had one probe to the ground plane (For example around the mounting screws), and used the other probe to search for 5V or 12V power on the pins coming from the power supply.
First, remove the frame of the panel. It is fixed with clips, so just bend the frame a little and lift the frame up. Next, separate the front LCD from the backlight. For the next step, you will have to be careful. This step involves removing the anti glare film. It is glued to the panel, and therefore it"s easy to break the LCD when trying to remove it.
Then you are done modding the LCD! Now, you can hook it up to the panel and test it. Just be careful with the ribbon cables going from the LCD PCB to the panel.
The side panel of this case fits the LCD perfectly. Just line it up to the side facing the back, and to the top, and use some tape to tape it to the glass. Then, use some vinyl on the outside where the LCD is not covering the glass.
It"s really important to have lots of lights inside the case, to make it easier to see the LCD. Therefore, try to fill the case with even more LED strips.
You are now ready to assemble everything. In this case, the controller fit nicely in the hard drive compartment, so I glued it there and fed the ribbon cable through the hole in the inside of the case. That way it was pretty much hidden inside the case.
Now you can carefully mount the side panel back on the computer. You might have to drill a new hole for the thumb screw in the back to make it fit properly.
You can now power up the computer, open the screen settings and set it up for dual screens. You might have to flip the display 180 degrees too. When you have done that, open Wallpaper Engine and set a wallpaper of choice!
Hey I have a little question, I also have a Dell 1905FP, but I think it"s an older model because I don"t have a ribbon cable but a normal cable with a plug. My problem is that I have peeled off one film but it still looks like there is a second film on the back because it is still a little blurry. But I"m afraid that if I try to pull them off, my LCD display will break. Maybe you have an idea. Thanks in advance
Really neat. I saw the same snowblind case and wanted it but too expensive. I also saw someone who made their own using a USB monitor. But I like your setup better.2
Terrific job! May I ask why you would need to remove the front polarizer? If my understanding is correct, both the front and back polarizers are needed in order for the LCD to work properly (i.e., the light gets polarized by the back polarizer first, and then passes through the front polarizer)? You comments will be appreciated!
Hey, great work on this project. I wanted to buy the snowbind case but couldn"t justify the cost. I have the same case and I ended up picking up the same monitor that you used in your project.
Is it possible that you post or send me photos of the inside of the case when you have this installed? I"m just a bit confused on how you wired up everything?
I tried taking some photos, but I have covered the screen PCB with a cover, so it was hard to see in the photos. I basically just laid it inside the case with a 90-degree angle. I tried drawing it here: (view from the front)0
I used "wallpaper engine" to just set the animations as wallpaper on that screen. I mentioned it in the last step, but I could probably make a own step about that, if you are interested in more details.2
I think you should have more pics and info about the re- mounting the LCD. After all if you don"t do it right all that work is for nothing. While I understand your wiring diagram, I think that it should be explained and a larger part of this Instructible...for example to get white lite your are powering all 3 lanes (red,green,blue) on the RGB tape.
Hello, Wonderfull project, I have the same case and I would love to do it (if I have time and the screen to the right size). Just a question, can you put a photo of the cable connection to see if it"s easy to open the case ? One little suggestion, instead of connecting the panel to the graphic card (which mean to run a cable outside, why don"t you use a USB to VGA or DVI converter (like this https://www.amazon.fr/Adaptateur-convertisseur-adaptateur-Affichage-multi-écrans/dp/B079L81FRD/ref=asc_df_B079L81FRD/?tag=googshopfr-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=227894524041&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17927658121409960098&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9055710&hvtargid=pla-442905712462&psc=1) ?
Thanks! So I actually bought one of those adapters, as well as an internal USB 3.0 to USB A port and tried it that way, but I couldn"t get it to work reliably. You might have better luck than I have, but I found it simpler to just run the cable through the case. I just removed one of the PCIE slot covers, and ran it out through there, so opening and closing the case is not a problem.More CommentsPost Comment
Case modding took off in the late 90s, and taught us all that computers could (and should!) look awesome. Much of the aesthetic went mainstream, and now tons of computer cases come with lights and windows and all the rest. [WysWyg_Protogen] realized those simple case windows could be way cooler with a neat LCD hack, and set to work.
The concept is simple. Take an old LCD monitor, remove the backlight and extraneous hardware, and then install it to the window in a computer case. When lit from behind via LEDs in the case, the screen creates a ghostly display through which the computer’s internals can still partially be seen. It’s a really compelling effect, and in theory, quite easy to achieve. All one need do is mount the stripped-down screen to the case and pipe it video from the graphics card.
In practice, it’s a little tricky. Disassembling the screen and removing things like the anti-glare coating can be tough to do without damaging the delicate panel inside. The windows typically used on computer cases can dull the effect, too. However, [WysWyg_Protogen] is continuing to tinker with the project and the results are getting increasingly impressive with each iteration. It doesn’t photograph too well, but it looks truly amazing in motion.
We often forget LCDs are transparent in their basic form, as we generally only use them with backlights or reflective backers. They really do look great when used in this transmissive way, though. Video after the break.
Actually beside myself right now. How does this look this good? This was a trash pile monitor and this looks like a 700 dollar case upgrade pic.twitter.com/4yBXlcY921
Transparent LCD’s provide an innovative display solution opening up new ways for brands to promote their products and services. Examples include retail stores looking to advertise a new fashion clothing or accessory, museums securely housing a precious artifact with information displayed on screen or brands looking to launch a new product at a live event or show. The opportunities are endless!
Our Transparent LCD Displays include a Grade A LCD panel with metal bezel protecting the edges / electronics and a media board supporting HDMI or VGA inputs from your PC, Laptop or Media Player.
Transparent screen technology offers intriguing ways to deliver visual information to your audience, being used to reveal or conceal products, objects or artefacts behind the screen.
The combination of HD LCD technology (4K on our 65″, 86″, 98″ version) with a transparent screen substrate opens up creative avenues that were previously closed with traditional LCD displays. Solid black pixels on a transparent background can be used in intriguing ways to hide (and gradually reveal) whatever is behind the screen.
Our Transparent LCD monitors are designed for integration into the customers own furniture housing or display case while our Transparent LCD showcases offer a complete solution including the display, housing and backlight with white or black options available on request. We can also offer custom freestanding options for POP / POS displays. Transparent LCD’s are predominantly fully housed however we’ve recently developed an innovative housing method using a high brightness LED panel which allows the display case sides to remain transparent for improved visibly into the display case.
Using their original design as a starting point, we worked closely with the team at Nike to adapt to the mechanical aspects of the design, the result was a sleek and minimalist set of nine Transparent LCD Display Screens, custom built to suit the applications requirements, bringing Nike’s original concept ideas to life.
These screens can also be granted multi-touch capability by combining them with infrared touch frames or PCAP touch overlays, to add an interactive element to your installation. This creates a very powerful impact when the content on screen integrates with real life objects behind the screen, encouraging viewers to interact on a level that will exceed expectations.
Retail windows, interactive booths, display cases, interactive games, vending machines, drinks coolers… the uses for this amazing technology are limited only by your creativity.
Transparent LCD’s comprise of an LCD panel without the backlight with white pixels appearing as transparent. In order to display an image, the Transparent LCD needs to be integrated into a housing with a high bright LED backlight.
We can also offer more complete solutions like our Transparent LCD Showcase that comes fully contained and ready to use with a powerful backlighting system to guarantee the best picture quality.
Yes in order to display an image Transparent LCD’s need to have a strong backlight. Notoriously Transparent LCD’s have also needed some form of housing to achieve optimum image quality, however, Nike’s House of Innovation paired our Transparent LCD’s with powerful, oversized backlights that allowed the screens to be mounted with no surround but still producing a high-quality image.
Transparent LCD’s are arguably the most popular transparent screens but are hindered by their need for a backlight to operate. For applications looking for a similar effect without the backlighting, Transparent OLEDs require no housing or surround but are only currently available in a 55″ screen size with HD quality. For larger transparent screen applications, Transparent LED’s are recommended with external and internal solutions usually installed to glass facades for the impact of an led screen without compromising the view from inside the building.
We also offer transparent projection technologies including our Clearview Rear Projection Film featured in Guardians of the Galaxy as well as at the 83rd Oscars celebration and MTV EMA awards.
Transparent LCD’s are a great way to combine physical and digital displays in one central place making them a popular choice for museums and exhibitions. Our transparent screens can also be integrated into display furniture and appliances & vending machines like freezer doors for supermarkets. Other uses include POS displays, store window displays, trade shows and product launches.
We manufacture in Britain and ship worldwide – if you need further information, a pricing quote, or want to discuss ideas for using our Transparent LCD Display click the link below to contact us, email us via info@prodisplay.com or call us on +44 (0)1226 361 306.
Screen Solutions offers complete solutions for transparent displays including standard and custom display cases. SSI has designed and built transparent displays for companies like Chrysler, Lockheed Martin, Mazda and many others over the last 15 years.
Standard Sizes start as small as 10″ and can get as big as 86″ Diagonal as seen in the video to your left. These complete displays include transparent panel, lighting, glass, display case and even a touch screen if you want.
iBUYPOWER Snowblind - Tempered Glass LCD Side Panel Gaming PC!If there was ever a concern that PC gaming was stagnating, a recent spate of new system announcements and Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to Windows 10 gaming should put such concerns to rest. Not only are there the usual upgraded CPU and GPU cycles underway, but gaming system makers are tossing some real innovation into the mix.
One example is iBuyPower, which makes a complete line of gaming PCs spanning price points from low to high. They have apparently moved on from just offering the highest-end components, however, with new cases that incorporate a transparent LCD display in a side panel, PC Gamer reports.
According to iBuyPower, “Project Snowblind represents the next leap forward in gaming PC customization. Featuring a tailor-made clear LCD side panel, this PC will showcase your hardware like never before, while allowing you to have virtually any graphic display.”
You can customize a new Snowblind system by heading over to the iBuyPower site. The company hopes to ship systems by the end of February, meaning that you won’t have to wait too long for one of the more innovative case accessories we have seen in a while.
Most transparent touchscreen are available in a variety of colors, designs, and sizes. Alibaba.com offers a wide variety of transparent touchscreen materials such as polyethylene tactile materials, and touch sensitive materials.
They are high-quality resistant, polyurethane glass is commonly used in protective cases, dusters, dust cases, and wearers. Since it does not absorb water, it is a high-quality resistant, polyurethane glass is commonly made of polyurethane glass and other varieties. As such, the transparent touchscreen does not contain any chemical products, it is best to use applied with high-quality, polyurethane glass, and other plastic touchers. With a higher brightness can interfere with the use of other smarters.
There are different transparent touch screens available on Alibaba.com. The transparent touch screen is made of crystal-resistant glass, and has a wide range of colors. The high-quality transparent touch screen makes it easy to find and order a variety of products that your business will need.
Transparent display technology surrounds us, even if we aren’t aware of it. In this article we look at transparent head-up displays, LCDs, OLEDs and transparent electroluminescent technology and delve into the pros and cons of the four main transparent technology displays.
In this article, we’re looking at four types of transparent tech which include typical projection head-up displays (HUDs), LCDs, OLEDs, and transparent electroluminescent displays (TASEL). We’ll look at the pros and cons of each and show you how transparent display technology plays an essential part in our working lives and free time. An explanatory
Of our four featured displays, we start with the oldest, HUDs. The HUD we’re referring to here is a typical projection head-up display. These use a projection system to project images onto a piece of glass in front of the viewer.A typical HUDcontains three primary components: a projector, a combiner, and a video generation computer.
Why have we included LCDs as a transparent display when, at first glance, they’re not truly transparent? In fact, we’re only able to see the information on our monitors, such as laptops, with the introduction of a backlight and a reflector shield.
Take these away and we see true transparency of the LCD display - which is something Samsung did in 2012 with the production of theirSamsung Transparent Smart Window.
LCDs are also one of the most popular screens on the market and this rise occurred early in the 21st century when liquid-crystal-display sets rocketed in popularity. In 2007, LCDs eclipsed sales of competing technologies like plasma, cathode ray tube, and rear-projection TVs.
They were thinner and lighter, easier to scale. And for the manufacturers, the cost of production was lower, so it’s easy to see how LCD displays quickly became a favorite with manufacturers and consumers.
Organic light-emitting diode displays, orOLEDsfor short, are a step up from LCDs when it comes to transparent technology. For starters, unlike LCDs, OLEDs do not require the use of a backlight or any other filters due to the use of pixels which produce their own light.
This means they’re thinner and lighter and have higher levels of brightness which is why they’re used to create displays in smartphones, tablets, computer/laptop monitors and portable games consoles.
The organic materials used in OLEDs are affected by the environment, they’re sensitive to moisture and screen discoloration occurs if subjected to direct sunlight and heat
However, due to the limitation of monochromatic images, transparent electroluminescent displays shouldn’t be used as entertainment screens in vehicles - they should be used to display only the most critical information in the eye-line of the driver without distractions.
Each transparent display has its positives and negatives, and they’re all fantastic ways to showcase transparent display technology at its best when applied in areas which suit their purpose perfectly.
When calibrating your display, the goal is to get a good balance between details in darker parts of a scene (in this case, the windows in the buildings on the left) and brighter parts of it (here, the snow at the top of the mountain).
Remote Control capabilities (includes Power on/off, restoring factory defaults, changing monitor front of screen settings, optimal resolution, display modes, disabling OSD menu access, input switching).
Up to 38 layouts: With Dell Display Manager’s Easy Arrange, you can organize multiple applications on your screen and snap them into a template of your choice, making multitasking easy and effortless.
Before you give into your impulses and wipe your screen with whatever you have at hand, let us stop you right there. Your display is way more delicate than you think, and if you want it to last a long time in optimal conditions, you’ll need to treat it with proper love and care.
The good news is that cleaning a computer screen is more simple than you think. You only need a soft cloth, a tiny bit of water, and the most delicate of touches.
As you would expect, not all screens are created equal, and some are more delicate than others. The safest way to figure out the proper care for your screen is to search for the make and model of your device, find out if it has an LCD, LED, or some other type of display, and search for the manufacturer’s instructions on how to care for it.
If you want to skip all that, there’s an easy way to avoid making a mistake that might not only result in irreparable damage to your screen but to your entire device. According to Joe Silverman, owner of New York Computer Help, a tech repair center in New York City, no matter how much money you spent on your computer or tablet, it probably has an LED or an LCD screen if you bought it within the last three years—and neither type benefits from window cleaner or highly concentrated alcohol.
That’s the uppermost layer of your screen, which is extremely sensitive to the acidity in alcohol and in compounds like ammonia or propylene glycol. These are often present in cleaning agents such as window cleaners and degreasers. Using these liquids will corrode the surface of your screen, resulting in scratches or even smudges you won’t be able to get rid of.
Things get even trickier when you’re dealing with touchscreens. On models like the Microsoft Surface, the display is the main input—as opposed to your mouse or trackpad on a regular laptop—so it’s ultra-sensitive, Silverman says. Using a strong liquid cleaner like a degreaser or a bleach-based disinfectant can obliterate the top layer on the screen. Combine that with high pressure, and you can kiss your fancy touchscreen computer goodbye.
Another downside to newer computers is their size and weight. If you decided to splurge on a new laptop, for example, you probably found one that has top-notch components, but also a slick, lightweight design. This format is only possible if everything in your laptop is smaller and thinner. In the case of your display, a thinner screen means a weaker barrier between your computer’s guts and the elements in the outside world.
Caring for your screen is simple—it only takes a little bit of water and a dust-free cloth, such as a microfiber wipe or the piece of fabric that came with your glasses.
First, turn off your computer and disconnect the charger. This might sound paranoid, but the benefit is twofold—you avoid any chance of triggering an electrical surge, and your screen will remain black, which will make it easier to see any dirt and grime.
Pour a couple drops of water on your cloth. Forget paper towels or the sleeve of that soft cotton t-shirt you love—microfiber is your best bet. Still, no matter how soft it is, a dry wipe could always leave micro-abrasions on your screen. The moisture will also help gather dust and particles while lifting grease from your display.
Use circular motions starting in the center of your screen and moving outward, so you don’t leave any streaks. If you can see any droplets or water traces on the glass while you clean, you’ve used way too much water. Gently dab the residual H2O with an absorbent cloth or tissue paper and start again.
If you’re dealing with next-level gunk, you can use isopropyl alcohol at 70 percent or lower, Silverman says. “That percentage is very important,” he explains. “We’d only use 90 percent or higher on dummy parts that don’t have sensors, like top cases and keyboards.” In these extreme cases, spray the alcohol on the cloth, never directly on the screen, and wipe it gently.
Just like solar damage, screen damage is cumulative. The more pressure you apply, the more abrasive a product you use, and the more often you use it, the greater the damage you’re inflicting on the protective layer of your display and the delicate sensors underneath it.
Maybe you can get away with using a high percentage of alcohol or even a window cleaner on your computer screen once or twice. But if you keep at it, eventually you’ll see the deleterious effects.
“You’ll see discoloration, lines (vertical and horizontal); sometimes it looks pretty and rainbow-like,” Silverman says. “Sometimes it’ll blink and sometimes you’ll see droplets of water or liquid in the back of the screen. There’s a lot of ways in which damage appears.”
The best way to avoid damaging your screen while cleaning it is to simply keep it from getting dirty in the first place. If you have a laptop, cover the keyboard with a thin microfiber cloth before closing it to prevent finger grease from transferring to the screen. If you have a touchscreen, wash your hands often before you use it, but make sure you let your hands dry completely before you start tapping—the soapy water or liquid hand cleanser from your fingers can easily end up on the screen and corrode it.
Wet, newly washed hands can also be detrimental to regular computers. Silverman says he often sees such victims in his shop—computers completely dead after hand sanitizer rubbed off the owner’s hands, seeped through the keyboard, and ruined the inner guts of the machine.
Your phone was designed to be carried, dropped, tapped, swiped, smashed against your face for long periods of time, and stowed in the deepest corners of your bag. In other words, its screen is way more resilient than your computer’s.
Silverman explains that most iPhones and Samsung phones, for example, have screens made out of one thick piece of glass. These, as opposed to computer screens, have all the LCD layers fused together, making them much more difficult to damage. Still, if you’re using alcohol, he recommends keeping the concentration at 70 percent or lower, using a soft cloth, and applying only low pressure to get rid of any accumulated gunk there.
Replacing the screen of your computer or smartphone can be expensive, and even if that’s not an issue for you, no one wants their devices to fail when they need them the most. So remember these tips well—we hope you never have to read this article again.