Hinsight4 15" iMac G4 Intel NUC Upgrade

[hinsight4]

Well I spent about 3 hours today (with a break) working on the DVI conversion and ended up with some weirdness.

I have 1 purple wire that is floating that looks like it coordinated with pin 14 on the DVI-D interface, but I left off since 14 -> 16 (with 1kohm resistor) for the hot plug detect.

Attached are some images of my wiring and you can see the monitor. You plug the unit in and after about 3-5 seconds a line appears horizontally on the screen and after another 5 seconds you get the picture as it radiates outward.

Plugging the HDMI cable to a computer flashes on the laptop as it detects the connection, but makes no difference. I did have the backlights working before, but I spliced in into the 5V line tonight to provide 5V to the DVI-D.

Any thoughts for troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated!

 

[machummer]

I use native psb, but cant light on monitor
Is it anything wrong?

 

[hinsight4]

ersterhernd - I made some progress this evening, now my display stays completely off unless the unit is plugged into AC power and is plugged into a HDMI source at the same time.

I rechecked the pinout and don't see anything incorrect. The display goes from black to a bright green that is spotty after about 10 seconds total. The computer doesn't seem to think anything is even plugged into the HDMI port (at least my Mac isn't showing me a 2nd monitor).

Any ideas?

 

[ersterhernd]

Hi hinsight, this certainly is presenting you with some challenge.

Have you taken the LCD apart to verify your wire colors actually match up with the pinout diagram that you're using?

It isn't difficult to do, remove the connector from the LCD panel, peel back the foil tape and use a magnifying glass (if you need it) to see the actual path to pin of each tmds wire.

Probably worth a shot..


Cheers!

 

[hinsight4]

Guess that seems like a logical next step, I have not verified that the wires on the end in the LCD enclosure match. Figured since the pinout looks correct on the end in the dome (colors & groupings) that I was all set

 

[hinsight4]

I had literally moved the project from the kitchen table to the office, and then back, over the weekend and when I sat down I actually saw video output for the first time ever. I switched DVI pins 9 & 10 (colors are very close in person and hard to match to the pinout) and voila, it works perfectly!

I noticed I had a small nick in the casing on a couple of the tiny LDMS wires coming into the dome when I had split open the shrink tubing on the large cable, so I wrapped a few of those ends in shrink tubing to cover the nicks.

Right now it's not working again, you can plug it all in and it works once, then trying again will yield just a bright white glow after a few seconds, or the video works perfectly but the backlights don't come on. So, definitely going to go over the wiring again to see where I'm shorting and might just go ahead & solder some of the connections and do some wrapping to see if that improves the quality.

Definitely getting close guys, but this is a huge pain! Attachment shows iMac connected via HDMI to my MacBook Pro.

 

[ersterhernd]

Sometimes these projects tease you with little snippets of success, that's part of the fun!

I'll bet you were relieved to see a flawless image on the screen. If you got it once, you'll certainly get it again. Good work!


Cheers!

 

[hinsight4]

Hear you on that! So I've soldered all my splices and secured them, and have hot-glued the pins onto the DVI connector, so I now have a working connection after a few nights over the last several weeks! I was testing with a 12' HDMI connector to my Mac, and switching back to the 1' HDMI helped I believe - I would plug in and every 4th time or so get a little discoloration on the screen (blue tint one time, green another, etc).

I think at this point I'm ready to cut off the connector for the new fan & plug the wires into the PicoPSU, since I can't think of another way to plug the thing in and have it run.

If that goes well in the next couple evenings, I'll be glad to get the CD housing back in place and get the PSU and all the video cables secured in place and be done with them!

 

[Waysop]

Looks like you got the hardest part done. I just finished the DVI to HDMI conversion. I hope the rest of the build is easier. I have my Gateway laptop since this is my only computer with HDMI port.

Sorry for the large size image. I don't know how to attach it as a small thumbnail image.

 

[hinsight4]

This evening I wired in the fan by taking the end connector off and just plugging directly up to a 12V and GND, silent and moves a lot of air!

I reinstalled some of the framing & got my velcro all in place to mount the DVD/HDD bracket soon, once I have my power brick in place, so I'm making some progress!