Re: 5.6 inch 5$ audiovox LCD = winner

[Kevin Dady <kevin@hackaday.com>]

On Apr 2, 2:03 pm, magnusfalkirk <dean.pha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, April 1, 2012 11:54:41 PM UTC-5, Kevin Dady wrote:
> > I posted this first on the arduino forums, there is a thread talking
> > about the latest crap you bought BUT its apple // focused, that is if
> > you want a small screen that is freaking awesome!
>
> > ...
>
> > our local goodwill has not been sucking at all this spring (you gotta
> > love spring cleaning) aside from their usual 100 clock radios, 40
> > George Foreman grills, and jack squat of nothing else I have been able
> > to pick up ...
>
> > a previously mentioned 40 gig TVio, which the drive went into my bench
> > machine and the box is in the process of becoming a 250GB closet NAS
> > (we dont need THAT much storage its around a 90GB glob between the two
> > of us, so that will work until I can get a pi, then I will expand it
> > up to 1 or 2 TB)
>
> > a previously mentioned 9 inch Sony trinitron for the spare room that I
> > can use while poking at tronics, or we both can use while using our
> > exercise machine (of death, dang that thing can wind me)
>
> > but this weekend I managed to scape up a CDRW / DVD / DVD + R for 2
> > bucks, which is very handy since my current bench machine came out of
> > the dumpster with its DVD-RW drive (intermittently) DOA and I have
> > been using a plain old CD-ROM drive ... and something that made me
> > stupid happy a 5.6 inch TFT LCD monitor.
>
> > The LCD monitor is a Audiovox model VBPEX64, and years ago when I
> > worked for a mobile audio/video WD they were about 200 bucks. Stereo,
> > Composite and SVIDEO in, dual headphone jacks out they were a module
> > to work with other Audiovox units, such as a portable DVD player, vcr,
> > or a aftermarket car sun vizor, or seat back units. There is an about
> > 2 inch hinged foot with a basic analog I/O bus edge connector on it,
> > so you can pop it out of your dvd player, and hook it to the back of
> > your headrest, or whatnot.
>
> > Most importantly, this was on the edge of faking HD video, and has a
> > 10 to 12Mhz bandwidth input, normal TV is about 6Mhz, so what? Well
> > about 10Mhz is what you need for old computer systems to display clear
> > video in text modes, and that is a HUGE freaking problem for Luddites
> > like me, you end up with a giant ass monitor thats 20+ years old and
> > on the edge of death for a pile of money, a security monitor for a
> > pile of money, A TV tuner card, which its not always convenient to
> > drag your system over to another computer just to see video, or a
> > normal TV which you can make out text in 40 columns with a little
> > squinting.
>
> > This thing however, is dead freaking on, its as good as the RGB
> > monitors from the day, and though its small, were dealing with a
> > MINIMUM of a font size being 8x8 pixels, and really its quite
> > comfortable to work on.
>
> > Prices seem to be 30-80 bucks, I paid 5, and it looks decent on my
> > semi-portable Apple // C ... epic win
>
> > Image of unit sitting on my //C (for other nerds, its a 1986 ROM 255
> > model, just a month or two away from the next rom version, which fixed
> > a few bugs, next to it is a 1986 Macintosh SE, 800k floppy 80Mb
> > (replacement) hard disk, 4 megs of ram, below that is a 1997 Macintosh
> > 9600/300 with 26GB of storage, 256 megs of ram and a Radieon 7000 with
> > OS9, 10.2 and Debian, next to that is a stack of laptops, 150Mhz
> > Pentium MMX, 80 megs ram, the best LCD ever, 10 inch 1lb subnotebook,
> > 12 inch pentium 90 crappy LCD 8 meg laptop looking for a home, and a
> > DEC PC386SL/25 4 meg VGA laptop featured on slashdot, sort of looking
> > for a home)
>
> >http://www.cheesefactory.us/apple2/audiovox_mon/PDR_0004.JPG
>
> > close up of 40 column text
>
> >http://www.cheesefactory.us/apple2/audiovox_mon/PDR_0009.JPG
>
> > closeup of 80 column text
>
> >http://www.cheesefactory.us/apple2/audiovox_mon/PDR_0010.JPG
>
> > AND this thing should rock with my recently acquired Trash80.... I R
> > Happy today, 3 weeks in a row goodwill does not SUCK, though it doesnt
> > make up for the three years worth OF sucking, its a start
>
> Cool, looks really good. I've got as 5 inch Sony Playstation LCD monitor that I hook up to my IIc sometimes. I use a book-stand as a monitor stand for it. The only thing that would make this perfect would be the ability to run the IIc off of a battery, then it would truly be a portable system.

It runs off of 12V DC, though I have not measured the current draw its
works fine on a 500Ma wall wart (ie it does not heat up) ... I think
the backlight is LED so its probably low.