Harvesting a display from a broken laptop

[Devryd]

Hi 
I recently got my hands on a broken laptop and I want to use the screen as a secondary display. I already got the driver board and everything works, with just one small problem. The wires that connect the display to the driver board are pretty short and I would like them to be longer. Can I just solder some longer wires in there or will that make trouble with signals and stuff?
Thanks for any information
Greetings, devryd

[Chronified]

I'd sooner just spend the $5-$15 on an extension and wait the 1-3 months for it to come in. You could easily ruin the ribbon with the heat while soldering.

Something like this, but compatible with your display.

https://www.amazon.ca/Laptop-extension-connector-converter-adapter/dp/B077BQY11Z

[Devryd]

11 minutes ago, Chronified said:

I'd sooner just spend the $5-$15 on an extension and wait the 1-3 months for it to come in. You could easily ruin the ribbon with the heat while soldering.

Something like this, but compatible with your display.

https://www.amazon.ca/Laptop-extension-connector-converter-adapter/dp/B077BQY11Z

Its not a ribon cable in my case, its just 30 individual wires

[Chronified]

1 minute ago, Devryd said:

Its not a ribon cable in my case, its just 30 individual wires

Pretty much all laptop displays utilize a ribon cable, so it'd likely be best that you post a photo to reference the project you're working on if not

[Devryd]

https://ibb.co/WvgS42R
This is a photo of the screen from the backside @Chronified. I want to extend the small wires about 40cm

[Devryd]

The laptop was built in 2012 or sth so that might be the reason why there is no ribbon cable on the screen

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Devryd said:

https://ibb.co/WvgS42R
This is a photo of the screen from the backside @Chronified. I want to extend the small wires about 40cm

Since these are pins that are in a plug you could just get some generic micro wires from like an arduino prototyping kit and plug them in the plug. No soldering needed and extends just the same.

 

Your issue here is that you need to PERFECTLY KEEP TRACK OF EVERY SINGLE WIRE AND NEED TO PERFECTLY KNOW WHAT WERE DOES WHAT.

[Devryd]

 

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Since these are pins that are in a plug you could just get some generic micro wires from like an arduino prototyping kit and plug them in the plug. No soldering needed and extends just the same.

 

Your issue here is that you need to PERFECTLY KEEP TRACK OF EVERY SINGLE WIRE AND NEED TO PERFECTLY KNOW WHAT WERE DOES WHAT.

I cant use regular jumper cables. The pins on the connector are too close together, but thanks for the Idea.

[Kilrah]

You might be able to extend some if you're careful to keep the wires twisted like on the existing cable and length-matched, but at some point the signal will be degraded and it's impossible to know how much will work in advance. Best is to keep the driver board close to the display and extend HDMI or whatever you're feeding it with.

[Devryd]

I was thinking about that, too @Kilrah, but I want to add the display as a secondary screen to my laptop (I know that most peoble might find that stupid) and then I cant put the driver board directly on the screen since that is where the screen would fold too. It would make the laptop about 2 cm thicker instead of just 7 or so mm

[Devryd]

I extendet the wire using cat7 patch cable I had still lying around. It works but it also was a lot of work.
Thanks for your tips