Privacy monitor hacked from an old LCD Monitor

Finally you can do something with that old LCD monitor you have in the garage.
You can turn it into a privacy monitor! It looks all white to everybody except you, because you are wearing "magic" glasses!
All you really have to have is a pair of old glasses, x-acto knife or a box cutter and some solvent (paint thinner)




Here is what I used:
an LCD monitor of course
single use 3D glasses from the movie theater (old sunglasses are just fine)
paint thinner (or some other solvent such as toluene, turpentine, acetone, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate etc)
box cutter (and CNC laser cutter :) but that you don't really need, I'm sure x-acto knife and a steady hand would do just fine)
screwdriver or a drill
paper towels
superglue

Step 1: Take the monitor apart

Find an old monitor that you are willing to sacrifice.
Take off the plastic frame by unscrewing all screws from the back.

Comments

[sermeric]

is it temporary or stays forever like this?

[Grey_Wolfe]

Rubbing alcohol is often very effective at removing glue goo and it is completely safe for the hardware.

If you use the hand sanitizers without scent or moisturizers, this gives you the benifits of rubbing alcohol while making it evaporate a bit slower.

I use it quite often for removing tape goo and have never had an issue.

[barri_kid]

I do want to make this, when I get the parts. I am getting some glasses for it, and I am thinking of getting these
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/re-useable-plastic-frame-resin-lens-anaglyphic-blue-red-3d-glasses-44635
For the lens, does it have to be flat? These glasses have a bend in the lens, so I am unsure if they will work properly.

[barri_kid]

Well, I must have done something to break it :/ It turns on, but no picture is produced.

[Skeletor231]

Would this also work on tv's with LCD?

[code man]

i want to try this on a small lcd tv, for m-rated video games, but, i think the tv might flicker once or twice because of the flashing in some old games

[code man]

I'm going to tri it on a small lcd tv, for m-rated games for my x-box

[Stuchi]

I'm giving you a choice. Either put on these glasses, or start eating that trash can.

[solrac]

This is awsome!

[dweebsunited]

I notice that someone else asked this up above, but theres no response.. I got the films off the screen, but the antiglare film is stuck to the polarizing sheet, and trying to separate the two is futile.. any recomendations for getting the two apart?

Also, if all else fails, would buying a new sheet of linearly polarized film work? If i oriented it correctly before cutting the lenses, of course

[jcksparr0w]

i love it dude

[TheGreatS]

I tried cutting it out by hand (mainly due to the lack of laser/CNC awesomeness lying around) and it worked great. I taped the old lenses to the film (like you suggested) and then cut it out every so slowly with an hobby knife. They don't fall out or wiggle around to much so I'm happy with my result.

[WakeUpWolfgang]

Where can I get some polarized film for the glasses the film on my screen is really old and brakes off into small pieces. The only large piece that I have is attached to the mat film and wont come off with out braking up. I did not cut my film off I just took off the metal that was holding the screen together and then you can just peal it off.

[Dyolf_Knip]

Aw, crap. My monitor had a small circuit board along one side which connected to the LCD panel with 3 very thin, very _fragile_ flat cables, which got ripped while I was peeling off the film. I should have reassembled most of the monitor before getting to this part, so I wasn't putting stress on the connections. Drats.

Good thing I was using a semi-busted old display.

[pro2xy]

that must have been the inverter for the backlights

[autofire]

My LCD screens film seems to have the matte finish and polarized film as one sheet, so its incredibly hazy, anything i can do to clear it up?

[hoff13]

You can just put the piece in between damp paper towels for about an hour or two and the matte finish will peel off quite easily. BTW, hot water worked better for me.

[PCChazter]

I tried this, but the polarized film stuck to the matte finish, and a piece of clear plastic pealed off

[computer_guy]

try 4 hours instead of 2, and dont go less than 4 hours. on top of that, try and go in a different direction from the polarization.

[computer_guy]

as an added note, make sure you focus ONLY on removing the Anti-Glare film. when you're done removing it, LET IT DRY. Don't try to cut it. DONT use paper towels. They will stick to the polarization film. You might want to try a hair dryer, or if you want to play it safe, place the film on aluminum foil.

[dimovi]

You can buy just the polarizing film online like this one
http://www.amazon.com/Rosco-Cinegel-Linear-Polarizing-Filter/dp/B000B78216/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322705042&sr=8-2
I have no idea how to separate the films, since mine came apart without too much effort.

[Mattrox]

I wonder if this could be done on a cellphone?

[uldics]

I actually had done this before we got internets in the end of 80ties. But just for my watch, didnt have LCD monitors back then. The polarising film was taken from screendead egg catching game: http://curiosityquills.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/elektronika_im02_nu_pogodi.jpg
And the only thing I could use it for was my Elektronika 5 watch.

[jx53]

I am curently making this on an old laptop that I've paid 50$ yesterday like I was suggesting and it work like a charm, Yon don't even need to cut anything. I just disasembled the screen and then scratch a corner until the filter lift up so I can pull it.
I'll post photos if you want when It will be done.

[jx53]

Very nice idea and result, it would be so insane to do that on a laptop screen and to use it in a public place =D haha! xD so my question is, will it work the exact same way on a laptop screen? I guess yess but I am asking to make sure it is.

[dimovi]

Yep, any lcd monitor will work.

[beaver84]

Neat!

[Electorials]

Really awesome!

[blinkyblinky]

Cool...

Perfect for me.

[lemon rind]

Would it be possible to make it so one pair see's one half of screen and another pair the other half? For split screen gaming :-)

[ironsmiter]

short answer... no
not with the hardware the author used.

You COULD do it with some more severe hacking.

You would need COMPLETE disassembly of the lcd.
Access to the rear polarizer would be required as well as the front. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LCD_layers.svg for a super simple diagram of what goes where in an lcd)
Once both are off(Need to come off clean, and complete, cause you'll be using most of both of them). you start the cutting.

First, divide both filters EXACTLY in half.
Second, reassemble the lcd with 1/2 of each filter covering each side of the screen, in place of the rear polarizer.
Third, make two pair of glasses. One with the left over of each polarizer.

If you want to get super tricky, make a third pair of glasses, with one lens of each type. Now, you could display stereographic images onscreen, for your own Stereoscopy!

If the filters didn't come off cleanly(like my last lcd backlight repair... the filters were held against the screen by pressure from the assembled screen frame. Also makes you less likely to destroy your lcd screen with the exacto knife!)
then you still have options!
You can BUY polarizer films pretty cheaply from educational stores/science surplus/e-bay/amazon.
Once you have cleaned the glue residue off from removing the old filters... simply use the new film to do the modification.


FINALLY... If you DO get this to work.
WRITE AN IBLE!
and be kind enough to mention me in credits :-)


hmm. I wonder.
That old Pentium 2 era IBM laptop might just work.
Let the race to document and post begin!

[lemon rind]

Wow, thats no easy task. Mabey I'll try your one before I go quite that far.

[Uptonb]

Congrats on being featured here!

[dimovi]

Haha thanks, actually it is featured here too!
lifehacker.com
engadget.com
hackaday.com
news.cnet.com
ohgizmo.com
slashdot.org
stumbleupon.com
journaldugeek.com
reddit.com
and a bunch more
Too bad I didn't get entered in the Hack it challenge before all that traffic :)

[Light_Lab]

Why you are so happy you have effectively made our idea useless? This is why I didn't publish it.

[Xarxos]

Any idea if this works with LED monitors as well?

[sethcim]

(removed by author or community request)

[mcavano]

LED monitors have the same LCD matrix, they just have a different back light system, which is of no consequence to this hack. Should work great!

[wwinquist]

I have two questions, both of which deal with one problem: I wear prescription glasses. How well does this thing work if you try to use both your lenses and the polarized film? Also, would getting prescription 3D glasses work with this as well? (What about regular 3D glasses like you can get at Best Buy?)

[nflemming2004]

3d glasses for home tv's work using an LCD-shuttering technology (expensive, but works on home tv's), where the movies use a polarization technology (cheap, but only works for special projected displays), so the 3D glasses at best buy won't work. Then again, the 3D glasses at the movies won't work either, since they use "circular" polarized films, and for this hack you need "linear" polarized films...