Introduction: My Source of 7" LCD Display ( New & Cheap LCD SUN VISOR )
Hi...
At the begging I would like to make clear, that this is NOT an instructable. It is just a PHOTO REVIEW of my new sun visor. I bought it & hoped that it will be easy to modify - to make my own LCD display ... and YES, it's hell easy. Even for a beginner like me :)
So once again, this is just a PHOTO REVIEW.
Step 1: What Is Inside the Box ???
These items are in the box :
1. sun visor
2. remote control
3. cables ... (V1,V2, power cable)
4. mount to fit the visor to the "car roof"
Step 2: LCD in Use ...
Here you can see a picture of the LCD when it is on. I know, that this is not the best picture ... but I used my Nokia N95 to take the pictures and at the same time I used it as the video source for this LCD.
You can add TWO VIDEO sources to this LCD. Like I plan to do ... one is for my rear camera and one for movies/GPS ... (entertainment).
You can switch between 16:9/4:3 ... NTSC/PAL auto switch ... brightness, contrast, color ... etc.
Step 3: Striptease ...
Over here, you can see how it looks inside. When I saw it for the first time, I was really happy about what I see. It is very simple and easy to disassemble ... and modify for your own needs.
As mentioned on the second picture, the dimension for a small box could be 190x105x25 mm (this includes those 4 holders that are holding the display as well)
Step 4: Why All This ???
The reason, why I made this photo review is that I think it's a very nice and cheap item to be modified. If you are lucky, you can buy it on ebay veeeery cheap.
I bought this new LCD sun visor for 22GBP inc shipping on ebay. Luckily for me, I contacted the seller and ask, if he would like to sell another one for the same price and yes ... I'm a proud owner of 2 sun visors :)
One I would like to modify and make a car FREEVIEW TV by using a scart DVB-T receiver. You can easily add it inside of this sun visor. There is enough space. The only "issue" is the sound ... where you have to take cables from the scart to the radio ... or make your own speakers (I was thinking using a small laptop speaker or Nokia speakers). By the way...the scart DVB-T receiver runs on 12V as well, so I think it can take the power from the LCD.
The other one I'm planing to transform/change to a small portable screen for some other projects. And if you ask your self a question, why not to buy it directly - ready made ??? Well it wouldn't be that fun by creating your own one ... and even used 7" displays, portable TVs/players where always higher then 26GBP + extra shipping. So I decided for this cheaper,- new sun visor.
*** I added next steps, how I transfer the LEFT oriented sun visor to my RIGHT (driver) side in my Suzuki.
Step 5: How Did I Change It From LEFT to RIGHT Sun Visor.
Over here, you can see few pictures, how to transfer the display on your right sun visor.
At first, get your sun visor from the car. In my case, it's Suzuki Swift (old one). Take the cover of and you will see, that the sun visor is made from a FOAM on WIRE.
My first thoughts were to put just the display in the foam, but later I decided to use the plastic sun visor cover to get more stability/protection/solid feeling. So I cut the edges of the plastic cover and I managed to close the foamy sun visor in the plastic one (see picture).
I used a rotary tool to cut holes into the Suzuki sun visor. (Although it could have been done with a knife and pliers - for the wire). Please, bare in mind that when you will use the rotary tool on the foam, it will be very messy and you should use a "respirator" to NOT breath the foam_dust. Of course I think that the rotary tool would be needed for cutting the plastic cover.
Have a look at the pictures ... you will see, that after making all the cutting and placing everything together I have used two screws to hold these parts together.
Step 6: What I Forgot to Take Pictures Of.
I just remembered that I did something, that is not shown here, on the pictures. I got rid of the METAL TUBE that the cable is in.
To free the cable, you have to remove the "plastic glue" on the board, that is covering the wire. You need to use a soldering iron to make them loose/free ... then cut the "white stuff" that is preventing the cable to move ... take the cable out, solder it back to the PCB and use a hot glue gun to cover it, like it was before.
Step 7: The Power Source...
When you get the sun visor, you get it with just bare cables.
I decided to use a car charger plug to power the screen and my rear camera as well. The good thing was, that the charger I had was perfect for this idea, because the "fuse box" that comes with the cable fitted nicely inside.
On the pictures, you will see that I'm adding a 3.5 AUDIO PLUG in the charger as well. Why ??? This will be the power source for my camera. Because I needed a long wire to power the camera - I decide to use my "male to male 5m audio cable". I could buy a speaker wire (or something else) ... but it would cost me like 5GBP ... and I got this AUDIO cable from ebay for less then 3USD inc shipping. That's why I used the cable. I had two sockets from old CDroms - so to cut the costs I did it like this.
