I ended up with a small qty of 10.4" monochrome LCDs and was asking
around for ideas what to do with them. In one of my other groups, it was
suggested to get one working as a display for a model 100 and I thought
that was a great idea. Probably the most compatible way to do this would
be to emulate how the DVI worked, but I have never seen one in action. I
have also gotten confused looking up youtube demonstrations. In some,
the DVI plugs into the 40 pin expansion socket on the bottom. In another
video, it was plugged into the parallel port, I think. The 40 pin
expansion makes more sense to me.
Looking through the service manual, it appears to use a 8255 PPI to
interface with the computer to write into VRAM and ARAM which a CRT
controller then uses to paint the screen on a monitor. Is that a simple
description of how it works? It appears to require loading a driver
program and is not something that is just available in the BIOS, right?
Would it work with all screen output, even graphics, etc? If so, maybe
compatibility is not really an issue with my own driver?
So I am looking for links and info to help me on this quest. The service
manual is great, but it is geared more toward repair than theory of
operation. Is anyone aware of any reverse engineering information on
this? Has anyone attempted to duplicate it before?
These displays are controller-less, so of course first I need to design
a controller for them. I was planning to just use a Raspberry Pi Pico to
drive it.
Here is a really good project with tons of information on driving my
exact display for those curious which display it is. The display is
nearly exactly the size of the Model 100, so making an enclosure that
could flip down like a laptop would be possible.
http://www.projekte.daleske.de/mcp/49_LCDM/LCDM.htm
