dell 1503fp

[pacificnw]

Yes I am a noobie,
I just got 2 Dell flat screen monitors for free, 1503 FP. I was looking to buy a flat panel for my DYI using a OHP. Can I use one of these instead or is stripping the thing not possible?
thanks for any help on this.

[milihpen]

Well, I googled "1503fp ffc", and found some references, mainly at the german "diybeamer" site, to the 1503fp, so I'd assume it is strippable. I've got a 1702fp, it strips great, I just needed to extend my ffc cable. I'd assume that the 1503fp is a similar situation, as the user guides are almost identical, but no promises. If you got them for free, it can't really hurt to try to strip one, though, can it (other than a possible waste of your 3 hours)? If it strips, it strips, and if it doesn't, you'll be able to tell by looking at the cables, and should be able to reassemble it. Just be relatively careful.

Superdaveumo here made a great guide to stripping the 1702fp:
Dell 1702FP 17" LCD Disassembled
I'd assume that the two monitors are similar enough for his guide to at least guide you in the process of stripping it, but then again, maybe not (all I know is, his guide was priceless when I disassembled mine).

One thing of note: when I stripped mine (once again, though, mine is a bit different than yours), I turned it on and thought it was dead: a white bar slowly moved from the left of the screen to the right. I realized that it was actually my Dell monitor's test signal box (turns on when no input is plugged in), stripped of its vertical resolution. Fortunately, Stocker here suggested that I ground my boards: so I soldered some wire to the grounding contacts on my inverter and main board, and it worked. So just make sure you ground it all...just in case you didn't know, maybe you do, but I know I didn't.

Hope this helps a bit

[pacificnw]

Hi milihpen,
Thanks for the info! I'll have a look at the link you sent. Like you said they are probably the same so I can follow the instructions for your model monitor.
If the FFC cables are too short (if that is the right name for them) where should I look online for longer ones?
Thanks again!

[milihpen]

I used mouser.com for my ffc cables. They're pretty cheap, significantly less than $10, and came very fast. I'll try to get you, later today, the exact page I found my items from, because their site has so much stuff, it's hard to know if you're getting the right thing.

[milihpen]

sorry for the delay. The parts at mouser.com that I ordered were these:

for the ffc cable itself, I got this part number:
538-21020-0215

and for the connector, I got this one (I believe it was this one, but there are too many styles of zif connectors for me to tell):
538-52559-2072

However, those are for a 20-pin cable. I don't know what your monitor has, so you might want to make sure that your ffc cable (if it IS a problem) is 20-pins before you go out and buy these. If it's x pins, then get the x pin version of the parts I listed.

Good luck.

[pacificnw]

I just bought an OHP, the stage area is 10x10, is that enough for the lcd I'm stripping out of the 15" monitor??

[pacificnw]

Hello Everyone,
I just stripped my monitor, everything went well but a 20 pin cable to the left is too short. Does anyone make an extender for this?

[milihpen]

Pacific: those FFC cables I was talking about before are what that 20-pin cable is! Go to mouser.com and look for those two part numbers I gave you. Those should work just right.

Congrats on a succesful stripping. Have you plugged it in yet?

Also, I think your OHP might be a bit small. If I did my math right, a 15" screen is 9" tall by 12" wide.

[milihpen]

Oops. I actually didn't get the 538-52559-2072 part: I got the 538-52745-2090 part. Either will probably work though, and the one that I got, I actually had to kind of jerry-rig because two ffc cables were hard to fit into it with the fastener on. But ya, just for clarification.

The other one I mentioned (the cable), part number 538-21020-0215, is correct.

[pacificnw]

Miliphen,
Thanks, the cables you mentioned are 6" I think, right?
I need at least 12", unless I'm way off base here. Guess I'll look for a OHP that has a 12x12 screen then.
I need the cables before I get the thing pluggd in!