Thinkpad inverter pinouts?

[mathog]

I scavenged an inverter off a discarded Thinkpad laptop for use in testing single CCFL bulbs. Don't know if it works yet. It is marked "ambit j071033.02" on one side and 12P3052 on the other. On the output end it has what looks like the same 2 pin socket as seen on several desktop LCD inverter boards. On the other it has a connector with 8 tiny pins. I'm trying to figure out how to wire up the input side so that it goes full on when power is applied. Just beyond the 8 pin connector there is a fuse, a capacitor and a resistor, and then a grounded mounting hole. Pin 8 is numbered. The multimeter shows the pins connected like this:

1 fuse
2 fuse
3 ground
4 ground
5 ?
6 ?
7 ground
8 ?

The resistor measures as a short, and both sides are at ground. The capacitor is wired between the fuse and the ground.

For a first pass I'm going to wire +5V (or do laptops use +12V?) to the fuse and attach ground via the grounded screw hole. If it lights up, great, if not, any thoughts on what if anything should be applied at pins 5, 6, and 8? High or low?

Thanks.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Thinkpad inverter pinouts?

Usually external inverters have minimum of 4 inputs positive VCC, Ground, Backlight On Voltage, and Brightness Control Voltage.

Usually with no brightness voltage applied it's full brightness but it could be the exact opposite on some inverters.

The BL on voltage usually is the same as the supply voltage. It's used when the computer goes into sleep mode the mobo kills this voltage to shut the display backlight off.

[mathog]

Re: Thinkpad inverter pinouts?

Usually external inverters have minimum of 4 inputs positive VCC, Ground, Backlight On Voltage, and Brightness Control Voltage.

Not much progress.

Hooked up 5V and ground and plugged a known good CCFL into this inverter and it didn't light up. Still lots of variables: backlight on, brightness control, or wrong VCC.

Also tried to light the same bulb with one of the inverter outputs from this:

http://www.frys.com/product/6200540

and that wouldn't work either. (Had to bend the pins a little to make it fit, different socket.) Could not test the HP inverter with the Logisys bulb as the latter's plug was larger than the former's socket.

Bottom line, I still don't have a positive control CCFL or an inverter that works with the Dell 17" CCFL's.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Thinkpad inverter pinouts?

E-bay has plenty of standalone CCFL inverters it's best to buy a generic one than try to decipher a manufacturers probably proprietary pinouts and connectors. Just type CCFL inverter.

Any off the shelf inverter would be able to fire that CCFL.

As for connector compatibility you can buy conversion harnesses from lcd parts.

http://www.lcdparts.net/CCFLA13D.aspx

I bought a bunch of these for my test inverter. It beats cannibalizing them off bad monitors.