I’m still on my crusade of removing every trace of 240v mains power from my shack, so next up are my computer monitors.
I have 4 Dell monitors, of various models, hooked up to my main PC.
The monitor here is a Dell E207WFPc 20″ widescreen model. There will be more when I manage to get the others apart to do the conversion. However I’m hoping that the PSU boards are mostly the same.
There are no screws holding these monitors together, the front bezel is simply clicked into place in the back casing, these clips are the only thing that holds the relatively heavy glass LCD panel & it’s supporting frame! The image above shows the panel removed. The large board on the left is the power supply & backlight inverter, the smaller one on the right is the interface board to convert the DVI or VGA to LVDS for the LCD panel itself.
Here’s a closeup of the PSU board, the connector at centre right at the top of the PCB is the main power output, and also has a couple of signals to control the backlight inverter section of the PSU, on the left side. The PSU requirements for this monitor are relatively simple, at 14.5v for the backlight & 5v for the logic board.
Here’s the top of the PSU board, very simple with the mains supply on the right side, and the backlight inverter transformers on the left.
Here I’ve hooked into the power rails on the supply, to attach my own 12v regulators. The green wire is +14.5v, and the purple is +5v. Black is common ground.
On doing some testing, the backlight inverter section doesn’t seem to mind voltages between 11.5-14.5v, so a separate regulator isn’t required there. Even running off batteries that’s within the range of both charging & discharging. The only regulator required is a 5v one to reduce the input voltage for the logic PCB.
On applying some 12v power to the regulator input, we have light! Current draw at 12.5v is 2.65A for a power consumption of 33W.
There’s plenty of room in the back casing to mount a 12v input socket, I have left the mains supply intact so it can be used on dual supply.
Here’s the 5v regulator mounted on the back of the casing, all wired up & ready to go.
