"the melmaq", Intuos3 A4 PTZ-930G & HP dv2000 14.1" LCD WXGA

[lanjelin]

Hey Folks

Background / Presentation
My name is Jörgen Nilsson, and I'm a 27years old Industrial Design student @ Luleå University of Technology in Sweden.
And what I will present here in this tread is my Wacom Intous 3/Cintiq 14" build.

I have previously never used a Cintiq, although Im quite familiar with the Bamboo.
 I have two of those, one
Bamboo tablet (MTE-450/K2-EN), which I lost the pen.. So I bought a new one, this time the
Bamboo Pen Tablet (CTL-460-EN), witch I find a much lesser product due to the matter of in-built USB connection cable, and the lack of controller buttons on the board itself. The fact that the new pen didn´t work with my old Bamboo made me evenly more angry with my new purchase.
One week after arrival my girlfriend found the old pen under the sofa in our living room, "fck it, I'll keep the new one, just in case". Said and done, It went back into its original packaging and it hasn't left my closet since..
 
Anyways, I have never tested a real Cintiq, the 12" cost about 1570:- USD and the 21" 3140:- USD here in Sweden.. So I have been googeling different solutions for "on screen drawing/sketching". Found a few things that caught my interest fore a while..
SISO Tablo Pen-Transform your laptop to Tablet TL-01B1  "transform your screen to a sketchpad"  .. neeeow.. next opition..
kept on Googleing, found noting.. came back a few times to the SISO Tablo Pen, watched a few youtube clips, but restrained myself..

Then one day on a Swedish tech/gadget/photo/gaming site there was a headline with a link to a guy who transformed his old Apple into a iPad, and some how I stumbled into http://tabletmod.com/ and then Bongofish and the forum.

The Build

In November 2010 I found a Wacom Intuos3 A5 Wide (PTZ-631W) on a Swedish buy/sell site, I bought it for 188:- USD, tablet in great shape, put the pen was missing nib and the index finger button. Anyways, great price, and I had nibs from my two other tablets.

The A5 Wide have an active area @ 271 x 159 mm
So I was looking to build a 12" Cintiq replica, although I couldn´t find a good screen (price/resolution/controller). So I figured, "whatta heck", I´ll just order a 14" Screen and then via my graphic card settings I'll scale down the desktop area on the "too large 14" screen, down to fit the active area av the 12" A5 Wide tablet.

So I ordered all the parts, after researching what screen to use, I found a HP dv2000 14.1" LCD WXGA and the R.RM5251C LCD Controller Board
,

The Screen size is 12" X 7.4" WXGA,1280 X 800
(thats 304,8mm  x 188mm, plus the frame about 8-9mm allaround)

Screen was bought on E-Bay 74:- USD, +shipping 32:- USD, Seller on E-Bay: laptopaid
The Controller 28.99:- USD +Shipping 9.99:- Usd, Seller on E-Bay: njytouch

Part by part arrived to my mailbox, cant remember the shipping/deliverance time, some what in between 10d days to forever.
And tadaa!


But could I resize the desktop?!
NOOOO!!!

FAIL! 

The Screen was to wide for my active area, and there was no way to manipulate it to make it smaller, this can only (apparently) be done if you are using the DVI cable, I am forced to use the VGA, since I only have HDMI + VGA on my laptop. I bought and tried with a HDMI 2 DVI converter plug, but no success.

The build went on ice for a few hours, (the physical construction that was, the mental kept on).
So, I had to pay up and find a better suited screen, money down the drain, or get a new tablet.

A few hours later I found, on the same site that I found my A5 Wide, a guy selling his Intuos3 A4 PTZ-930G for 550:- USD, since he needed a smaller tablet.
YEAAAAH!!!!! So I emailed him offering to trade my smaller A5 wide against his "waay to big" A4.
DONE! He agreed to the trade and I just had to pay for my shipping, he payed his part himself.


bye bye A5W


I got my new A4 Tablet and the build was on!

Now I seem to have a lack of images to describe the series of events.
But I read here on the forum on who to dismantle the Tablet, no hazel there, just some tape and a few screws.
I won't explain on how I did, others already have described it better.

But I put down my LCD screen on the tablet´s active area and fitted it in. The plan was to put it inside/underneath the original gray plastic cover.
So I took my mini dremmel, as so many other brave men have done, and cut my tablet to pieces.

During the time with the tablet apart I had some kittens, one of them destroyed the right "touch area"'s cable, no probs, I´m right handed and NEVER uses the buttons on the right side, it slows me down may more than it helps. So fine, I´ll just use my left one.

I tested the Screen out with some transparent Acrylic sheet over the screen for a few days.
 None of the tricks with Acetone or own cleaner worked out in stripping the paint. Not until I found some thinner that just washed the paint away! (along with a few brain cells), and without a garage and -25C I could´n do it outside, the Lady wheren't too impressed with my actions that evening.

Although I suspect I used a bit too much, for a bit too long on some areas of the cover.
There are some areas that are kinda dull, none of them over the screen though...
So a warning on over-usage is in place!

I constructed a aluminum sheet mount on the back of the tabled in witch I mounted the Controller card and the Inverterboard. The cable that connects the controller card whit the Inverter I had to extend myself with about 20cm, piece of cake.. 



Hello 14" Cintiq!!



After mapping the screen and tablet together I knew where to mask the now transparent plastic cover so I could paint it.
I had some (boring I now feel) black Acryllic paint which I painted the inside of the plastic with.

And As you see to better fit the Screen I dumped the left side touch area as well.
I used it for a while, but I found its irradical behavior annoying. I can easily use the buttons and pen to zoom in and out in Photoshop anyway.. 






Thats it for tonight...
I´ll continue tomorrow..

[bernard]

Welcome lanjelin!

Quite a story!   me like stories.

To resize the screen have you tried using Powerstrip (Windows) or SwitchResX (Mac) -- you can control all the timings and insert "black bars" essentially. I *think* it should work on the VGA as well (not 100% sure, but there appear to be a way to do that).  Anyway, you didn't tell us at that moment, so there is no way we could have helped you.

What is wrong with the touch strip in the end?  I do not understand in what way it had an "irradical behavior"?

The index finger button is missing from one of your pen? Is this still the case? Someone asked me to take screenshots of a pen side switch button so he can "print" one (3D printer) !!  http://forum.bongofish.co.uk/index.php?topic=1909.0   Take a close picture of the pen.

[lanjelin]

Heey mr B!
Thanks for your comment, an as a reply to it, yeah. Maybe I should have made a post asking for help, but as the forum lurker I am I rose above and kept my head up high ;-)
Looking back I am glad that I got the new A4, it gives me the opportunity to do a 15" MOD in the future.

Anyways, as for the stylus, yeah, they are really expensive!
But I have come up with a temp. solution,





And this works great for me!

Although I have ordered (2011-04-27) a new set of nibs and the button from a ebay seller: wmcom1577
 29.95:- USD + shipment 5.90:- USD ...They havent arrived, but when they arrive sure I´ll take some pics and post.

I too have access to 3D printing in the prototype workshop @ the university, although I think ordering the new nibs and butting, will be worth the $$$ (if they arrive)..


As for the touch strip, I never liked the "unsensitivity" of it, Im aggregated of it due to its lack of "resolution" or sensitivity, it cant compare to the sensitivity of a mousepad on a laptop. I would have loved a scroll wheel instead of the touchstrip. 
So, I'm fine without it.

[lanjelin]

So where did I end my last post? .. .

Yes I was pretty much about to finish it up, with a few comments and tell about my future plans.

I saw that I missed posting a picture which shows the problem that I had with the touch strip, they where placed on top of the trim of the screen, building not needed hight in between the layers.



Anyways, here are 2 pics of the build in use, and blacked out.






And as you have seen I am not using the top 42mm of the tablet, well it works, but as I move the pen up there I navigate up to 45mm onto my other screen. Which is kind of useless.. I have mapped one of the right side keys on the tablet to switch monitor, so that I can use the pen om both screens.

Back to the last 42mm.
I WANT a screen with better viewing-angle as well, I am not super pleased with my tablet. It is really flat, if I lay it down on the desk it is 60mm up from the desk, i a great ergonomic incline. Although the viewing-angle forces me to hang over the tablet to get a clear image as i sketch. The angle that I have the tablet in right now makes the screen seem kind of ok..

But as I have several friends with the same tablet as myself, I will try and sett my controller kit and screen to one of them and then duplicate the K-Jintiq http://forum.bongofish.co.uk/index.php?topic=1767.0 ..for myself..

Although I am also lurking ebay frequently for a Intuos3 XL or a Intuos2 12x18...

Oh yeah, one last thing, I have done nothing to improve the shielding of any cables, no jointing of any ground cables, or noting, and the jitter of my tablet is almost non existent. No random clicking.

[Nichod]

Nice workspace area there.

[lanjelin]

hello Nichod Thanks for the comment

As for the rest of you visitors, I will update the tread later tonight.
I might have a Intous 3 A3 coming my way across the atlantic soon :-D

[lanjelin]

Ok so here is the follow up I was promising..

 And I will start with a few pics that will show you the devastating effect if you use a to thick and to long cable when extending the cable between the inverter board and the screen back light in the LCD Screen

Here I have cut the cable that I tried to extend, the reason of this extension is to get as much of the hi-voltage cable as possible to the side of the wacom sensor board. To eliminate jitter.


short extension, about 4 inches



long extension, about 10 inches



lights off in the room, short extension



lights off in the room, long extension


The cable I used is one regularly used as speaker cable, not BIG speakers, but small/medium satellite speakers.

[bernard]

So is the devastating difference only the brightness or is there more to it?  I mean, your backdrop picture is so "weird" that it is quite difficult to make sense of what we are seeing.  What about using something like standard colorbars? When taking separate pictures, your camera might be adjusting itself, were you in some sort of "automatic" mode?

The length is indeed an issue. The other thing is the number of "joints" in the cable -- especially in the middle of hte cable -- keep the soldering near the end.  Do you know how much voltage the cable is rated at or what is its "AWG"?  CCFLs are like 600v - 1200v AC.

[lanjelin]

Heey Bernard!

Yeah, I can see that my example sucked, I managed to upload the wrong images to my server, 7mb a piece wasn't right either.. ;-)  

I have fixed them now and hope that you are able to understand the difference in emitted light from the panel.
I am shooting the photos with my canon eos 500D, set in fully manual mode
all the example photos are taken with the same
f-stop f/5.6
exposure time 1/6 s.
iso speed ISO 800

at a distance of about 1.4m

and here is the picture I used as a background...
.. kinda stupid of me not to use the std color-bars as you suggested, but as I said, what is done is done..
.. although these photos are good examples of color brightness, they are not fair in judging the viewing angle..

And since the tablet now is fully assembled and working, all my uploaded photos are "old" work in progress.
I´m just posting some of my findings along the way, retroactively  

[bernard]

So, we can indeed see big differences. They all appear quite blue -- compared to the original -- is this a white-balance/color temp. thing?

BTW, I see a bit of tape and stuff, but is there something in sandwich between the wacom sensor and the LCD?  (or the circuitry of the LCD?)?  I hope yes!

Nice photo btw.

It didn't have to be "standard colors bars" -- but it could have a been a more common picture (with stuff with colors that can be "recognized" -- I am just a mere mortal). 

[lanjelin]

Kinda blue maybe, I have the screen a bit to be blue side on the white-balance scale.. warmer,/more neutral in real life.. I think I had the temp set in my desk and not the screen..
And yess there in insulation tape in there in between the screen/board and the wacom sensor 

more pics...

[lanjelin]

...drilled a new exit hole for the inverter cable


.. tight workspace..


.. testing the looong extension cable.. turned out to be a bad choice..


.. wrapped in tin foil and shrink rubber...


.. accualy had to make the exit hole bigger.....


.. cut and shielded the cables from controller-board to the inverterboard, only cut to get the shrink rubber on there, also shielded with tin foil...


.. quick snap of housing, (which is replaced)..


.... tin foil...


..to be soldered up..


..done..

[lanjelin]

..the inverter board.. shall I shield it as well?


--cant hurt..
..done..





and some electrical (insulating) tape...


tadaa..

done! (?)


testing testing...

[lanjelin]

this is the amount of material that I had to remove to fit the panel in the Wacom housing ...

[lanjelin]

Removing the Grey Wacom paint

This is what I used, and it worked, way to fast I think..
I kinda wasn't ready after 2 failed attempts using first oven cleaner (no pic), and then white spirit..
So once you get your hands on some sort of paint stripper (in my case some kind of thinner, main ingredient Xylen)
Don't fill the surface to the brim with your miracle spirit, you might end up damaging (making it kinda milky) the transparent surface..   

super success!



no effect at all..



The results: