LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

[JamisonM]

I've got an Acer B243W monitor that I believe has CCFL lamps at the end of their lives. The monitor turns on fine and stays on as well, but the backlight turns off after a few seconds. Using a flashlight, I can still see that there is a image being displayed while connected to my laptop. Using budm's great idea, I've gotten some old CFL bubs to stay lit while the monitor is turned on instead of turning off after a few seconds. Now, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I could order replacement lamps from CCFL Warehouse, but 4 lamps would be $40. Curious, I've searched for LED conversion kits for LCD monitors. It seems there are many sellers overseas that sell them for roughly half the price of new lamps. Instead of replacing the lamps with CCFLs, are the LED upgrade kits any good? Does anyone have any experience or opinions of them?

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

i'v fitted them,
and said a bit about it, i like them a lot.

they arent $19 though, that link was a robery - $10 more like!
http://stores.ebay.com/lcd-led-parts
this place has the kits AND cheap ccfl tubes.

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

stj, do you have another monitor with ccfl to compare with? How's the brightness? Is the screen uniformly lit?

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

i dont have any here - i'v done them for customers.

first one i did was about 6 months ago, still going strong.
the light is as bright and uniform as the ccfl.

i will say this, if you have 3 tubes side-by-side then the brightness may not be as high.
i'v not fitted a kit to one of those, i'm just assuming.

the interesting thing about the led kits is they use MUCH less power than the tubes so the tv runs much cooler and uses less elecrticity.

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

stj, that's one thing I like about them them. If I have to open the LCD panel, why not replace them with something that will run cooler and use less power while at the same time providing similar performance? That's what I'm hoping at least.

Thing I don't like is I can't tell what kind of LEDs they're using or how hard they're driving them. My guess is they're the same LEDs found of the various flexible strips. Basically, 3528, 5050, 3014 or 5630. If they're running as cool as you say, then it can't be too hard. While they won't be as bright, they'll be more efficient and last longer.

Another plus with these kits is that the hardest part will be taking apart the LCD panel. After that, It looks like I'll be four solder joints away from a working monitor. I guess I need to get one of these kits in hand to see how good they really are.

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

the led's are very narrow - maybe 2mm.
and they dont run hot to the touch.
i ran one in my hand for about 30seconds to see how hot they got - it didnt!

i will say this,
study the panel closely before you do anyhing.
some of them have a way to extract the metal strip with the tube(s) on it at the end without lifting the glass out or anything.
just a few tiny screws and maybe lifting the edge of the outer metal frame.

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

stj, one thing I forgot to ask was about the color of the LEDs. Did they lean heavily to the blue side or were they more of a neutral tint? I don't think it matter too greatly as I can adjust the colors with the monitors menu or the software installed with my video card.

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

when i did the heat test it was more a case of FUCK - MY EYE'S!!!!


but they are a cool white with a slight blue haze - same as the ccfl's
btw, ccfl's change colour as they age, they slowly go more pink as they get darker.

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

I guess I'll bite the bullet and see how these are. Maybe I'll even do a bit of a review of them.

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

just dont look at them if you power them up!

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

just dont look at them if you power them up!

Heh, too late. They arrived in just under two weeks. They aren't an XP-G, but they are still quite bright.

I tested them with a old computer PSU that I converted to a bench supply. I wasn't sure how to wire the two yellow wires, so I experimented with the 3.3 and 5v rails. Once I got the wiring right, I was quite pleased with both their brightness and color temperature.

By my eyes, they're closer to white than blue, easily. Oddly, the 3.3 works to turn them on and to what I would consider maximum brightness. The 5v turns them on as well, but you can look directly at the super low brightness die on each of the LEDs. Neat!

Taking apart the display, while not hard, was frightening. The double sided tape I ordered for this was also ever slightly too wide. These strips are 4mm and my tape was 5mm. The exposed edges of the tape wanted to stick to the sides of the channel the CCFLs were originally in. After a little fiddling, I got them in.

Once I finally got them in and the panel back together, I planned how I was going to solder the cables to the monitor's power supply. Since there was a plug on each end of the cable sent to me, I cut one off and then stripped/tinned the ends. All in all, I'm quite pleased with this conversion.

I've got three things left to do however. I need to trying cleaning the two sheets of plastic under the LCD itself. One side of the screen looks great while the other leans towards the yellowish side. The seller I got these from recommended that in the description.

The other thing I need to do is desolder the ena wire. I soldered it directly to the 5v rail on the monitor's power supply. When I press the power button on the front of the monitor, the backlight stays on. When I get time, I'll solder it to the on/off pin. I'm hoping that'll fix that.

Lastly, I need to get myself some proper mounting tape. I've got the driver insulated with 3 layers of electric tape and a a single long piece of double sided tape as long as the driver. While it's on my mind, I need to get some kapton tape too.

All in all, I think these are really good IMHO. If you've got an older monitor with a CCFL backlight that refuses to stay on and want to save it, give these kits a serious consideration.

Thanks alot for your help stj. Maybe I'll post images my second go around since I've got another one of these monitor with the same issue?

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

glad you like them.

about the tape, i fit the tape on the strips and then trim the sides wih a razor before fitting.
mounting the invertor i use double-sided foam tape.

can you post a good foto of the invertor?
they changed it since i last used one - it's smaller now.

btw, it may sound funny, but we may have to use these to "upgrade" led tv's given the number of failing led tv's now!

[JamisonM]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

glad you like them.

about the tape, i fit the tape on the strips and then trim the sides wih a razor before fitting.
mounting the invertor i use double-sided foam tape.

can you post a good foto of the invertor?
they changed it since i last used one - it's smaller now.

btw, it may sound funny, but we may have to use these to "upgrade" led tv's given the number of failing led tv's now!

Next go around, I'll put them to the scalpel. Should be fairly easy if I line the other side up well. I'll just have to follow the side of the PCB. I've got some some clear scotch mounting tape around here somewhere. Overkill for sure, but falling off isn't something I expect it to do with that stuff. Here are some pictures you requested.

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

nice.

i found this btw - interesting read.
https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/th...pleboost.shtml

[terry]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

I have use lots of these LED Backlight Upgrade Kit. on 24" and 22" monitors the picture is very good, a little bit whiter than LCD backlights. The only problems I had with them is the brightness control work the wrong way round. If you put 5v power on the brightness control backlight are dim, 0v backlight full brightness.

[stj]

Re: LED Backlight Upgrade Kit Opinions

dim input will always be a problem because there is no standard.
some tv's use varying voltage, others use PWM and as you noticed the direction is not always the same either.

this iink may help a bit for some people though.
https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/th...led-kits.shtml