Turn Acer G236HL Monitor into light

Thread Starter

Lucas L.

Joined Feb 13, 2020
5
Hello everybody,
I want to turn the backlight of my old LCD Acer Monitor (Model G236HL) into a light/lamp.

All the electronics still work. I can turn on the backlight with the mainboard. Even when the mainboard is only connected with the backlight LEDs and the power supply, and the logic board for the screen is not connected the light turns on.

However, it automatically turns off again after a few seconds.

I saw a youtube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2KK4YiOO1o) that explains how you can use the existing mainboard to power the light permanently. However I can not find any of the pins labeled as: "LED_EN (the 'on button') is sometimes called EN, ENA, BL_ON, LEDON, BL_EN, or ENAB PWM may also be PWM_1 VLED (12v) may also be called VCCS, or LED_VCCS. If you can't find it try and find the fuse instead and solder to that."

So, I am wondering now, if I also have to use the logic board that is responsible for the pixels of the screen?
And if it is even possible to achieve what I want with the mainboard?

Unfortunately I could not find any circuit information online. The only thing I could find is related to a similar mainboard, but not the same: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/455818/Acer-H236hl.html?page=54#manual

I appreciate any help, thank you.

Regards,
Lucas

(I have attached pictures of all electronics. The small cabel is connecting the mainboard with the LEDs, the broad cabel is connecting the mainboard with the board that manages the pixel screen.)
 

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Dodgydave

Joined Jun 22, 2012
11,285
Backlights require an On signal and for dimming a Pwm or 0 to 5V signal on the Enable pin, i would measure the pins on the backlight pcb and see which pin changes when the backlight goes off..
 

Thread Starter

Lucas L.

Joined Feb 13, 2020
5
Maybe it is easier or more reasonable to directly power the LEDs with some board designed to only do that?

Here are some pictures of the LED strip:
IMG_20200213_210057569.jpgIMG_20200213_210144468.jpg
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
A simple DC power supply will be able to light that whole string of lights quite well and it can be much smaller than using some parts of the computer. If the LEDs are pulsed at a higher current for a much shorter time to get a brighter light that would make things more complicated.
But now for a question: How much experience with electronic circuits and soldering do you have? If you don;t have a meter to measure the voltage required to light the strings then you are up against a big challenge already.
 

Thread Starter

Lucas L.

Joined Feb 13, 2020
5
@MisterBill2 unfortunately I have close to no experience with electronic circuits.
Do you think I can install the LEDs with a simple DC power supply without much previous knowledge and a soldering iron? Or do I also definitely need a measuring device?
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
Without knowing the voltage that is applied to the diode string it is hard to know what power supply voltage and what size of resistor to use. A very rough guess can be made by counting the LEDs in each section of the string, but that requires understanding the circuit board connections well enough to know how many are in each section. One other option would be to find a schematic of the circuit and see if it showed the connections, or possibly even mentioned the voltage. If you have a variable voltage DC power supply that is another option, apply a voltage, starting at a lower level, and increase it until they light as bright as normal. Then read the voltage from the meter on the power supply.
 
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