This project had been sitting in my mind for a few years — I had an old Amilo Li 1705 laptop tucked away in a bag, waiting patiently for its screen to be repurposed. The idea was to convert the screen into a digital display — maybe a photo frame, maybe a YouTube screen for the bedroom, or even a third monitor for navigating music on my PC. I wasn't totally sure yet, but I knew I wanted to give that screen a second life.

Getting Started

I bought an LCD controller module in February 2024. It came with a remote... that didn’t work. No infrared output detected through a phone camera, and to top it off — the IR receiver was completely missing from the module. Great start.

I hadn’t intended to use a remote anyway, but still — why include a non-working remote and no IR receiver??

Anyway, after brief testing, it appeared to work. I put the laptop back together and shelved the project.

12 months later, I finally found and bought a 23×35cm picture frame — not easy to find. The frame cost around £13 and fit the screen just about perfectly, with only a few millimetres of margin. It has a clear perspex front, and to hide the silver bezel of the LCD, I masked the edges with black PVC tape, which worked well.

The Drop...

Not long after getting started again, I dropped the screen.

Cracked. Completely ruined.

Thankfully, I managed to grab a replacement panel from eBay — an LG LP154W01 (TL)(D2) — for just £7, and that ended up being the one I used in the final build. The original screen was a QD15TL02 REV6, and both screens used CCFL backlighting with a single lamp.

Some details on this screen:

Screen size: 15.4"

Actual screen dimensions:

Height 22.15cm (8.7")

Width 35cm (13.78")

Max resolution: 1280x800

Compatible with Fujitsu

Connection: 30 pin

Controller and Inverter

The controller module is labeled:
2AV-1VGA-1HDMI-TTL-50PIN--LVDS-AAC
It uses a Realtek RTD2660H chip and supports HDMI, VGA (15-pin), and video-in.

For this build, I’m using HDMI.

As of writing this, I’ve just noticed there doesn’t appear to be any audio output. This is going to narrow down the usage options — unless I’ve missed something.

Initially, I used the inverter that came with the controller board, but it was unreliable. The kit is specified as 12V, but the inverter needed 15–16V to even start.

Eventually, I salvaged the original inverter from the Amilo Li 1705 laptop, and that worked brilliantly. Although designed to run at 19V, it would cold-start at 12.6V and continue running as low as 7V, no issues.

Wiring It All Up

The controller module’s backlight connector includes:

• Red: +12V

• Black: GND

• Yellow 1: 3V (likely Enable)

• Yellow 2: 1.1V (Brightness / ADJ)

After some voltage probing and trial-and-error, I discovered:

• The inverter didn’t require an Enable pin

• The brown wire on the inverter (ADJ) needed to be pulled to around 3.3V to activate the backlight

Final Wiring:

I mounted everything on the back of the picture frame using Velcro, with plans to replace that with something more permanent in the future.

The High-Voltage Incident ⚡

At one point, while pressing down on the high-voltage connector (thinking the backlight wasn’t working), I accidentally bridged ground with my finger.

I heard a screech, saw a glowing arc and smoke, and it wasn’t until after the fact that I noticed… it was my skin burning. No pain — just a delayed warmth. It was all over in milliseconds.

Lesson learned.

The Moment of Truth

When the screen finally lit up, I was stunned. Even more so when I found it would run smoothly at just 7V.

“WTF — how is it running so low?”

Just goes to show the difference between a good inverter design and a poor one.

Power Supply

I’m powering the whole system using a standard 12V 500mA PSU.
The bench PSU shows the project draws no more than 250mA at any point.
It’s a very efficient little setup

Bill of Quantities

🔆 Brightness Control Upgrade

After testing the display, I discovered that the black wire on the inverter is the brightness control line. Connecting it to GND makes the screen go very dim, while applying around 3V–5V results in a bright display. However, going above 5V causes the inverter to shut down — though thankfully, it recovered after a power cycle.

To safely control the brightness, I added a simple analog dimmer circuit using a spare 49kΩ potentiometer I had and a resistor voltage divider to generate a safe 0–5V range from the 12V power supply.

Parts Used:

• 1 × 49kΩ potentiometer
• 1 × 7.5kΩ resistor
• 1 × 4.7kΩ resistor

How it works:

I wired the 7.5kΩ and 4.7kΩ resistors in series between 12V and GND, creating a stable reference of about 4.6V at their junction. This 4.6V is fed into one side of the potentiometer, with the other side going to GND. The middle pin (wiper) of the pot connects to the black brightness wire.

As I turn the knob, the voltage smoothly adjusts from 0V to ~4.5V, giving me precise manual control over the backlight brightness — without ever risking an overvoltage.

Unfortunately there is dust under the perspex display.

Also, that perspex screen cover looks very reflective in the photos. It's not that bad in real life.

The images look washed out. This is not the case seeing this in real life.