Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Where do you find LCD's that are larger than 7"?
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I got a broken 24" LCD monitor for free. The panel itself is working fine with a cheap universal LCD controller board.
I don’t know about your monitor but it shouldn’t be “extremely heavy”…If you want to use more than one screen you’ll probably have to use a Raspberry Pi for every screen. Or you use a regular mini PC or laptop with dual monitor support.
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That’s interesting. I had never heard of an LCD controller board before. I’ll keep that in mind in case I come across any free broken monitors. How heavy is yours? The monitor I’m using is an Acer X223 which weighs 6.4 pounds with all the trim. For some reason it feels much heavier than that. Plus I think the frame weighs a couple pounds. How much does your 24"er weigh? How far do you break yours down? I took the plastic case and the stand off. The rest looks pretty hairy but I imagine I don’t need all of it.
I’ve heard it’s not easy to setup multiple displays on a pi. But I don’t see using multiple pi’s to be too much of a problem. I could run MagicMirror on all them and use one of them to orchestrate the rest. That’d be uncharted territory for me but I think doable. What about how it would look to the end user though. Would they be able to see the individual LCDs or do you think it will be possible to blend them into the rest of the background so you can’t tell there are multiple displays?
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According to the datasheet my LCD panel weights 2530g. Thought it’s much lighter… my complete mirror with 6mm mirror glass weights slightly above 8kg. I think that’s not too much. The glass has probably the highest weight impact on the project. Thinner glass will reduce the weight drastically.
I am using only the naked LCD panel with an universal LCD controller board (check for V56 universal LCD controller board on ebay or aliexpress) and a 12V/50W LED power supply. All in a self-made wooden frame. It’s hanging stable on the wall for pretty much exactly one year now.For the multi-screen part: It depends on multiple factors whether you can see them or not. First is the brightness of your LCDs. If it’s set too high you’ll have backlight bleeding (the black will not be fully dark anymore). Also it depends on the transmission values of your mirror glass and the light environment of the room. It’s best to find a location with constant light conditions. My Mirrorpane Chrome Spy has a transmission of 8%. I’d say that’s lower limit. If I could find one, I’d go for 15% or maybe even 20%.
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I just gutted a laptop and pulled a 15.6 monitor out. I ordered an HDMI LCD Controller for $26ish from Amazon and it work wonderfully. It’s light, bright and the controller came with buttons to control the screen.
There are some that are cheaper. I just didn’t want to chance that it wouldn’t work with my laptop lcd model. I searched and bought based on the part model.
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@rudysmama said in Where do you find LCD's that are larger than 7"?:
I just gutted a laptop and pulled a 15.6 monitor out. I ordered an HDMI LCD Controller for $26ish from Amazon and it work wonderfully. It’s light, bright and the controller came with buttons to control the screen.
There are some that are cheaper. I just didn’t want to chance that it wouldn’t work with my laptop lcd model. I searched and bought based on the part model.
I literally just did the same thing. Took apart an old laptop and ordered a controller board on Ebay. I see people giving away old monitors all the time on Craigslist as well, just keep your eyes peeled.
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@boblazer said in Where do you find LCD's that are larger than 7"?:
One other side question. Has anyone tried splitting up the interface into multiple displays? Instead of using a giant 42" TV to display the time and a status message maybe you could use a few ~7" displays as second and third monitors and display it that way. I’m not sure how you would blend each lcd screen into the surrounding background of the mirror though.
I built a mirror with two 24" displays using a Raspberry Pi and a Fitlet. I considered using the Fitlet to drive both displays, but I couldn’t find a way to guarantee one instance of MagicMirror per display. In the end it was easier to drive each monitor separately. If you’re willing to go Windows, you might be able to pull it off.
I’m adding a third monitor to that mirror in February. Wish me luck!
(also: wait for large sales at Amazon, NewEgg, MicroCenter, BestBuy and the like. I picked up a 47" LCD monitor for like $87 on Black Friday)
