Sure, you can buy a portable monitor off your favorite e-tailer, but with perfectly fine displays in devices like laptops being tossed out every single day, why not repurpose those instead? That’s what [ScuffedBits] recently did with the panels pulled from some old laptops.
A good question with any such salvaged panel is just how practical it is to still use them, with disqualifying features being things like passive-matrix TFTs as well as the use of CCFL backlighting as with one of the three panels demonstrated in the video.
Looking up the model number of a panel on a site like panelook.com will tell you the display technology, resolution and other important details before you decide to commit to using it. If it’s using a LED backlight and at least Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) but ideally eDP you can likely find a cheap driver board for it that has all the requisite inputs like HDMI and power.
The hardest part is probably the case for the panel, as they’re rather thin and fragile. Here [ScuffedBits] opted to 3D print two different types of cases, with the second variant probably being the best version as it protects most of the panel. Installing these is quite easy: slide the panel into the first half, then add the second half of the case to close it up. Permanently keeping the case in place was left as an exercise to a future [ScuffedBits], while demonstrating why it’s definitely the hardest part of repurposing an old laptop display.
There’s just as many ready to use monitors of that size sitting around as people have bigger monitors now. I don’t know how many I have, all orphaned for bigger and sharper screens. I have to junk them eventually. This would have interested me 10 or more years ago. Printing big chunks of plastic and buying those adapter boards, OK have fun. I could have wanted that link years ago.
I, too, am appalled that you weren’t consulted first, before this project got made or this article got written.
Oh, get off your high horse. It’s just arrogant of you to assert that everyone is automatically in the same position as you are.
My husband and I, for example, tend to use our displays for 10-15 years, so we simply don’t have a lot of desktop displays lying about. What I do have, however, is a bunch of old and/or broken laptops I’ve gotten for free here and there and guess what they have in them? Perfectly fine, working displays that I could salvage for all sorts of uses with a little bit of time and effort!
And a 24″ desktop display simply isn’t always the best option, either, like e.g. I have one 15″ display I turned into a portable one with a built-in battery and the ability to charge via USB-C PD or 12V barrel jack — just try lugging a 24″ display around and see how fun that is!
For real! I have an eDP laptop screen wrapped up in bubble wrap in my office right now that I didn’t know what to do with. It had a couple stuck pixels and some bright spots. It came out of my old ThinkPad when I replaced/upgraded the display. I’ve been looking to do this very thing! Yes I also have a 21″ 1080p monitor that I’ve had for 15 years also doing nothing. Can’t we all just be happy it’s not going into a landfill?
I, certainly, applaud any efforts to recycle and/or fix stuff instead of throwing away.
Check the model sticker on your panel’s back, then go to Aliexpress and just search for “lcd controller yourmodelhere” and you’re almost guaranteed to find at least a few ones. These days one can also buy ready-made li-ion “UPS” modules with barrel jack input/output on them on Aliexpress, so it’s all mostly plug-and-play aside from hooking it all together and putting in some sort of a case.
Don’t let naysayers and Debbie Downers like echodelta there put you off.
A good place for these screens might be for spacecraft bridge sets…donate to those
On 3D display
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-virtual-screen-machines-3d.html
I just bought a 22″ widescreen monitor for about tree-fiddy (US$ equivalent) from a local recycling place. It was already in a case, with a driver board and VESA mounting holes.
However I applaud this effort, just because.
wow. try carrying that on top of your camera…
Would fun to reuse color LCDs from recycled printers.
You don’t even need a 3D printer. Just use the lid from the dead laptop, then mount the LCD controller board on the back.
I want to do the reverse: the LCD in my Thinkpad x220 is pretty bad (dark, low contrast) and there are modern OLED replacements around. IS this a thing, or a scam?
Just get the common FHD IPS mod first popularized by nitrocaster.
I like the idea, but it looks like the shoe mount on that camera is working hard!
Yeah, to be fair he did mention that it was more of a joke, as he intends to mount that display more permanently to his studio setup as a feed monitoring display :)
i certainly have a pile of laptop screens, and a languishing use case (sheet music display). and i’m surprised that there appear to be $15 options for edp/lvds <=> hdmi boards. but i don’t think i really want to tether it to any of my existing hdmi sources. sigh. seems like i really want a tablet, but the cheap ones don’t have big/good screens and android is such a pain. need to work on my problem description.
I used such controller boards to turn a 10″ Apple iPad original screen and a 7″ screen from who-knows-what (car entertainment system I think) into monitors. The reasons being that monitors of those small sizes are way more expensive than 21″ or even 28″ monitors, and that I can use that wasted desk space for better things.
Also have converted an old 15″ laptop screen, but not for desk space reasons. ;)
Many of those boards are actually TV boards and have multiple inputs: VGA, HDMI, CVBS, and antenna inputs. Most of them also support 15.625KHz (used by all 80’s home computers). Also support 50Hz (PAL) and 60Hz (NTSC). I have no SECAM devices, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they support SECAM too.
I have not found one device yet that didn’t work with these boards. Maybe early ZX81’s without back porch.
I meant that those small monitors are way more expensive than those large monitors when you buy them new in a shop. While when you repurpose a small screen, you only pay for the controller board and a matching cable. $15 or so.
Also, if you do buy a board, be sure to get one with an on-board tuner, like those long V56 boards.
I have an OLED 1440 display in an alienware laptop, would be nice to get a controller for it.
But the last time I played with an OLED, albeit a 1080P variant from a scraptop, the controller got really hot and no display.
I checked the pin outs, though couldn’t get a datasheet to verify properly, there shouldn’t of been a short.
those board are bit more expensive and they must have the proper setting burn into the chip to support the exact model number. Did couple of lcd repair and tv.. and one getting a 4:3 instead of 16:9 cause of the driver.. mostly, just buy a new lcd it is cheaper and better. But yes, you can ‘repair’
A perfect use…have a screen display unrelated computer data, while the rest of the laptop communicates to the user via hidden braille touchpad