Thinkpads Forum

Well, I'm considering grabbing a refurb x61t and I happened upon a video or two on YouTube of people that apparently have done some "Frankenbuild" with a display swap and ended up with actual Multitouch capability (or just plain touch capability, actually my desire for true "multiple touches" isn't all that great) or they have an actual x61t with the Multitouch screen the spec sheet for the x61t says was available at some point.

Anyway, I just spent the past 2 hours doing searches across Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing and I have two problems I'm hoping someone can help with:

1) If I get an x61t refurb and it has the typical XGA or SXGA+ display in it, non-touch enabled of course, is it truly possible to do a screen swap for the actual display component (pretty much the entire assembly I'd suppose) that would eventually end up with me having an x61t that would respond to me physically touching the screen? I don't think the native x61t allows for it, obviously - but then again, I had a Fujitsu Stylistic ST4120P a few years ago that had a stylus but I could actually control that tablet by tapping the screen with a fingernail. Direct finger-pad skin contact or pressure didn't make it function but for whatever reason actual contact with my fingernail did, and man it worked great. If the x61t can function like that I may not even need to consider such a hardware swap - can anyone say yay or nay on whether the x61t responds to finger touches or fingernails at all? The one I'm looking to buy does not come with a stylus, of course.

2) If such a component swap is possible, would anyone happen to know the Lenovo FRU part number that I should be looking for? I hit eBay and did dozens of variations of "x61" "tablet" "multitouch" "multi touch" and everything I could think of but I never found one actual 12.1" XGA or SXGA+ Lenovo multitouch part, sadly.

Guess my Google-Fu is weak as I'm getting older.

I do appreciate any assistance anyone might be able to offer. If in the long run after orders and some hands on parts swaps I can end up with my own multitouch "Frankenbuild" x61t it will be well worth the effort, but if it's not possible then I'll survive.

Thanks, and have fun, always...

I don't know if the lid swap is possible due to the extra touch input. That may have different cables and the touch input may require an extra place to plug into the motherboard. But I don't see indication of motherboard variations amongst the LCD options, so it is likely possible. I'm sure someone here has experience in this area.

The X61T LCD options were:

XGA (stylus touch only)
SXGA+ (stylus touch only)
"XGA Touch" or "XGA+" or "XGA MV/MT" (stylus touch and finger touch) (various names for this option)

Official touch specs from tabook:
Touch: 12.1" (307mm) XGA (1024x768) TFT color, 4:3, 150 nits, 170° viewing, MultiView (indoor/outdoor), MultiTouch (touchscreen via finger and pen)

Check out page 473 of this tabook to see detailed specs for each LCD option. About the only other difference is brightness/contrast.
http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/ltwbook.pdf

Note that the MultiTouch term did not refer to today's connotation of distinguishing multiple individual fingers. It referred to simultaneously having two options for touch input: finger and stylus. In today's parlance, it is single touch.

Here are the FRUs the HMM lists for the "12.1-in. XGA+ TFT, touch panel with digitizer" I don't know if these all exist nor if this is a complete list. I've never worked with the finger touch panels, so I can't confirm this info.
13N7216
13N7221
13N7226
13N7239
13N7241
13N7233

Look at page 140 of the HMM...
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 551_02.pdf

If you're going to do a swap, something else you need to find out is how the tablet recognizes the display. Sorry I don't have the answer.

For example, older T-series used special cables to distinguish LCD panels. Newer ones use a ROM chip onboard the LCD panel. I just saw reference to an X60 having its LCD information "permanently" hardcoded into its BIOS (hackable).
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=102808

All X60 tablet AFFS LCD panels (i.e. the ones you're most likely to find, Boe-Hydis HV121X03 for XGA or HV121P01 for SXGA+) have EDID chips, so there is no need to use specific "SXGA+ cables" or the like.
The X60 tablet BIOS supports both XGA and SXGA+ resolutions. No need to hack BIOS just to get SXGA+ working.

As projanen said, "Multitouch" really means you can touch the screen with one finger. Also, get part numbers from the Hardware Maintenance Manual for XGA stylus only, SXGA+ stylus only and XGA multitouch screens.

From the various sources I have read, you can absolutely switch entire LCD assemblies around without problems. Things get slightly more complicated if you open up the LCD assembly.
To change from XGA stylus only to SXGA+ stylus only or vice versa, you only need to switch the LCD panel, digitizer not included. (The digitizer is a separate panel taped & screwed on the back of the actual LCD panel, and can be separated with relative ease.) To change from stylus only to finger touch, you need to swap the LCD panel including digitizer.
There are two generations of digitizers used in X60 and X61 tablets. Most X60t use a "G4" digitizer, while most X61t use "G5". They have different physical layout, and therefore need different LCD cables. They can be identified by color: G4 digitizers are brown/red, G5 digitizers are silver.

It is also possible to build an SXGA+ "Multitouch" screen, something Lenovo never offered. To achieve this, you need to have an SXGA+ LCD panel which does not have the protective glass glued on, and transplant the digitizer and protective glass from an XGA multitouch screen to the SXGA+ screen.


Oh, and: there are "multitouch" X61 tablets for sale on eBay if you look close enough.

You can not control a standard XGA screen with your finger at all, only with the stylus.

You can swap the complete lid assembly over - I put a X60T MT/MV screen (from a dead X60T) on my X61T works perfectly, 4 screws and a cable after you take the keyboard bezel off.

I've not tried transferring the LCDs around under the bezel, a lid swap is much easier, saw a complete assembly the other day for £110 BuyItNow o Ebay...

@ the person saying you could do SXGA+ MT? Are you 100% on this? I thought the touch panel would have trouble tracking at that res - as in it might 'work', but wouldn't calibrate properly?

grunger106 wrote:You can not control a standard XGA screen with your finger at all, only with the stylus.

You can swap the complete lid assembly over - I put a X60T MT/MV screen (from a dead X60T) on my X61T works perfectly, 4 screws and a cable after you take the keyboard bezel off.

I've not tried transferring the LCDs around under the bezel, a lid swap is much easier, saw a complete assembly the other day for £110 BuyItNow o Ebay...

@ the person saying you could do SXGA+ MT? Are you 100% on this? I thought the touch panel would have trouble tracking at that res - as in it might 'work', but wouldn't calibrate properly?

it can be and has been done but it is not for the faint of heart.

grunger106 wrote: @ the person saying you could do SXGA+ MT? Are you 100% on this? I thought the touch panel would have trouble tracking at that res - as in it might 'work', but wouldn't calibrate properly?

I've seen plenty of people claiming to have done it online, as well as a consistent description of how it's done (install MT digitizer and protective glass on SXGA+ panel), so I believe it's possible.
In my books, "100% sure" = "I've done that personally", so I can't say I'm 100% sure.

it can be and has been done but it is not for the faint of heart.[/quote]

Interesting.... (And depressing - now I may have to fork out for an SXGA+ panel )

But that link was dead - the link to the topic works, but the link onwards is a 404....

Thanks for all the info. And yes I realize it's not "capacitive multitouch" like we have nowadays on tablets like the x220, etc. If I can manage to get even single finger touch working on an x61t that would be a cool thing I suppose. It's not an absolute requirement, just a "want" I suppose.

Will do more research and figure out where to go from here.

I got an X61T with multitouch, I am somewhat disappointed because I have an X60T with no multitouch and its way brighter than than the X61T.