Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:24 pm**

I know, but I won't be. The X230 is intended for working on the go or when I'm in bed.

Posted: **Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:21 pm**

carcuevas wrote:
technopanda wrote:It is by some kind of miracle and after a hard battle through a comedy of errors, but I have finally gotten nitrocaster's fabulous kit to eventually work in the X230.

After removing the sense wire solder point on the bottom of C137 so many times to diagnose the problems I was having, the poor solder pad eventually lost the will to stay on the PCB and like carcuevas' X230, capacitor C137 was destroyed as well. I was able to rescue the connection to the sense wire though by using conductive ink to connect the remaining top pad of C137 to the via that the bottom of C137 was connected to. A tinned wire was soldered to pin 75 on the back of the docking connector and fed back over to the solder pad on the FHD board through a hole on the FHD board.

I'm off to lie down, rest, and then consider installing the screen into the lid.

Wow!! I'm glad that your little adventure went well ))) I have also good news, as expected the problem I have when the computer was hot was related with the FFC for the LVDS, I got the samples from Wuerth and they are working like a charm I mostly cannot believe also that my little quest it's finished

BTW Nitrocaster I am using the 10cm lenght cables and they are working properly, maybe it will be easier to work with them, so let's see.... Today I will adventure myself with coreboot???? who knows hahahahah

That's interesting, so it means that maybe the sense can be saved in my case also? Actually maybe in the future I can do something similar, but now I am a bit tired of opening the x230 hahahaha and now everything is working ...

Yesterday I attempted to do a backup of the Bios and put coreboot but unfortunately I cannot do it with the RPI trick, somehow I have problems with the SPI modules or something like this, maybe I will need a SPI programmer... but not sure If I would be able...

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:01 pm**

Nitrocaster, can you elaborate for me what the sense wire actually does?
I have installed your adapter board without problems, so it's just curiosity.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:19 pm**

StefanKo wrote:Nitrocaster, can you elaborate for me what the sense wire actually does?
I have installed your adapter board without problems, so it's just curiosity.

Already answered that question somewhere in the old topic: it senses signal presence.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:40 pm**

Hi Nitrocaster,
Awesome mod, I am considering to buy one for my X220 i7. I just have a few questions I need to clarify:
- beside the battery drain relative to the higher resolution screen, does this modification shorten the battery life when unplugged. I do remember a discussion about the graphic card outputting on two ports. But I do not remember if it was with your mod.
- I have a Mini Dock Series 3, if I dock the X220, I will have only the vga output working, and by tapping the row of DP#2 I should have the internal display working too? The DP on the MiniDock Series will never work ? But if I have an UltraBase Serie 3, both external VGA and DP will work. If it is the case, I am just going to switch docking station. Did I get right?

@ All, I was wondering which panel would be better between the LP125WF2-SPB4 and LP125WF2-SPB3. The SPB3 have an higher luminosity than the SPB4, but the SPB4 display 16.7 colors versus 262K for the SPB3. But both have 50% of the CIE1913. I tend to make a lot of on the fly photo edit when travelling, and I was wondering which one will be the best.
I got my own answer for the latest question:

SPB4 is not necessarily better than SPB3, but my reasons for choosing SPB4:
- more colors (16.7M vs 262K)
- less power consumption (3.8W vs 5.0W)
- longer life (15K vs 12K)
- brighter is not always better
plus the fact that nitrocaster had good testing results with SPB4.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2017 6:36 am**

Hi Nitrocaster,

I finished the modification and surprisingly it worked out of the box. Windows looks great; on Linux I have flickering green pixels (does not hurt much; just looks strange ...)

but ... back-light control does not work (always 100%). Yes i did 'clone display' etc.
Is there anything on the hardware side I could check / could be broken?

Thanks for your help and the great work!

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:17 am**

peregrinus wrote:Hi Nitrocaster,

I finished the modification and surprisingly it worked out of the box. Windows looks great; on Linux I have flickering green pixels (does not hurt much; just looks strange ...)

Sounds like perhaps bad solders? I had the same green pixels issue in Linux but it was solved by resoldering. Can't be more specific than that though.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:46 am**

peregrinus wrote:Hi Nitrocaster,

I finished the modification and surprisingly it worked out of the box. Windows looks great; on Linux I have flickering green pixels (does not hurt much; just looks strange ...)

but ... back-light control does not work (always 100%). Yes i did 'clone display' etc.
Is there anything on the hardware side I could check / could be broken?

Thanks for your help and the great work!

If the brightness control doesn't work, there's a problem with the sense wire.
Regarding the green pixels: could you take some pictures?

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:25 pm**

nitrocaster wrote:
peregrinus wrote:Hi Nitrocaster,

I finished the modification and surprisingly it worked out of the box. Windows looks great; on Linux I have flickering green pixels (does not hurt much; just looks strange ...)

but ... back-light control does not work (always 100%). Yes i did 'clone display' etc.
Is there anything on the hardware side I could check / could be broken?

Thanks for your help and the great work!
If the brightness control doesn't work, there's a problem with the sense wire.
Regarding the green pixels: could you take some pictures?

Well I do not have Sense wire, and I have working the brightness control without a problem in Linux as well as in Windows...

About the flickering Green screen, what Linux dist you have? and what drivers? I have debian and working properly, here you have my drivers

Code: Select all

dpkg -l |grep x |grep intel
ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel                                    2:2.99.917+git20161105-1          amd64        X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:46 pm**

Just updated the first post with some information regarding the shipping delays.

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2017 2:49 pm**

nitrocaster wrote:The first batch is sold out.

Any idea when you are going to have a second batch available ?

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:00 pm**

megavolts wrote:Any idea when you are going to have a second batch available ?

Probably, in the end of February.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2017 10:19 am**

Can't wait to get my hands on a kit and upgrade to FHD

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:08 pm**

That's sounds great. I can't wait for it.

Already ordered a panel.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:43 pm**

carcuevas wrote:
nitrocaster wrote:
If the brightness control doesn't work, there's a problem with the sense wire.
Regarding the green pixels: could you take some pictures?
Well I do not have Sense wire, and I have working the brightness control without a problem in Linux as well as in Windows...

About the flickering Green screen, what Linux dist you have? and what drivers? I have debian and working properly, here you have my drivers
Code: Select all
dpkg -l |grep x |grep intel
ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel                                    2:2.99.917+git20161105-1          amd64        X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver

I don't think the x-server is causing this as the flickering starts before starting x and can also be seen when switching to console.
Also when booting to linux it looks half a second o.k. ( could be the time when switching from efifb -> inteldrmfb !?)

i found the following lines in dmesg

Code: Select all

[    2.336673] [drm] Wrong MCH_SSKPD value: 0x16040307
[    2.336676] [drm] This can cause pipe underruns and display issues.
[    2.336677] [drm] Please upgrade your BIOS to fix this.

maybe i'll try to resolder ...

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:47 pm**

peregrinus wrote:maybe i'll try to resolder ...

Better try to upgrade your BIOS first.

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:58 pm**

@nitrocaster

Long story short, I made a booboo. Managed to accidentally remove two of the solder point collets when desoldering the card (wanted to show a friend) so I guess I need to get another. How's your preorder list looking, is the next batch filled?

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2017 6:00 pm**

rewt wrote:@nitrocaster

Long story short, I made a booboo. Managed to accidentally remove two of the solder point collets when desoldering the card (wanted to show a friend) so I guess I need to get another. How's your preorder list looking, is the next batch filled?

i know that feel.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:00 am**

rewt wrote:@nitrocaster
Long story short, I made a booboo. Managed to accidentally remove two of the solder point collets when desoldering the card (wanted to show a friend) so I guess I need to get another.

Too bad. The board is not intended to be removed without heatgun - new solder melts into the holes on the motherboard which are filled with lead-free solder. The assembled thing looks like this (left - before soldering, right - after soldering):

I'll add some precautions on that to the manual.

rewt wrote:How's your preorder list looking, is the next batch filled?

There are still a few free slots, you can fill yourself in.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:46 am**

nitrocaster wrote:Too bad. The board is not intended to be removed without heatgun - new solder melts into the holes on the motherboard which are filled with lead-free solder. The assembled thing looks like this (left - before soldering, right - after soldering):

I'll add some precautions on that to the manual.

Yea I should have figured. We live and learn.

nitrocaster wrote:There are still a few free slots, you can fill yourself in.

Very nice. Done that now.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:25 am**

nitrocaster wrote: Too bad. The board is not intended to be removed without heatgun

What would be the right temperature for that?
I soldered with iron and 420°C, but for desoldering with heatgun this was to much - the whole board became soft and I canceled that try.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:48 am**

jp776 wrote:What would be the right temperature for that?
I soldered with iron and 420°C, but for desoldering with heatgun this was to much - the whole board became soft and I canceled that try.

Lead-free solder melting point is about 220°C, but the actual temperature on the pads depends on many things.
When you use a heatgun, the temperature of the air depends on the distance from the nozzle. I can't tell what is the right temperature for that. It should be high enough to melt the solder and low enough to not cause PCB deformation or delamination. The adapter board is made of standard FR4 with Tg (glass transition temperature) = 140°C. When you heat it above 140°C, it begins to lose it's stiffness. That means you have to avoid applying any excessive force to it. When the solder joints are melted, you can easily pull it up from the top edge and remove it from the motherboard.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:04 pm**

A good iron with integrated solder pump in the tip would probably work better in that case. But then again why would you remove that board except to switch motherboards ? Certainly not to do a youtube install video, then screw all the 7 pads while resoldering properly afterwards

My fix ain't pretty, but hey, still works

http://imgur.com/i0gHcCH

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:09 pm**

boutch55555 wrote:My fix ain't pretty, but hey, still works
http://imgur.com/i0gHcCH

Aw, that hurts!

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:28 pm**

nitrocaster wrote:Aw, that hurts!

Hahahaha, yeah, sorry again.

But in the end, I prefer having a working board that looks like crap than a semi-good looking board missing 4 pads going to the garbage...

Posted: **Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:16 pm**

I fitted the FHD LCD panel into the screen lid today. There were no major issues to note. Having a decent rotary tool with a built in light helped illuminate exactly where to cut for me.

@nitrocaster

You do mention in a post somewhere that for the SPB4 it is a slightly wider fit in the screen lid. It may also be worth adding for the SPB4 panel to mention also removing a small portion of the two corners of the plastic bezel near the inner sides of the hinge (in addition to removing the bottom hooks already mentioned) since the controller board is slightly wider on this panel. Otherwise the bezel won't sit flush during final fitment.

Posted: **Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:21 pm**

technopanda wrote: You do mention in a post somewhere that for the SPB4 it is a slightly wider fit in the screen lid. It may also be worth adding for the SPB4 panel to mention also removing a small portion of the two corners of the plastic bezel near the inner sides of the hinge (in addition to removing the bottom hooks already mentioned) since the controller board is slightly wider on this panel. Otherwise the bezel won't sit flush during final fitment.

You can safely cut the corners of panel's PCB to make it fit. I'll put additional instructions on that in the updated manual.

Posted: **Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:34 pm**

nitrocaster wrote:You can safely cut the corners of panel's PCB to make it fit. I'll put additional instructions on that in the updated manual.

I'd rather not risk damaging the delicate controller PCB like what happened to Seasonshu. It was no trouble to take a little more material off the lid and bezel.

Posted: **Fri Feb 03, 2017 2:43 pm**

Any updates on the second batch?

Posted: **Mon Feb 06, 2017 4:52 am**

TheChuckster wrote:Any updates on the second batch?

end of february, bro. don't push a developer ))

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