17" White Intel iMac Inverter

[Lutiana]

Hi guys,

I have been scouring the internet to find this info, but I cannot seem to get it from anywhere.

I recently picked up a display from an 17" White intel iMac (Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz model). The LCD itself is bad (has bands on it) but the back light worked just fine.

So rather than tossing it all I decided to pull the LCD off and use the rest of it as a light table (I will put it behind some glass). A perfect use for it as the bulbs and the rest of it give off a nice uniform white light.

But I cannot work out how to get the thing to fire. I have been scouring the internet to find information on this. What I need to know is:
1. What is the input voltage?
2. What is the pinout for the input side? There are 4 wires, 3 black and 1 grey, and it looks like the inverter is actually 2 inverters in one as there is a bulb on the top of the display and one on the bottom.

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

J

 

[Lutiana]

No one has the info eh?

I managed to get a voltmeter into a working unit and I figured I would post it here for anyone else looking for the info. It should be very useful to anyone who is trying to work out if the issue is the logic board or the inverter.

Pin 1 (Grey Wire) - +12V (to be stepped up for the bulbs)
Pin 2 (Black Wire) - Ground
Pin 3 (Black Wire) - 3.3V for back light On/Off (0v = off; 3.3v = on)
Pin 4 (Black Wire) - 3.3V for back light brightness. I assume the brightness is controlled by the actual input voltage (ie 0v is the lowest brightness and 3.3v is 100% brightness).

So using an ATX psu you can wire pin 1 to any yellow wire, pin 2 to any black wire and pin 3 to any orange wire and the thing should light up. Pin 4 does not need to be wired up to get it to fire, but running it to another orange wire will brighten up the display nicely.

Also, keep in mind that if either if the bulbs don't work then neither will fire, and both need to be plugged in for the whole thing to work at all.

Hope this helps you guys out there.