I've known people can convert iMac into a pure monitor for a long long time. Ever since I've been pondering from time to time if it's possible to modify iMac in a way that it can function as a computer and a monitor with a little switch. I didn't give it some serious thought until I recently bumped into this gent's adventure: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-2006-into-a-monitor-still-a-computer.299258/. That post drew little attention and hence we don't have much information other than what's described in text there.
That was an inspiring piece of work. I dug up some iFixIt's teardown's and available after-market LCD driver kits and gave some thought on a possible design. The following block diagram illustrates my approach:
The internal LCD panel can be used by both iMac and another computer at different time. We could use the OSD button panel to switch the source. Or we could write a piece of software to switch by a mouse click (and eliminating the need of the OSD button panel).
This approach eliminates the need of the after-market inverter board or the need of relatively high power supply to feed such a function. Hence, the after-market LCD driver board could be housed inside the iMac with relatively low power requirement sourced internally.
Challenges in descending order of uncertainty:
NB: In the block diagram. "D" can also be USB-C. So "D - Thunderbolt/mini DP ports/USB-C"
That was an inspiring piece of work. I dug up some iFixIt's teardown's and available after-market LCD driver kits and gave some thought on a possible design. The following block diagram illustrates my approach:
The internal LCD panel can be used by both iMac and another computer at different time. We could use the OSD button panel to switch the source. Or we could write a piece of software to switch by a mouse click (and eliminating the need of the OSD button panel).
This approach eliminates the need of the after-market inverter board or the need of relatively high power supply to feed such a function. Hence, the after-market LCD driver board could be housed inside the iMac with relatively low power requirement sourced internally.
Challenges in descending order of uncertainty:
- will the iMac's inverter board/LCD power supply continue to work once eDP connector is disconnected from the LCD panel
- internal case space to house the after-market driver board
- space to re-route the mini DisplayPort of the iMac from outside to inside and connect to the after-market board
- space to pass the DisplayPort/HDMI cable from other Mac/PC to inside the iMac
- enough power juice from the iMac's PSU to supply the after-market driver board (less its inverter function) and the iMac's computer function simultaneously
NB: In the block diagram. "D" can also be USB-C. So "D - Thunderbolt/mini DP ports/USB-C"
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