A puzzle for Electrical engineers, A/V gear geeks etc.

[BillBlank]

This week has seen the purchase of a Panasonic 42" P60 plasma. This is to replace the cheapy plasma that my wifes cat's decided to pee on.

The puzzle is this.

The old plasma (one of these http://www.mastercare.co.uk/layout.aspx?ID={b7700182-a9f2-482e-b08d-bcc281cc2d47}&CatID={b9e1c5b3-8429-4bd5-bee7-a821d74e9bd6}) came in two parts, the screen is fine, it was the box they pee'd on.

I am wondering if I can bodge something together using a scart, VGA or component board that you would use on a commercial plasma display and something to replicate the signal from the old control box to tell the screen to fire up and display the signal.

The screen had it's own power supply so I'm pretty confident the cat pee didn't hurt it. It also carried the remote sensor so maybe I could connect the sensor output to the appropriate pin on the socket that recieved the signal from the box in some way to get it to fire up.

I'm thinking that if the chipsets for video processing were in the box then this wouldn't work and I have no idea what those would look like. Given that I believe this screen to be a write off anyway I'm happy to pull covers off and take piccies if anyone's curious and has advice or ideas.

It would be nice to end up with a HUGE monitor from this .

Thanks in advance and if anyone is thinking of buying an HD telly take a look at the panasonic offerings, the picture quality is amazing and the price has just nosedived  by 40% only 7 months after it's UK release due to panasonic releasing the px600. the only difference between the two being better sound and external looks.  Tube and chipsets are all the same and I run a 7.1 set up so the speakers on the telly are redundant to me .

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

How does the control box connect to the screen?  What do the cables and connectors look like?

[jefnvk]

You may be able to to cut off the connector at the box end of the cable, and hook up a DVI connector to it.  May be worth looking for a wiring diagram for that cable.

[BillBlank]

single lead only, about to leave for france, will sort more detail on my return.

edit. this shows the connections on the screen http://www.mastercare.co.uk/layout.aspx?ID={ee067ede-2f47-4a5c-b9dd-0cd7f9d10a46}&CatID={b9e1c5b3-8429-4bd5-bee7-a821d74e9bd6}.

this is the back of the box.  http://www.mastercare.co.uk/layout.aspx?ID={00fa4e2d-e195-4b50-a9c0-41bcc0643b20}&CatID={b9e1c5b3-8429-4bd5-bee7-a821d74e9bd6}.

I'll dig out the lead and count pins later.

[Bogie]

ask questions at the forum at www.partsexpress.com, www.hometheaterforum.com, and avsforum.com.
 
If they can't answer, I'll find someone.

put the cat in the oven.

[cfabe]

You're going to need some more information, a pinout for that cable will be crutial. Check at the links Bogie provided, maybe call the manufacturer and see if you can purchase schematics, don't know if anyone provides those any more. As a last resort post up a good high res picture of the circuit board inside the box, if we can identifiy some components we can make some guesses that might guide you in the right direction.

[BillBlank]

Thanks for the links and for the pointers as to what questions I need to be asking. Nice to think it would be possible, as always this board has someone who knows. Cheers gent's.

The cats in question are two bengals and a big fat ginger tom. I love 'em dearly but they've cost my wife just over $3500 of your dollars in replacement gear in the last year. It could be worse, I now have a reasonable av set up and one of the best bargain plasma screens on the market. Yesterday morning they pissed on my PS2 that had been left out.  Ebay is now emailing my wife daily updates on it's search  for an xbox 360 with the component connection.  God bless technology, I don't even have to nag anymore, the computer does it for me .

As annoying as they are you can see why the policy of replacing them with toys that have the same price tag as the old toys did when I bought them might keep me happy. Upgrade Now if I could just persaude them to pee on my graphics card.........