Now you’re getting me all excited!
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Ive been poking through similar topics myself as well, the biggest issue with using a premade 40 pin to 30 pin adapters is that apparently, there are two different 40 pin edp connectors, one for high res screens (what framework uses) and one for touch screen enabled screens. Apparently from what I’ve read, the two arent pin compatible
it really blows my mind how loosey goosey a lot of EE “standards” are
Yea I had read that… However the info I had read was that Framework were actually using the video+touch pinout, but that they just didn’t connect the touch.
But either way the total guess that I’m going on here is that both types of 40-pin have the relevant pin outs for a 1080 screen, so by connecting those and just leaving the ‘extra’ ones unconnected maybe it will work…
Who knows. I have my main board now and my adapter board from jlcpcb should be here in a few days. So we will find out if I kill a screen. I don’t even want to think about killing the main board 
Just want to check, you used the display side connector pinout, correct?
Display side: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/tree/main/Display#pinout
Motherboard side: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/tree/main/Mainboard#display-interface
Yes indeed, actually just used the datasheet I found above for the pin out to the panel, but same difference.
So I was pretty sure this didn’t work. I got my adapter board a while back and plugged it in and no dice… the ribbon cable got warm suggesting something was up and I unplugged. Fortunately nothing damaged.
I then took another look and realised I had routed one of the GND pins to the ‘wrong’ GND (as labelled) on the monitor… so I ordered a new board with this ‘fixed’ and tried again… but still no dice, the exact same problem.
I was about ready to give up, but figured I best stare at the PCB again and double check everything. I went through it, carefully checking the pins went to the right place, which they looked like they did… as a last ditch I thought I would double check the ‘pin 1’ of the monitor connector corresponded to the schematic I was using and what would you know it wasn’t… I had literally been wiring the whole thing up ‘back to front’ - pin 1 into pin 30 and vice versa.
So I fixed that and ordered a new board. It came this morning, plugged in and worked!
I’ll share the EasyEDA files when I have a second, but this will not work for all 30-pin displays, only those with the same pin configuration as the one I’m using.
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Congrats on your success! Are you going to be using your findings to run a larger or smaller display than the current one in the Framework 13?
Smaller - it’s actually for a project for a very unusual custom mini PC. It will be running this 14" stretched bar display: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001488852828.html
Nice. I think you might be the first person to use a different screen connected straight to the internal eDP.
First one to use a 30-pin I think. But not first for an alternative screen - someone used an Acer Spin 713 OLED here: Framework Laptop Alternative Screens - #30 by crazyideasinc
Not sure if they ever managed to get the touchscreen detached however.
Edit: Actually missed that they seemed to be mistaken - that spin 713 screen is the exact same screen but with a touch overlay… not OLED.
Sooo… maybe I am also the first third party screen. Although any BOE 40-pin (assuming the same pin layout, and BOE screens seem to reflect the VESA standard) should connect up directly I guess.
Here is my EasyEDA project: Framework Laptop 40-pin to 30-pin eDP monitor adapter - EasyEDA open source hardware lab
You should be able to use that to directly order from JLCPCB by following some basic “how-to” pages on how to get from an EasyEDA design to a JLCPCB order, JLCPCB will do the SMD components for you as well. 5 boards cost $20 delivered to the UK with one of their regular coupons.
You are obviously responsible for your own DIY adventures. If the pins and voltages match up you should be golden, but if you aren’t prepared to eat the cost of a dead board you probably shouldn’t be mucking around with DIY-ing such things.
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Yes, once the chipset drivers are installed I can adjust brightness using the Windows slider - I assume this is what the FW Keyboard would control if you were using that, but I can’t test that.
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@Dylan_Evans I am looking to try to use a 30pin monitor for my FW 13. Rather than a custom board, I have found this on aliexpress:
Would i be right to assume the 40p to 30p item here would do the same thing as your board did?
You can only answer that question by comparing data sheets between the screen you are using and the FW output.
But the likely hood of that adapter having the correct pinout for any display is exceptionally unlikely.
Here is a picture of the routing I used on my adapter:
As you can see, it is very far from just routing all of the connections off to one side.
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Hey Dylan, thank you for the reply. You are right - I hadn’t checked 2 lane 40 pin vs 4 lane 40pin as u/runoono mentioned. I’ve now checked the pinout of the board you designed - the pinout is the same as the one i want to get. I will likely try to get your board printed and use that as a test.
In the longer run will have to figure out if i can design and print one similar to the item i shared with you as i think a pcb is too thick to put behind the screen
Great, I hope it works for you - in regards to it being too thick - is there anywhere else you can store the ‘adapter’ and/or have you looked at the 0.6mm PCBs from the likes of JLCPCB? They also do ‘flexible PCBs’ which are very thin.
One alternative is to purchase a 30 pin edp cable (non fpc type) and splice it together with the FW 40-pin. Very fiddly though.
Hmm, i’m out of my depth here with designing my own pcb. Any suggestion on how i start with this or the best guide to start with?
So this kinda thing isn’t really PCB design in the classic sense (that is also out of my depth).
All this is really is linking up wires… think of it like splicing two cables together but doing so on a PCB.
Learning to do that is something you should be able to pick up relatively easily. I think I had designed one similar thing before making this adapter. As i note above, when you are screwing with this stuff you have to accept the possibility you will screw something up and end up with a dead mainboard - I got this adapter wrong like 3 times through being a bit dumb and every time I could have linked the wrong pins and burned something out. I don’t want to discourage you, just be clear that you should only tinker with this kinda stuff if you are prepared for the worst.
All that said, you can just get the PCB I have designed above manufactured by JLCPCB on a 0.6mm board (obviously it still have the height of the components) - but it is quite expensive.
If I was trying to fit a cable into an existing laptop chassis I would be tempted to splice together two cables so there was no PCB adapter to worry about. Would need careful soldering and double and triple checking what you are connecting up, but would do away with the potentially cumbersome PCB.
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Thanks - the 0.6 mm pcb is an option i’ll consider. I am also looking at getting a small volume of 4-lane 40-pin to 2-lane 30-pin edp adapter made if its not too expensive. I’ve dug in more and basically at this point I have bought an external edp driver to test out future screens so as not to brick my laptop. I am however increasingly confident that other than OLEDs, a lot of screens basically do follow the standard pinouts(will definitely have to verify one by one though prior to using such screen).
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