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I am hacking around with an old (CRT) VGA monitor.
What I want is to make the monitor display a blank white screen at all time, when the power is connected of course. I do not care if I cannot use my monitor for its normal job anymore.
Is it possible to short some pins of the VGA connector to mimic a blank white screen?
Or should I go to http://electronics.stackexchange.com?
Qurben
Posted 2012-03-26T15:42:51.930
Reputation: 261
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Disclaimer: I am not a monitor technician nor do I work for or am affiliated with the linked company.
The easiest solution (but not the cheapest) is to obtain a VGA monitor tester. They usually have solid color generation functions, and white (as a comment mentioned) is also to test maximum power draw. These can be found ranging from $25 to many hundreds of dollars. For example: http://www.datasynceng.com/vgapdoc.htm
If you want to build your own, it might be less expensive since you only want one function. For that, you'll definitely want to look at the VGA specification (see references), VGA pinout, and of course consult the electronics gurus at Electronics SE.
Related or useful:
JYelton
Posted 2012-03-26T15:42:51.930
Reputation: 2 848
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All LCD monitors have a white light source behind the panel. You can use this. Forget about delivering a display signal and just figure out what kind of power you need to get just the backlight working.
Tear out all electronics and replace it with a simple power supply that is only connected to that backlight. Done :-)
yeah I know it's a bit late to answer. Care to tell how it turned out?
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
Posted 2012-03-26T15:42:51.930
Reputation: 16 308
Some old VGA monitors displayed white if nothing was connected. – LawrenceC – 2014-11-14T22:46:06.923
Out of curiosity - why? (I personally have no idea how to do this short of leaving a computer connected SHOWING a solid white screen all the time, so I'll decline answering.) – Shinrai – 2012-03-26T15:46:31.473
1You can make an oscilloscope from an old crt, but mine shows a message and automatically shuts of :( and I don't want to keep a computer connected. But I am not familiar with the VGA connector protocol. – Qurben – 2012-03-26T15:51:48.923
Ooooh, that sounds like fun. Good luck with that. – Shinrai – 2012-03-26T15:53:53.333
Shorting some pins on the VGA connector won't do what you want. The VGA interface includes timing signals, e.g. horizontal & vertical sync pulses. Nothing will be displayed until the monitor can recognize frequency of the pulses. BTW a white screen will cause the monitor to draw maximum electrical power from the AC line. – sawdust – 2012-03-26T19:25:50.107
Sounds like a fun project for a Raspberry Pi and a HDMI to to VGA adapter... – pelms – 2012-03-30T19:33:18.573