help on backlighting

[JakeK23]

alright guys.... i know this has nothing to do with the Crystalfontz LCD things but this place looked really cool and it appears my question my be answered here. i have a CD player but the LCD is not backlit, and i wanted to make it backlit. I have no idea as to go about doing this. i know there are different ways to backlight but thats all i know. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

Jake

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[JakeK23]

no one can help me?

 

[cosmicvoid]

Hard to say whether it can be done. You'd have to use something pretty thin, I think, like an electroluminescent (EL) panel, which would require an inverter circuit to generate the high AC voltage. If a display is not designed with a backlight, then odds are that the back surface is not transparent. So even if you put some light source behind it, it wouldn't show thru.

I tried to do something like this to an answering machine, and after I took it all apart, I discovered the display had an opaque backplane.

 

[JakeK23]

ooo... well on the circuit board there was a part labeled "Backlight" so... i dunno. thanks for the responce though. although it sucks to know itd be hard to do. stupid sony.

 

[cosmicvoid]

Well, if it is a connection for a backlight, then they might use a different display on that board for a more expensive model. One other idea: maybe the display can be "edge lit" with a LED, depending on whether its enclosed in a frame or not. I wouldn't have high hopes of that, either, but maybe its worth a look.