Intro

Prices for TFT modules and panels for Raspberry Pi are insanely high, given facts that you can get 17-19” computer monitors today for below 100$ USD even new!

Repair of generic 19” monitor

I went dumpster dive and got 19” Chimei generic monitor, which had DVI interface and good panel. It’s important to have DVI, as Raspberry Pi have HDMI output which can be easily interfaced to DVI with just passive adapter. Monitor frame and plastic was removed and stripped, revealing panel in metal frame and two boards on top of it:

Monitor was manufactured in 2006 according to date codes, so it’s 10 year old. Problem with it is obvious: bad capacitors on power supply. PSU itself have Delta mark, but it’s cost down a lot and using bad CapXon caps in place. You can see them bulged.

I went ahead and replaced all capacitors, even ones which look okay with new ones:

Result of this 5 minutes repair:

Interfacing to Raspberry Pi.