In-Car Nav screen

[MegatronUK]

I've got a high end Pioneer navigation screen that I took out of a Japanese Toyota Supra I owned a few years ago - being a Japanese system it was never any use in the UK, so the system and screen have remained in a box at the back of a cupboard.
Anyway, I came across it again the other day and thought it could be a fantastic screen for a more modern project (it's a high resolution 7.5" widescreen). The screen quality is absolutely superb (as it would be for a unit costing almost £1000 just a few years ago).

It's connected to the main body of the head unit with a 20 pin ribbon cable - my multi-meter says that there are several +12v lines along with a whole load of +5v feeds in that ribbon cable - so if I can sort those power connections out I can probably get it to fire up independently from its motorised tray and main head unit.

Now this thing takes a RGB feed via a custom Pioneer connector which I don't have the pinout to (and would have to retain the main board and head unit to continue to utilise) and also has a NTSC tuner built in (no good to me in PAL-land). However, on closer examination the control board on the read of the LCD actually has both a Sony CXA1585Q PAL/NTSC to RGB encoder and a Sharp IR3Y26A RGB to LCD encoder... so I'm thinking that it should be possible to feed it a RGB+CSync signal.

Does anyone have any experience of using either of those encoders? (I'm guessing the Sony IC might be used in other things?)
I've an idea for a PS2 slimline laptop and this would be a perfect screen for it......

[XCVG]

I'm sure Bac would love that CXA1585Q.

[marshallh]

Looks like you've all the information you need. You only need the Sony chip if you plan to input composite video. The PS2 slim outputs RGB itself so it shouldn't be a problem.

It's probably easiest just to wire power to the ribbon cable in the places you found, and then wire RGB+csync straight to the Sharp LCD encoder. There's a good chance you don't need the full 12v either, it probably goes to a regulator. might take a look at that.

[MegatronUK]

I've taken the controller apart from the screen and flipped it over - there are already some handy solder pads ready to use: on either side of the Sharp LCD encoder I've got the following pads: RIN, GIN, BIN (before the LCD encoder) and ROUT, GOUT, BOUT and CSYNC after the encoder on the way to the ribbon cable for the screen. Once I figure out the minimum power lines it needs I'll try firing it up.