DIY 5k Monitor - success :-)

[yurazazik]

Today, new backlight cables arrived… But unfortunately, the result is the same - the matrix backlight doesn’t turn on. I’m wondering if the eDP cable could be the culprit? For example, if it’s faulty, maybe the board isn’t providing proper power. Another thought is that the firmware might not be compatible. Has anyone here reflashed the r1811 v4 board?

 

[yurazazik]

I just decided to connect the new cables to the LP0818 board, and everything worked!!!! Why doesn’t it work without it?)))

 

[lguf_sadness]

Hi everyone, I could use some assistance with an issue I’m encountering.

I ordered an R1811 for my LM270QQ2 panel, which comes from an LG Ultrafine 5K. It seems I might have received the wrong firmware—the device doesn’t boot at all with the ‘stock’ firmware. The seller provided “R1811_PCBV4_V03_LM270QQ1_5120x2880_edp_8Lane_双DP_210121.bin,” which improved things slightly. The screen now displays, but the left and right halves of the screen are flipped.

Does anyone have the correct firmware for the LM270QQ2 panel? Or any advice on how to resolve this issue? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Guenter]

Is there a shop in Europa who ships any of the boards?

 

[Ozpyn]

I also did this, I have the following things working:
- 5k 60hz 10bit (HDR) (Over usb C at least)
- Audio (with crossovers)
- USB 3 hub (At usb 3 speeds) (Similar to this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diy-5k-monitor-success.2253100/post-32089129)
- 2.5GBE

Admittedly my solution for mounting the control buttons is not ideal, but it works. I simply drilled holes above the right speaker and super glued it in place.

A similar situation for the ethernet jack, I had to remove the rear plastic ethernet housing to get it to fit.

The control board is plug and play, worked right away with my panel.

Parts List:
- 2017 5k iMac
- JRY-W9QUHD-SA1 (StoneTaskin)
- USB 3 Hub (Amazon)
- USB 3 to 2.5 GBE (Amazon)
- RJ45 Keystone (AliExpress)
- Mean Well PSU (Amazon)
- Molex 3 Pin for C14 AC (AliExpress) (Choose Male option)
- Ring Connectors for PSU (AliExpress)
- HDMI 2.1 Extension (Amazon)
- DP 1.4 Extension (Amazon)
- USB 4 Extension (Amazon)
- Rubber Grommet (AliExpress)
- Display Adhesive (Amazon)
- Audio Crossovers (Amazon)
- JST Connectors (Amazon)
3D designed parts:
PSU Mount
USB Hub Mount
Control Board Mount

 

[PaulD-UK]

Nice to see a JRY--SA1 build.
Are you using Better Display or Monitor Control for brightness/volume keyboard control?
Is that working as you would want?
Are the crossover units giving good audio from the speakers?
They look quite nice but the long inductor is iron-cored so too high value, so it might be not the best impedance?

 

[Ozpyn]

Nice to see a JRY--SA1 build.
Are you using Better Display or Monitor Control for brightness/volume keyboard control?
Is that working as you would want?
Are the crossover units giving good audio from the speakers?
They look quite nice but the long inductor is iron-cored so too high value, so it might be not the best impedance?

I havent tried adjusting the brightness yet. The crossovers give *good* audio, but its not gonna stand up to a pair of DT770s. But overall, not bad audio. (I did goof when taking apart the screen as there is some slight discoloration in the top right due)

 

[mkwhater]

I’ve just bought a LM270QQ1 and I’m thinking why not put a steel backing plate on it instead of the iMac screen?

I was wondering is it a stupid idea to make a steel frame with a vesa mount and jb weld it to the aluminium back plate of the panel. I wonder if pressure points or something would mean it’s a terrible idea

I saw https://www.printables.com/model/486985-diy-5k-monitor-v2

And thought I could do something similar with the iMac panel. The front glass would just be floating

 

[Regulus67]

I’ve just bought a LM270QQ1 and I’m thinking why not put a steel backing plate on it instead of the iMac screen?
... I wonder if pressure points or something would mean it’s a terrible idea

I think it should work quite well. Use some soft material to help the screen get a firm position, without creating hard pressure points

 

[yurazazik]

I’ve just bought a LM270QQ1 and I’m thinking why not put a steel backing plate on it instead of the iMac screen?

I was wondering is it a stupid idea to make a steel frame with a vesa mount and jb weld it to the aluminium back plate of the panel. I wonder if pressure points or something would mean it’s a terrible idea

I saw https://www.printables.com/model/486985-diy-5k-monitor-v2

And thought I could do something similar with the iMac panel. The front glass would just be floating

Here, you need to consider whether you will be transporting or moving it. The casing is designed to protect the panel and the entire monitor from impacts and dust. However, if it’s just a stationary monitor that will remain solely on the desk, then, of course, this is a good solution.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@mkwhater Someone earlier in the thread did this with a plywood panel and a LM270QQ2 panel.
It seemed to work fine, as far as described in his post, although the QQ2 panel is easier to work with as it has mounting points.

 

[fhall1]

I’ve just bought a LM270QQ1 and I’m thinking why not put a steel backing plate on it instead of the iMac screen?

I was wondering is it a stupid idea to make a steel frame with a vesa mount and jb weld it to the aluminium back plate of the panel. I wonder if pressure points or something would mean it’s a terrible idea

I saw https://www.printables.com/model/486985-diy-5k-monitor-v2

And thought I could do something similar with the iMac panel. The front glass would just be floating

If you go on Youtube and search for something like "convert 5k imac to monitor" you'll find a person that did that.

 

[PaulD-UK]

Another back plate conversion is described by @mrdude42 in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diy-5k-monitor-success.2253100/post-31255806

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diy-5k-monitor-success.2253100/post-31255666

 

[mkwhater]

Thanks for the links, mmm yes it appears I should've done more reading and got a qq2 since there's no mounting points haha. Oh well, I've ordered a JRY FA1 and will think of something! Worst comes to worst I'll just buy an imac enclosure and do the vesa mount trick I saw on this thread with the old hinge. I'll keep the thread updated with how it turns out!

 

[mmyk]

Hi all, I've been following this thread for a while. I am considering to do a conversion based on 2017 iMac and one of the 24V boards, likely JRY-W9XX-XXX series. One of the potential issues I see is noise from 24V power supply. I'll likely go for an external power brick since I do not want to deal with 220V AC inside a metal box. Has anyone tried powering these boards on a 20V voltage? Some of laptop manufacturers (Asus, Lenovo) have their chargers designed for 20V and they usually are of good quality in terms of power supply itself, safety, noise, etc.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@mmyk The 24v input power is required IF you are proposing to power a laptop from the USB-C port on those boards that have it.
So if you don’t use that then they will work with 19v perfectly well.
I’ve run my R1811 like that to test it.

With a 2017 panel it would be better to avoid a JRY—AA1 board as your screen will perform better with a SA1/FA1.
If you are planning to use the inbuilt iMac speakers then a R1811 board is probably the better choice.

 

[mmyk]

Thanks for a quick response. I'll probably go for FA1 as I don't need to power my laptops via USB-C. My work laptop by Dell requires 130W of power so no charging by the board via USB-C anyways. Ideally I'd like to hookup PCs via HDMI/DP on Dell dock (WD22TB4).

 

[jonatans]

In a previous post I mentioned problems with eye strain with JRY-W9QUHD-SA1 and iMac 2017 panel driven by USB-C. At first I thought it was related to dithering caused by 10 bit color (8 bit + frc). Even though I disabled dithering with Still Color and forced 8 bit color mode with Better Display my eyes had problem focusing and I got headache.
Since I previously used an iMac 5K late 2014 8 hours a day for many years without issues I thought the SA1 board maybe was the issue. Some how I started looking into the bandwidth needed to drive 5k with the help of https://trychen.com/feature/video-bandwidth and saw that in order to drive the monitor with DisplayPort Alt Mode on USB-C I where forced to use DSC (Display Stream Compression) and thought maybe DSC was causing my issues. Therefore I instead tested with DisplayPort 1.4 (HBR3) and forced colors to 8 bit (since 10 bit is not supported on DP 1.4 without DSC) and to my surprise I have been able to work the whole day without issues. It is also possible to use HDMI 2.1 even with 10 bit color mode with the JRY-W9QUHD-SA1 without the use of DSC.

Since I mostly use my monitor with text (coding) and since 10 bit requires dithering I would not bother with 10 bit but instead make sure it is possible to drive the monitor without DSC. Related to JRY—AA1 I can not tell from the specification if it uses Display Port 1.3 or later or not. If it has Display Port 1.3 (HBR3) I would personally be fine using it instead of SA1. Now I understand why the Studio Display and Ultra Fine uses Thunderbolt, since that way they can provide the necessary bandwidth to drive the monitor at 10 bit without DSC and also have extra bandwidth for USB-hubs, cameras & microphones.

I tried to read about the effects of DSC online but could not find much information. From what I understand DSC is not commonly used.

 

[Bassy_92]

so I'm considering creating my own SA1 build.

primary focus is to build out a Display/docking Hub that is mainly for .

I want to be able to get access to a hard wired RJ45, additional usb-a 3.0 port, Charging and 5k display output all via a single cable.

I noticed this is the only board that has usb 3.0 speeds so make it a bit of a no brainer really... but the questions I do have pertain to any addition features I can build into this (that not an intense amount soldering work, minor bits are fine)

so I wanted to try out the possibility of maybe a 4k camera that fits nicely in the display an has a better quality that the built laptop cameras?

also I noticed that the board only outputs 3watts for the audio... I have a set of the smaller iMac speakers (which will be fun and games to try to fit in there) from the 1418 21.5 4k model from 2015.... assuming these would require less power, would a crossover kit hook up get reasonable sound, not looking for anything amazing but just semi-decent is fine (not being super loud is no issue, massive distortion is what I'm concerned about.



thanks in advance!

 

[SubDriver]

so I'm considering creating my own SA1 build.

primary focus is to build out a Display/docking Hub that is mainly for .

I want to be able to get access to a hard wired RJ45, additional usb-a 3.0 port, Charging and 5k display output all via a single cable.

I noticed this is the only board that has usb 3.0 speeds so make it a bit of a no brainer really... but the questions I do have pertain to any addition features I can build into this (that not an intense amount soldering work, minor bits are fine)

so I wanted to try out the possibility of maybe a 4k camera that fits nicely in the display an has a better quality that the built laptop cameras?

also I noticed that the board only outputs 3watts for the audio... I have a set of the smaller iMac speakers (which will be fun and games to try to fit in there) from the 1418 21.5 4k model from 2015.... assuming these would require less power, would a crossover kit hook up get reasonable sound, not looking for anything amazing but just semi-decent is fine (not being super loud is no issue, massive distortion is what I'm concerned about.



thanks in advance!

@Bassy_92

No one in this thread has been successful demonstrating USB 3.0 functionality with the SA1 board yet. It looks like it may be using USB 3.0 connectors but only delivering USB 2.0 performance for its data rate. See post #2141

 

[PaulD-UK]

@Bassy_92 There is a Chinese monitor using the JRY—SA1 board, and that requires a separate USB 3 input from the computer into its USB-B port for the USB-A ports to work at USB 3 speeds.

The 4K iMac speakers won’t work as well as the proper ones, as they have to exactly fit the shape of the case to give good sound out of the bottom of the case.

 

[Bassy_92]

@Bassy_92 There is a Chinese monitor using the JRY—SA1 board, and that requires a separate USB 3 input from the computer into its USB-B port for the USB-A ports to work at USB 3 speeds.

The 4K iMac speakers won’t work as well as the proper ones, as they have to exactly fit the shape of the case to give good sound out of the bottom of the case.

ahhh yes it seems you are correct. like many modern monitors.... they use a usb-b 3.0 downstream.

I will test and update once ive got my parcel and check if the extra downstream cable enables the 3.0 transfer speeds. if it's still limited to 2.0 then this is a real shame.

in terms of sound output will the 3watts of power be sufficient? (with the OG 1419 speakers?)

 

[PaulD-UK]

@Bassy_92 "...will the 3watts of power be sufficient with the OG 1419 speakers?"

Yes, the internal amp on the board is designed for 4 ohm speakers, like the iMac's, and will be as good as the cheaper recently introduced Asus and Provision 5K monitors.
Not as good as a Mac, but usable.

Don't overbuy the crossovers, as the ones being sold on AliE are not specced right for the iMac's speakers...
I've posted about it earlier, and done an analysis of the original AliE one, which has an iron-cored inductor.
You can get away with just a 0.15 milliHenry air-core inductor in series with the woofer, and a 10 microFarad audio-grade capacitor in series with the tweeter.

 

[joevt]

Now I understand why the Studio Display and Ultra Fine uses Thunderbolt, since that way they can provide the necessary bandwidth to drive the monitor at 10 bit without DSC and also have extra bandwidth for USB-hubs, cameras & microphones.

I think the Studio Display defaults to DSC mode if possible, otherwise the Thunderbolt port would be limited to ≈10Gbps data transmit speed and a single Studio Display.

 

[afaik4711]

Hey everyone,
thank you for this enormous informative thread.
I just want to show you my setup, maybe it will help someone.
The display is connected to my MacMini M4 with USB-C / TB4 Cable or my work Lenovo Thinkpad T14 21AH00CXGE.
The Thinkpad (Intel UHD graphics) can do 5K but it works more fluently @ 4K
Charging the Laptop works very well.

Parts list:

• iMac 27" 5K Late 2015 (LM270QQ1)
• JRY-W9CUHD-AA1 (AliExpress, delivery to Germany <2 weeks)
• Webcam: OV5693 5 MP/ IMX258 4K 12 MP HD USB-Kameramodul AF/FF 75 (Aliexpress)
• PSU: 24V 5A (Amazon Germany)
• Crossover Audiofilter (Amazon Germany, removed jumper B, good sound but i'm not audiophilic in any way)
• USB HUB (Amazon Germany)
• JoyIn 5-Way Switch as monitor control (DEBO SWITCH 5WS, Reichelt Germany)

i used a standard metal plate from the hardwarestore to mount the board. For isolation i mounted little rubberfeet to the board.
I'm still waiting for the correct audio connector for the filters. But a test showed me the best results with removed jumper B.
As someone who only watches Youtube, the sound of my MacMini M4 was sufficient. Now with the iMac speakers I am really happy.

USB Hub for keyboard and mouse so I don't need a KVM Switch.

Here you see the 5 way rocker for display settings. Currently it is just held by foam parts. Right is menu, left is exit / source. Clicks very satisfying!
On / Off could also be realized with middle click but i wanted to preserve the original on / off switch.


Cheers