Part 11 - light goes on - light goes off

In which a puzzle is solved

After a week of faffing I’m feeling like it’s back on track again..

The plastic frame has various flanges and stuff that cause gaps in the stack.  This is BAAAD, too much chance of damage or pressure marks on the lcd, plus there’s the whole pressure variations problem, and the apparent dropouts due to thickness.
Sooo its test time again. 

Here’s the stack sans frame. The tryout shows a nice smooth line,   then it starts breaking up,  then its all good, then its bad

WHA?

Then out of the corner of my eye I spot the drive light flashing on my laptop. Light goes on - line goes off, light goes off - line comes back. 

That’s IT? THAT’S the DAMN PROBLEM?, Either not enough memory or more likely some damn background task flipping the disk and stealing resources. I was getting wigged over some windows problem?   HA. What a dork. Looks like I’ll have to do a stripped-down desktop to run it from, (or not use my lappy).  
      
I’m going to proceed with the ‘original backlight’ plan, (it means I’ve got to find 3mm from somewhere but no worries), in which case I’ve got to replace the busted lamp.  

With the “spend as little as possible” thing in mind I’ve scavenged a lamp from a broken 17” screen at work. It’s wider than the 15” lamp having two tubes rather than one.  Obviously it produces much more heat than the tube it’s replacing, and also and won’t fit nicely alongside the thinner acrylic slab in the 15” backlight. To get round this I split the pair. I also get rid of the metal backing at the same time. 

Peel back the metal backing at each end, It’s quite easy to bend with a thumbnail. Peel off the tape from the back, unhook the wires through the slits thoughtfully provided by the manufacturer. The plastic blocks holding the ends of the lamps drop out from the steel channel. These blocks joining the lamps are quite soft and cut easily. Splitting the heatshrink covered cable is a pain but Mr Scalpel wins out in the end, being very careful not to nick the insulation.

I use the plastic case moulding from the smaller lamp with a chunk cut out of the end to acommodate the longer tube.  I’ll put up with the bit sticking out of the end.   I cut the wire from the old lamp and splice the cables together. Check it still works with the inverter.  Oh yes.
    

I think it’s worth noting at this point that apart from the screwdrivers that cheap disposable scalpel has been the most used tool so far.

 I’ve a feeling Mr Dremel is getting jealous, but he’ll get his fun soon enough. It’s time to start thinking in more detail about how everything is going to fit together.

MuWaHHAHHHAHHHA.