PROJECT: Homemade Wacom Cintiq

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Yeah, a homemade Wacom Cintiq. Exciting huh? :stuck_out_tongue:
These things cost thousands of dollars and are extremely scarce to find second-hand on eBay. My plan is to make one myself for a fraction of the price and slightly smaller screen, but with exactly the same functionality (minus the Touch-Strips :P)

Ingredients:

One Wacom Intuos 9x12" tablet to salvage the innards from (muahahah!):

One laptop LCD panel, kinda like this one (undecided on size atm):

One LVDS controller to drive the LCD (converts VGA input to LVDS interface):

And various bits of plastic and rubber and whatnot to hold it together.
Basically, I want it to look something like this:

(just a really quick 3D job - mind the blotchy shadows :wink:

Yep, just a simple sandwich of plastic->Wacom->LCD->plastic. Maybe with some thin sheets of rubber between to cushion it and prevent things sliding around. Luckily the Wacom tablet is contained entirely within ONE single PCB - and a very neat one at that. The bottom of it is completely flat and smooth - no protruding solders - so there’s no need to prop it up on risers or anything.

Hokay, so… When the Wacom sensor board is removed from its plastic casing, it has about 25mm reading height for the pen, which, when the LCD screen and plastic cover are on top of it, should still leave about 5-10mm reading height, which is quite acceptable. In fact, that’s on par with the Graphire series’ reading height.

Ideally, I’d want a 15" LCD panel, because the Wacom’s active area is EXACTLY 15" diagonally. But if I end up using a smaller screen, the tablet’s active area can easily be resized using the driver software.

TO DO LIST:

  • Find a laptop LCD screen (12"-15"), preferably with no steel backing (interferes with Wacom sensor board). If it does have a steel backing, I’ll have to strip it off.
  • Find an LVDS controller that’s compatible with the LCD screen I choose (or vice versa). Already found one on eBay, waiting for reply from seller with regards to compatibility.
  • Plonk the LCD on top of the Wacom board, hook everything up, and see if it works.
  • If it does work (and I should hope so!) then start making the pretty little casing. Get two sheets of hard acrylic plastic (Perspex? Suggestions anyone? Need something that won’t bend much) and have it cut to size with corners rounded and edges routed/filleted(?).
  • Butcher my dear little Wacom Intuos 9x12 and remove the sensor board.
  • Put it all together*

*this step will most likely branch into a gazillion sub-steps :stuck_out_tongue:

So yes… If anyone has anything to contribute, please speak up! :smiley: Oh, and if anyone’s got an old laptop LCD they want to get rid of, please let me know!