DIY Replacement Hub for the CEED

Hey, I thought I might quickly document my experience with replacing the pitop CEED HUB (V1) - TLDR: Use a Monitor Controller Board Kit for an NT140WHM panel; e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/173951847054?var=473109663840 (this is the exact one I bought and am using right now!)

Unfortunately it took a fair bit of digging to discover what exactly the panel is; it is not marked up as an NT140WHM but instead there is a sticker near the connector on the back that includes a number of different codes - googling them all shows that the last one 00C8WJ is the only one that might be helpful: it is a DELL Latitude E5470 14" LCD 1366x768 screen - which ticks a lot of boxes! Unfortunately there are no screen controllers that advertise as working for this screen; but a number of different codes show up alongside that 00C8WJ: e.g. in ebay itm/283813771544 and in ebay itm/283813771544 that indicate that an alternative name for the screen is NT140WHM-N41 - and the controller board is quite easy to find online. Some negatives: it doesn’t leave much room inside the panel at the front for a raspberry pi unfortunately.

Some good news is that it works with the RasPi 4 without having to tweak the resolution, etc., and is in general much more accepting of different inputs (720p, 1080p, etc.). It also has a very helpful daughter board with buttons to control the power, brightness, colour, screen OSD language, volume, with some helpful information about the signal input too. Lastly, it also directly has input for VGA signal too. I hope other people find this useful in extending the life of their pitopCEEDs - FYI, I fried my hub by plugging in a faulty pibrella into the expansion 40-pin header.

I have some pictures that I might try adding of the replacement process; but I just extracted the Hub, unplugged the 30pin cable from the screen, plugged in the replacement 30pin cable (which is not as flexible but helpfully is thin enough to fit between the plastics without getting in the way) and then replaced it all into the front panel.

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