New Modder Needs LCD HELP

[BeeQuewl]

Bought a color LCD screen to mount on the front of my mp3 machine. Since i dont know much about watts / volts / ohms / little dangly things on backs of machines / etc... i was hoping you guys could give me a few answers ... the power specs are as follows : 12V / 500 mA / 7Watts (Max) If i simply hook it up to a molex am i gonna hear some frightening poping noises? is the 7 watt max power gonna screw me up? How many watts are coming down that molex cable anyway? Any help you guys could offer would be spiffy. Thanx in advance....

[RedFury]

Molex connectors have 2 ground wires ( the black ones ) and two power wires ( one 12v the other 5v ). I never remember which is which, but that isn't hard to figure out. At any rate, you can get 7 volts out of the molex connector, I just don't remember how...short of running a resistor off the 12v side to drop the voltage down to 7.
From the specs you provide, I'd say that you could run it off the 5v side without blowing anything, although it may try to pull more than 5v...which seems unlikely to me at the moment. Worse case scenario, you just won't get anything to show on that LCD.

Is this one of those small LCD screens you are talking about? 'bout the size of a Palm screen?

[thePh@r@oh]

hey red fury he said 7watts not volts the thing appears to be approved for 12 volts its probably gonna be ok

[BeeQuewl]

its 12 volts (no problem there) but im not what you would call "electrically-savvy"...more like "electrically challenged"...so i just was wondering if it was gonna pop when i plug it into the molex ( i have figured out which is ground and power on that so no probs there). the screens original manufactured purpose (i assume) is for one of those car dvd systems that soccer moms put in the back seat to keep the kids from screaming in their ears on long trips. im gonna hook it up tonite if nobody has anymore info...wish me luck

[BeeQuewl]

Success!!! and the mounting looks awesome in my A/V machine. hmm....maybe ill post a pic tomorrow...off to bed thanx for the input you guys