Accessory Lukos 17' 144hz help with buying/deciding not to.

Haawq

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
New User
Feb 5, 2019
7
1
Hey guys. I'm getting desperate about getting a monitor for the road. I sleep in hotels almost more than I do at home.

I'm not going to get a gaming laptop.

I've been thinking about getting the lukos on taobao. But I have no clue how to order safely with the proper colors etc.

Also I'm looking for other suggestions fitting this: 17-21 inches. 120-240 Hz. Sub 5ms.

Also worth mentioning, I can fly to China to pick up whatever I order.

Any help /suggestions on here?

Thank you
 

thewizzard1

Airflow Optimizer
Jan 27, 2017
333
248
Could you link to the laptop you're looking at?
I don't know much about that brand, but you can get pretty nice (and reasonably priced) Clevo laptops, with 17" 144Hz panels. I don't think there are many out there yet with better than 1080p144 / 4k60 panels.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
Pretty sure he said he's not getting a gaming laptop. I presume this needs to be carry-on friendly? Can you link what you're travelling with? Might also be worth checking out the Wallye Tactik bas and going with a 21" monitor.
 

Haawq

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
New User
Feb 5, 2019
7
1
Could you link to the laptop you're looking at?
I don't know much about that brand, but you can get pretty nice (and reasonably priced) Clevo laptops, with 17" 144Hz panels. I don't think there are many out there yet with better than 1080p144 / 4k60 panels.
Not looking for a laptop
 

Haawq

Efficiency Noob
Original poster
New User
Feb 5, 2019
7
1
Pretty sure he said he's not getting a gaming laptop. I presume this needs to be carry-on friendly? Can you link what you're travelling with? Might also be worth checking out the Wallye Tactik bas and going with a 21" monitor.

Yeah the 17-21 inches like I said. Flying the airplane myself so I can go a little outside of whatever the restrictions from airlines are. But I don't wanna look like a jerk at the airport with a ultra wide..
 
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mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
I made myself a 1440p 17.3 inch 144hz display using brand new parts from taobao and the cost is less than $200. The driver board also supports HDR and FreeSync II. I designed the monitor shell using crilic with CAD and ask s factory to laser it for me at a cost $9 including shipping lol. Still can’t believe the price.
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I've been looking at making something like this myself for travel (and couch gaming when the TV is in use), so I'd love to hear how you made yours, @mantide. I'd be interested in going smaller than 17" (there are some nice-looking 13" 120Hz IPS panels on Ebay for cheap, and I don't care much about slow response times (I'm used to gaming on a Dell U2711!)), but any tips on how you got it working would be excellent. From what research I've done, the most difficult thing seems to be getting a datasheet for the panel so that whoever supplies the controller board can program it properly (I've been in contact with some Alibaba suppliers, who all seem very helpful, but can't do much without a panel datasheet). How did you get yours made?
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I am using this one: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=572707646479&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail

I am 99% sure this Lukos one use the same stuff as I do lol.

Looks nice! My only complaint would be not sticking to the SFF ethos - a lot of "wasted" space in that case ;)
On a more serious note, it's a shame about that one tall capacitor, otherwise it would be a very nice and thin board - the ones I've seen have been thicker/have had taller components. Particularly impressed with that low-profile transformer (?) on the left side of the board. Suppose the cap could be desoldered and replaced with one lying flat across the board if needed, or just made to fit very snugly against the case. If I ever get around to making one of these I'd likely go for a slimmed-down case design, even if that would make it more complicated, potentially more fragile, and force me to make a "lump" on one side of the chassis to fit the board, as a slimmer design would make it that much easier to fit in a bag or suitcase. Decisions, decisions ... I'd likely spend months just figuring out my design, tbh. :p

Question time:
- Where did you get the acrylic laser cut? Locally?
- Does the board support FS over HDMI, or only DP?
- Is the red connector behind the power jack for power input (if, say, I wanted to rig this up for battery power)?
- The spec sheet says "3.5mm earphone input" AND "... output". Which one is the jack, an input, or for headphones? And I gather there are on-board speaker headers - which ones are they?
- The spec sheet also says "DP out". Is that true? Is one DP an input, and the other an output (with the board thus being an MST hub for the second DP signal to pass through)? Or is the spec sheet wrong?
- Do you have some sort of stand/mount for this? Are the holes on the rear for a VESA mount?
 

mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
- You only need a panel and a driver board(that comes with panel connection cable and control keyboard) to light it up. Every thing else is up to you.
- I am no expert in this. But I think for high resolution and high refresh rate panel the connector is standard 40 pin edp cable(The thick black one in the pic).
- Everything is from Taobao, including the acrylic. I think I was overcharged for the acrylic, it should be around $7 for the material, laser cut and shipping lololololllll, seriously!
- red connector is for the control keyboard above the control board, if you look carefully. BTW the key stroke feedback is so satisfying. It comes with the board if you pay $3 more I think.
- I think there is only 3.5mm output. The driver board does have connector for dedicated speakers under 3w.
- DP out is supported, you can power 2 display with this function. You can look this up, it's part of DP protocol.
- I use ergotron vesa quick release for this monitor. On the back I cut two set of 75mm and 100mm vesa holes.
 
Last edited:

mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
In case you are wondering, I use a piece of mirror stainless steel as the base structure to mount the panel and everything, I guess that's the reason why I make it. It's beautiful.
 

mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
I gotta say, Taobao is the most amazing market ever. Amazon might fail oneday but Taobao will last forever. You can buy anything legal in Taobao. I also used a special cube nut to attach the acrylic, which is only available in Taobao as well. I bought 20 different screws and nuts for almost no charge up just to see which one I like. In US I buy 4 ugly m3 screws of for $1.5 and I have to drive to the hardware shop in person. For the same price I got 100 stainless steel or specially strengthened black m3 screw including shipping from 1,000 miles away.
 

mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
BTW, the 1,000 mile shipping should arrive within 2 days and deliver to me in person not just leaving the package at your driveway, if not I will get an apology from a real person or I might even have it for free. When I was in China.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I gotta say, Taobao is the most amazing market ever. Amazon might fail oneday but Taobao will last forever. You can buy anything legal in Taobao. I also used a special cube nut to attach the acrylic, which is only available in Taobao as well. I bought 20 different screws and nuts for almost no charge up just to see which one I like. In US I buy 4 ugly m3 screws of for $1.5 and I have to drive to the hardware shop in person. For the same price I got 100 stainless steel or specially strengthened black m3 screw including shipping from 1,000 miles away.
I've looked at Taobao previously, but ordering from there seems like an utter nightmare if you're outside of China. How did you solve this? Did you use a third-party site? Do you speak/read Chinese?
- You only need a panel and a driver board(that comes with panel connection cable and control keyboard) to light it up. Every thing else is up to you.
- I am no expert in this. But I think for high resolution and high refresh rate panel the connector is standard 40 pin edp cable(The thick black one in the pic).
- Everything is from Taobao, including the acrylic. I think I was overcharged for the acrylic, it should be around $7 for the material, laser cut and shipping lololololllll, seriously!
- red connector is for the control keyboard above the control board, if you look carefully. BTW the key stroke feedback is so satisfying. It comes with the board if you pay $3 more I think.
- I think there is only 3.5mm output. The driver board does have connector for dedicated speakers under 3w.
- DP out is supported, you can power 2 display with this function. You can look this up, it's part of DP protocol.
- I use ergotron vesa quick release for this monitor. On the back I cut two set of 75mm and 100mm vesa holes.
Thanks for the replies! The DP out functionality is very interesting. Does this mean that only one of the DP connectors is an actual input (with the other being a dedicated output), or is this somehow switchable? And do you know if it supports FreeSync over HDMI?

It's a bit of a shame that the board only has barrel jack power input (I would really like to add batteries), but I suppose that could be solved by creating a split cable or MacGyvering some other solution.

Also, if you know, care to share what the last four connectors that are only labeled in Chinese (two in the top left corner, one towards the top right, big one in the bottom right) are for? Also, one of the pictures has different parts of the board populated, with the entire left side blank, but a large white connector and another red one populated in the middle. Do you know what this variant of the board does differently?
 

mantide

Trash Compacter
Sep 17, 2016
42
23
I've looked at Taobao previously, but ordering from there seems like an utter nightmare if you're outside of China. How did you solve this? Did you use a third-party site? Do you speak/read Chinese?

Thanks for the replies! The DP out functionality is very interesting. Does this mean that only one of the DP connectors is an actual input (with the other being a dedicated output), or is this somehow switchable? And do you know if it supports FreeSync over HDMI?

It's a bit of a shame that the board only has barrel jack power input (I would really like to add batteries), but I suppose that could be solved by creating a split cable or MacGyvering some other solution.

Also, if you know, care to share what the last four connectors that are only labeled in Chinese (two in the top left corner, one towards the top right, big one in the bottom right) are for? Also, one of the pictures has different parts of the board populated, with the entire left side blank, but a large white connector and another red one populated in the middle. Do you know what this variant of the board does differently?
Some of the connectors are for lvds(I believe) and speaker connections.
There are two variations for this driver pcb. One for portable screen like this one; another for larger desktop displays which will need independent power source/voltage regulation for backlight.