Introduction

Today I'm going to take a look at a brand new product called the " PcMods Remote Serial Display ". This unit differs from most current LCD displays on the market because this unit was designed to be a remote, or externally mountable, display. What does that mean? Well, it means that you can mount the display anywhere you'd like within a 7-foot radius of your CPU via the included cable and is not limited to being mounted in a 5 1/4" drive bay. Since alot of you may be a little tight on drive bay space in the case, Pcmods.com saw the need for a neat, externally mountable display. I was anxiously anticipating giving this product a test-drive for you guys because, let's face it, I don't know anyone who doesn't like the look of those sweet lcd's displaying all your system info....

Contents

Closeup of box contents and complete kit.

Whats Included:

• Serial Display Module
• Molex Splitter
• Adapter 104426
• 11" ten conductor serial ribbon cable
• 7' six conductor modular cable
• 6' nine pin D-Sub M to nin pin D-Sub F serial cable
• Installation instructions
• Velcro attachments

Closeup of the Display unit and serial connection card.

Installation

After reading the instructions thoroughly I proceeded to install the Serial connection card. The display itself connects by one of two different methods. Either way you need to install the little serial card because it utilizes the only output connection for the remote displays power. It's very unique the way the display works in this way. There is only one cable ( phone cord style ) that is connected from the display itself to the actual pc. And that one cord will supply the power and information to the display making it pretty lightwieght to move and mount in convenient locations.

The serial lcd gets its information from a , you guessed it, a serial port connection. Now, if you're one of the lucky ones that have a specialized 10 conductor serial connection located directly on your motherboard, then you can skip the bulky external serial cable loop ( explained next ) and connect the little serial connection card directly to the motherboard. If you do not have this specialized 10 conductor serial connection located on your motherboard ( like I do not) , you will have to go the slightly more bulky route of externally connecting the serial cable from your motherboards external serial port to the port on the serial card that included with the display kit. Not a big deal though. I'm doing that now and well, it matches my externally looped Mpeg decoder card cables :o)

Closeup of the serial connection card.

Closeup of the 10 conductor serial ribbon for attaching directly to MB. I couldn't use this nifty little thing =\

You best plug in the molex connector before you stick this little card between your other cards....heh.....it's just a bity thing :o) As usual the quality of the PcMods PCB work was excellent. When they decide to design a product they do it right. Again, excellent contruction! After you slap the molex plug from your psu on the card, just slap that in an open I/O expansion slot. Most everyone should have at least one of these free.

Now its time to go external and connect the ( as i call it ) looping external serial cable :o) Just connect the appropriate ends to the MB and the port on the PcMods card. with this done....Just connect the 7' cable into the "phone jack" type plug on the Serial display and the card in your PC. YOUR DONE! w00t! well almost done.......

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