Newer touchscreen technologies

Tap, tap, tap...  Is this thing on?

I don't want to speak for ETC, but one of the challenges my company has is finding and/or verifying drivers for XP embedded. The newer devices do not usually provide drivers for the XP embedded O/S. The drivers they do provide may work but won't be supported.

Given the types of applications that you would use Embedded XP for, I'd think you would see touch screens in use a lot with embedded XP.  You would think Microsoft and the monitor manufacturers would want to support that.

It's not as much that Microsoft and the monitor manufactures don't want to support it as much is, Windows XP is a relatively old OS now, and the Mainstream support has expired on it. Both of these companies are trying to stay in balance with the rest of the world and are trying to keep up with whats going on. I think personally, that these companies are trying to create things that are universal, but its getting harder and harder as XP moves away from the current OS of choice.

My 2 cents at least...

Jared

Maybe it is time for EOS platform to be ported to Embedded Windows 7:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/westandard/default.mspx

Not sure how big of a project this is, but I'm sure it isn't insignificant.  I'm reasonably sure all the newer touch screen monitors are supported under Windows 7.

-Steve

Not speaking for ETC, but as a software developer as well, I have worked with many pieces of software that was getting ported from XP to 7, and that alone is a good amount of work, coding, testing, etc. Especially with specific hardware, its very possible that there is not Windows 7 drivers for the hardware at this time...

It may be a good idea however, to port to 7, however the software seems to be incredibly stable running on XPe.

Jared

Adding to Jared's comment, Windows 7 embedded requires at least twice the RAM and 10 times the disk space so that might make it too big to fit in an Element or Ion, and might trigger a hardware upgrade for your EOS or a reduction in functionality, all for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars on a monitor.

Yes, hardware upgrade might be required.  But buying a new motherboard, memory, processor(s), and a hard drive can be done for ~$500.  2 of the compatible touch screens I've been looking at runs about  $3000 whereas 2 of the newer cheaper monitors would be about $700.  It comes down to math in the end.

-Steve

I've got 2 of these and did not pay anywhere near $3000 for them. I'm sure there are a few bouncing around in warehouses somewhere.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824105003

That's a much better deal than some of the ELO monitors that I've been looking at.  Thanks!!

-Steve

That's a much better deal than some of the ELO monitors that I've been looking at.  Thanks!!

-Steve

Hi all,

We initially chose to support the 5 wire ELO screens because they were relatively popular, and the ELO driver is proven to calibrate and run effectively and efficiently in multi-screen applications.  The ELO driver also played nicely with the touch screen drivers already in place for the touch screens on the EOS console.

We have found that many cheaper/consumer grade touch screens (Dell for example) do not work in multi-screen environments, and their drivers do not run quietly under the hood of XPe.  Touch screen drivers are unfortunately complicated, especially on XP.

For the sake of reliability and compatibility, we limit the types of 3^rd party touch screens we support. As new technologies such as the ELO acoustic pulse are proven popular, we may consider adding it to the list of compatible touch screens. New ELO drivers have a better chance of being supported in the future, while Dell and other consumer brands do not.

Hans

Steve,

The Dell monitor that you had listed in a different post doesn't work in multi-monitor configurations.  Dell specifically made it so that only one instance of that monitor will work on a pc or console in touchscreen mode.  If you try to run two of those monitors they will crash the pc or console.

~steven

Thanks Hans and Steve!  I did want to let you all know that we are trying to find lower cost monitors that we can add drivers for.  Dell seemed the most likely manufacturer of such.  However, as Steve points out, the current flock of Dell monitors are limited in a manner that is unacceptable for our application.  This is an ongoing engineering project.  Please know that we are looking into likely solutions.

Thanks all!

a

I have bought several ELO 5-Wire Touchscreens from CDW online.  The prices seem to be very good.  Just important to read the specs before buying to make sure they match up with ETC's specs.

I do wonder if anyone has had experience with other branded touchscreens that use ELO's 5-Wire tech and drivers?  Those are sometimes about $100 cheaper, but you sort of get what you pay for.