Touchscreens
Submitted by Allied on Sat, 08/23/2008 - 17:05.
I'm new to the forum and have joined because of my interest in everything about Home automation. My specific need at this point is to find touchscreens for a project I am currently involved with. This is a pilot project using UPB technology and also PLC controls. I would appreciate any input regarding integrating touchscreen controls to this project. The touchscreens would need to interface with the PLC and also with network based A/V, HVAC, and the UPB. If anyone knows of a touchscreen that is LAN based or wireless I would appreciate some feedback. I have prewired cat5 and 18/2 low voltage cable to the touchscreen locations so this is what I have to work with.
Re: Touchscreens
Hello,
My first thought is that you can use a normal touchscreen PC. They are very much like tablet PC's, but without the pen and handwriting recongition. Used or older models can be had for very cheap on ebay these days. It would be easy to supply power to the PC over your low-voltage wiring, and the cat5 would be your LAN connection. Mostof these PC's don't even come with a keyboard, they rely on an On-screen keyboard and therefore are very slim. I'm sure you can find a model that would look right at home as a controller on/in your wall.
The customization possible when using a normal windows PC is basically limitless .. whereas a turn-key touch screen will have limitations you have to consider (programming ability, input/output, memory, cost, etc).
If you still want to go the route of a manufactured touchscreen controller.. you could try something like the LeopardII. This interfaces with a PC over a serial connection (the cat5 could be used for that), and does have to be programmed. It can also output X10 directly with a PSC05 ... so you could have it send X10 signals that your custom system could interpret as commands.
If I were you, I would go in the direction of a windows-based touch screen PC. but I will also send one of my friends to this thread. He is a bit more knowledged in all things Home Automation and I am sure he would have additional suggestions for you to consider. Stay tuned for his response
Hope this helps
Touchscreens
I appreciate the input as this is an ongoing on the fly sort of project. We purposely stayed away from the out of the box systems for control so that we are able to modify and tweak for each specific user. As far as a touchscreen PC goes, I am not familiar with these units or where to look for them. I will check ebay as you suggest and will do some digging to see if this is an option. Once again, thanks for the input.jvanz