Touch display with NI700

VladaPUB

I have LCD touch display LG Flatron L1730SF, and I want to use it as part of a control system with NI700. LG is connected to my PC, and PC is in the same networc as NI700 (as on attached picture).

Problem is that i dont know how to define LCD in NetLinx, and how to command NI700 trought that touch display.

DHawthorne

You need a TPI (Touch Panel Interface) to connect that to the NetLinx. You then hook up your computer to the TPI as a video input. The TPI programs like any regular touch panel, and you put a button on it to switch it over to the computer video when using it with the computer.

Hedberg

I do not think that this is an easy problem unless the device is supported by the Touch Panel Interface (the doc for the TPI is in the instruction manual touch panel section) and then it's probably just expensive. I've only seen one TPI installation and that was G3 with an Axcent card frame, so I don't have much personal experience with these things. But, what you need is a device that will put the graphic presentation on your LG monitor and accept touch information from it and buffer that back to the Netlinx master. The TPI, as I understand it, will put the TP image on a VGA monitor and will accept input from a lot of touch screen monitors. I don't know how the signals would be routed, but surely there is a way. Apparently, you can also use a mouse or other pointing device to trigger "touch" inputs. I guess that would look sort of like G3 web control only with G4 -- and it would be reliable.

It seems to me that the TPI does a lot of stuff that would be very difficult to duplicate. It communicates with the master via ICS over ethernet, hosts the TP4 graphics (I have no idea how complicated TP4 graphics are and if there is a "proprietary-ness" problem) and displays the graphics on the monitor IAW instructions fom the master, and it receives touch information from the monitor or other pointing device and relays that info back to the master. The TPI can also accept other video inputs and put the video on your monitor in a video window.

I suppose that you could display some sort of non-AMX graphics on your monitor and control that from the master via TCP/IP (and visa versa),. That sounds like a lot of work and it's surely beyond my abilities unless utilities for your monitor aready exist.

I'll bet if you attach a TPI to your NI700 it will be one of the few such connections in the entire universe -- maybe the only one.

Frankie

Hedberg wrote:

I'll bet if you attach a TPI to your NI700 it will be one of the few such connections in the entire universe -- maybe the only one.

No we do this all the time. We either sell the TPI or the MVP's. The TPI is very easy to work with it acts just like a regular tp.

dchristo

I use TPI's (G3 & G4) quite frequently.

--D

NMarkRoberts

A different approach

I've installed plenty of TPI3s and they work fine but are rather expensive.

However given that the diagram shows the LG attached to the PC and presumably being its main monitor, I think we are barking up the wrong tree.

Load your touchpanel to the NI700 as a web panel, launch a browser on the PC and point it at the NI700, and the job is done. You will be restricted to a G3 / TPD3 panel however, as you can't load a G4 / TPD4 web panel to a controller, only a G4 touchpanel.

Hedberg

What I meant is that most TPIs out there are probably connected up to more well-endowed masters. I think the NI700 is wonderful, but I would think that most installations needing a TPI would need more ports than two serial and one IR. Also, I would guess that a G4 TPI is a pretty expensive device while the NI700 is very reasonably priced, in my opinion. It would be like putting real expensive wheels on a Honda Civic. Oh, nevermind.

Of course, I'm probably wrong. The NI700 has the ability to do Axlink and IP, so it can control a bunch of stuff and capabilites can be added with offboard devices. Used Axcent3s and used cardframes are readily available and pretty cheap and the NI700 works with them quite well, as far as I can tell. Also, it's great for using as a home base for master to master communications with installations that can connect to the internet (including loading code and touch panel files on the remote system). The more that I think about it the more I think that the NI700 is one of the best bargains around.

Hedberg

N Mark Roberts wrote:

Load your touchpanel to the NI700 as a web panel, launch a browser on the PC and point it at the NI700, and the job is done. You will be restricted to a G3 / TPD3 panel however, as you can't load a G4 / TPD4 web panel to a controller, only a G4 touchpanel.

I've played with G3 Web control and it's handy, but my experience was that it wasn't very reliable. Maybe it was just me. I have an NI700 here, I guess I should do a little more G3 web control experimentation before I just write it off.

NMarkRoberts

Hedberg wrote:

I've played with G3 Web control and it's handy, but my experience was that it wasn't very reliable. Maybe it was just me. I have an NI700 here, I guess I should do a little more G3 web control experimentation before I just write it off.

I use G3 web control constantly, both for testing because I don't have a "real" touchpanel, and because the large project I am currently working on is going to use laptops instead of touchpanels.

My impression is that if you are constantly reloading / rebooting / redrawing / restarting, it is not entirely reliable. But in real use, I think it is just fine. So you and I will be constantly reminded it isn't perfect, and our clients will never notice.

1) The touchpanel emulation isn't perfect. I know of a small number of bugs, which I have listed elsewhere, all of which can be worked around.

2) It's slow to load each page if you have a slow network. This only matters when first booting.

3) Rapid disconnect / reconnect often fails. This wouldn't happen in real life.

4) Once in a while after a day of messing about I have to close down IE and start again because it just won't connect.

VladaPUB

The control of LG is simple, but never mind, you can watch that display as a simple display, and preasume that I will click on buttons with mouse trought G4 panel preview.

As I understand, I need G3 panel to do that, or there is way to use G4 panels ?

I have a problem to upload TPI to NI700, because I can't understand how to upload it without AMX touch panel connected to system .

DHawthorne

VladaPUB wrote:

The control of LG is simple, but never mind, you can watch that display as a simple display, and preasume that I will click on buttons with mouse trought G4 panel preview.

As I understand, I need G3 panel to do that, or there is way to use G4 panels ?

I have a problem to upload TPI to NI700, because I can't understand how to upload it without AMX touch panel connected to system .

Think of a TPI as a touch panel without the screen. Your LG becomes the screen, and connects to the TPI. Your panel file uploads go to the TPI itself, just as if it was a regular touch panel. They are expensive, and in some cases it may be more economical to install a small G4 paenl and VNC it from the computer for control (or use the web access page).

My experience with G3 web control has been that it's a bit flaky, and I tend to only use it as a last resort. The flakinesss is usually on the computer end; it's sensitive to Java version and a host of other things. In a controlled environment with properly set up computers, it's probably acceptable.

VladaPUB

I still need some code to see how to put LG display in NetLinx studio, in fact how to define that display as device ?

trav

Think of the TPI/4 as all the hardware of a touch panel without the actual display, you are providing the display and the touch functionality with your LG monitor, the TPI/4 becomes the device you define in Netlinx, and the LG is a display for the big black box (TPI/4) and nothing more.