ELO Touch Overlays .. 10.5" .. reuseable?

AWDNUT · 09-02-2005, 05:21 PM

Hey I work for a company that services POS touch screens and we get these crusty overlays that are still working but have a 'dead spot' where the customer has been pushing "cash" too many times or they are just really dirty and they get replaced for virtually no reason other than they are not calibrating.

I keep seeing these $200 overlays hit the garbage and some of them look pretty good still..

Any chance these could be adapted to work on other hardware?

I've attached a .gif of the connector to the panel so you can get part numbers and such.

mushin · 09-02-2005, 05:39 PM

So it's just one spot that doesn't work? I can see all sorts of uses for something like that. There's the obvious solution of laying out an UI to avoid that spot, but I'm also thinking of things like painting/decaling over it to make a large touch control panel. No one says that they have to mount over an display...

I assume you're not tossing the controllers along with the touch screens, so we'd have to find a (hopefully cheap) replacement controller.

Want to send me one? I'd love to hack at it.

ukchris · 09-02-2005, 05:48 PM

Do you happen to have access to spare cables like the one pictured?

AWDNUT · 09-02-2005, 09:41 PM

Yes I could ship one out for the purpose of sourcing a cheap controller, but I'd expect the shipping to be your cost as I wouldn't expect the overlay back.

I have one right now that doesn't have any nasty wear spots and looks like it's a victim of a food spill and a good cleaning would probably return it to full functionality.

I love your controller idea, but I've never had any luck connecting more than one touch controller to a computer without having them both do the same damn thing. (ie: you have split displays and when you touch the 2nd touch screen the cursor is moving on the 1st touch screen not the 2nd) If someone knows a way to do it please let me know.

If I used it on my home pc for the side of my case.. I could tell my PC that there's a TV connected as a 2nd screen, and then load a simple gui on the 2nd screen (which doesn't really exist) and then focus the touch on the 2nd display.. Then as you say I could slip in printed inserts to use as layouts that match with the simple gui that's running on the 2nd screen?

I think that would work? ... Have to be a damned cheap controller to make it all worth it?

EDIT: Oh about the cables, AFAIK no, we don't stock the cables, but we might be able to source them if you are unable.

mushin · 09-03-2005, 01:26 AM

Of course, I'd pay for shipping. First though, I want to see if I can't get a viable (or at least seemingly viable

) lead on the controller, so I'll get back to you when I research up some more info.

Oh, and preliminary googling indicates it's an AccuTouch 5-wire resistive panel. The product manual lists the ELO 2210MX (serial) and 2201 (PC-Bus) as being compatible controllers. Both the panel and the controllers have been discontinued by ELO (replaced with newer models) so ideally we might find surplus somewhere. That seems like a long shot though, particularly since searching on the controller didn't turn up much.

Third party controllers are another option (though I don't know how problematic compatibility issues tend to be); I found one for about $50.

The last option is to build one. I found a TI controller chip on digikey for $8. This would be the most challenging - and interesting - approach. I'm going to look more into this... later. Sleep now.

ukchris · 09-03-2005, 09:14 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by AWDNUT

EDIT: Oh about the cables, AFAIK no, we don't stock the cables, but we might be able to source them if you are unable.

I ask because a while back a lot of us bought kiosk machines from a seller on ebay, they work great but it has been hard to lengthen the cables to move the screen away from the case.

The kiosk has three cables, one for the TS looks like the one you posted, there is then a power and VGA cable. The VGA cable is similarly flat with a somewhat specialized connector on the end, although I suspect it is pretty standard in this area. If you were able to source these cables at a reasonable cost quite a few people would probably be interested.

TruckinMP3 · 09-03-2005, 11:00 AM

Any chance at an overlay for a 14 inch LCD?

AWDNUT · 09-03-2005, 03:38 PM

Well I just got two 15" displays with worn overlays in.. We're going to send them back to the supplier to have the overlay swapped due to the fact that they seem to glue the overlay to the screen.

I might be able to try and pry the old overlays off before we send them off if there's sufficient interest. These overlays have atleast 2 dead spots where it looks like ladies with nasty fingernails have been poking the screens.

lostreception · 09-03-2005, 03:44 PM

sorry if i didnt quite follow you as of yet are these overlays 10.5? (odd size) or 15.0. your original posts says 10.5 thanks a ton im looking for a cheat ts overlay

TruckinMP3 · 09-03-2005, 07:56 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by AWDNUT

Well I just got two 15" displays with worn overlays in.. We're going to send them back to the supplier to have the overlay swapped due to the fact that they seem to glue the overlay to the screen.

I might be able to try and pry the old overlays off before we send them off if there's sufficient interest. These overlays have atleast 2 dead spots where it looks like ladies with nasty fingernails have been poking the screens.

If you fine one that seems to need more cleaning than has dead spots that is more interesting... also do you know if driver support is available for winXP or could you point me in the correct direction of the controler car website?

I would certainly be willing to pay for shipping and make a donation to the 'beer money' fund

Cheers

AWDNUT · 09-03-2005, 09:31 PM

Most of the time the screens are well inspected and tossed because there is a dead spot in the "done" or "cash" locations making the screen less sensitive or hard to calibrate. However we have some that are just a mess and they come to us when we don't have time to clean and test them. So *some* screens are getting overlay swaps without proper checking and decent looking overlays are hitting the trash on top of the functional overlays that have a worn-out area (that still works but isn't sensitive enough).

So I just saw this forum and thought, hey... What if we can get some recycling going on?

For the most part I'd want shipping/handling prices to get the touch overlays out, and I'd be taking really detailed photos of each screen that ships so you'd know if it's a waste of time/money before paying.

If someone wants to donate to the beer fund or the pizza fund, that's great, but wait till you have the overlay and are happy with it.

EDIT: Oh and yeah I see alot of the 10.5" but we also will be seeing more and more 15" .. The 15's get alot more scrutiny than the 10.5's so they should all be worn in atleast one spot.

Arathranar · 09-03-2005, 09:52 PM

I might be interested in a 15" if it's the right part number to match the spare controller I have.