Xuor

I am not building a carputer, but instead a homebrew home theater system with touchscreen input and custom-designed software.

I would like to purchase an ECopy touchscreen monitor such as this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ECOPY-10-TOUCH-S...QQcmdZViewItem

I have seen ecopy monitors referenced briefly elsewhere on this forum, but with no real details. Is it possible to hook these monitors to a regular computer? How are they powered? (The picture shows only touch/video cables.)

Thanks.

TouchLCD

The eCopy touch panel was designed to be used with a multi-function periferial (fancy name for a copier that scans) or scanner as a part of a complete imaging solution. The panel is sold as part of an imaging package that includes software and hardware. At this time the panels are not sold directly to the public as a stand-alone item.

PsyberJake

Here are the details on the panel.

There are panels available on eBay that you can purchase. There have been various panels available and different types, etc...

The key thing that you want to ensure when you purchase an eCopy Panel from eBay is that it comes with the paired video card. The video card is typically a half-height PCI card with a custom connector for the panel. There are AGP cards as well. When looking on eBAY you will need to buy the panel AND a PCI or AGP card... but buyer beware... The cards are paired for a specific model of touch screen. They do not all work together.

Most of the panels produced have custom video cards that drive the video and the power for the panel. These panels will not hook up to a standard vga port and will not hook up to a DVI port. They require the custom video card and these cards are paired.

The touch is driven by a serial port in the 2 wire models and in the 1 wire models it is driven by the video card with an internal wire running from the video card to an internal connection on the motherboard for the serial port... The drivers for the touch controller are available on the 3m Website under Legacy Touch Screen Drivers. The one you want is the UPDD Driver 3.8.34

So if you see a 2 wire panel you must get the video card that comes with it and you must have a serial port on your computer.

If you see a 1 wire panel you must get the video card that comes with it and you must have an internal set of pins (4 pins) on your motherboard to run the touch cable from the video card to the internal pins for serial connections on your Motherboard.

There are some models of this panel that will run on VGA, but not that many. If you see someone that has one of these, make sure that they have tested it and that it does indeed run off standard VGA. There are not that many models of these out in the market.

I have also noticed on eBay the advertising of the internal Nic/Hub card and I have seen this incorrectly listed as the "video card" If you can see the ports in the picture on eBay and they all look like RJ45 ports.... it is NOT a video card. The port on the custom video card looks like an enlarged VGA port.

Hope that helps.