Multiple touchscreens

[farbs]

Hi Guys,
just wondering if anyone has seen or are using this product. Seems like a great way to add a few touchscreens around the House. Would it be possible to run different instance of NR with this setup? If it could it might just be what I am looking for for the new setup!!:)

http://www.ncomputing.com/ncomputing/index.php

[Rob H]

Yes, that should be possible providing you have the whole-home version of NR. There are a couple of command-line parameters you can pass to NR to start up multiple instances on the same PC. See the NetRemote (not NRD) help file under Installation and Setup|Client Command Line

[NeoMorph]

I've been looking for something that will be the most economical way of running my home automation system. I tried searching for all sorts of small computers and came across the mini-itx machines...

... then I spotted this thread and it gave me a bit more info in what to look for (thanks farbs).

Take a look at this site... it sells a bunch of thin client machines and some come with Windows XPe (that's Win XP embedded) and some run Windows CE.

http://www.instant-axess.co.uk/?gclid=CI7Zqbyryo0CFQfilAodnRGk6w

One thing about the nComputing system. I'm bettting it needs a powerful server to run the multiple client terminals. I'm going to ring up Monday and find out some more info.

[farbs]

I'm going to ring up Monday and find out some more info
I've already called them here in Australia and waiting for a call back;)
I guess it depends on cost but the idea of running 3 touchscreens off of the one server sounds perfect!!
I will let you know how i go.

[NeoMorph]

I'm still waiting for a touch screen kit that I ordered on ebay. Money has gone through but the supplier hasn't replied to an email I set them.

I hope I haven't been conned here. :(

Edit: Nope - no con. Just arrived. :D

[rickd]

This looks like an awesome solution to distribution of touchscreens particularly the ethernet based system any idea of the cost per L200....the 3 unit x series kit looks good but limited to 10metres but even that may work for me too.

Can you run a usb touchscreen into a ps2 mouse port with a converter that would enable the xseries version to work well

[rickd]

ok spoken to them and they say ot supports touchscreen at least the l200 will but likely rs232 touch screen.

Does anyone know if a usb touchscreen can be used with a usb to ps2 mouse port converter and simply operate as a mouse?

[NeoMorph]

ok spoken to them and they say ot supports touchscreen at least the l200 will but likely rs232 touch screen.

Does anyone know if a usb touchscreen can be used with a usb to ps2 mouse port converter and simply operate as a mouse?

I know there are serial port controlled touch screens out there but I think the drivers have to run on a PC as they have to interpret where the wire sensors are being deformed on a resistive touch screen. Most likely you have to buy special screens for use with the L200's.

Personally I'm going to go with a mini-itx machine but at the moment I'm holding on as the recently released model I was going to use is suffering from bad drivers. :(

[rickd]

What cost are you doing a mini itx for?

[NeoMorph]

What cost are you doing a mini itx for?

Not sure yet... I'm going to be doing some testing with Compact Flash IDE hard drive replacements (when my adapter arrives).

My current possible layout comes to around £200 + delivery. The only thing it doesn't cover is the hard drive as I don't know if I'll use the Compact Flash or get a small SATA hard drive.


EPIA LN10000EG Fanless Mini-ITX - £94.39
Wall Mountable Enclosure. 1x PCI Slot - £29.35
12v DC-ATX converter - £31.14
60w AC-DC converter. 12v output - £16.03
Crucial 1GB DDR2 533MHz / PC2- 4200 - £30.39

Total £201.30

Unfortunately I found out that it's my motability car changeover in December. This means that I've now got to save up as much as possible to pay the advanced costs (initial 3 year deposit) for the new car. As I've got to have an automatic plus get a large car (I'm weird in the fact I have short legs and looooong body and can't fit in most cars) it means it's going to eat into my savings until the beginning of December.

This means no new kit from now on and all my spare cash (what little I have) will have to go into the bank. :( Really I shouldn't have bought the touch screen kit but I thought I had plenty of time... When I realised it was only four months away I freaked out. This year has been weird as we are only just beginning to have a bit of Summer here in Worcestershire. Up to now it's been flood city.

So everything is on hold until mid December... worst time to build PC's then so it will probably be in the new year now. Grrrrr.

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

[Marquis]

Hi folks,

I ordered the device to give it a test drive. Today it arrived and I have set it up in less then 30 minutes. Most time was spent for unpacking and rebooting the server! Of cause I was not able to do intensive testing for now, but here is my first impression:

1. I ordered the L200 device with USB support
2. I am on 100 MBit Ethernet
3. I run Windows 2003 Server Standard
4. My Server is a P4HT with 3.06 GHz

When you switch on the device it finds out what servers are available. You can also install the software on more than one machine and in this case you can connect to several pc's (one session per time of cause).

Beneath your network setup (DHCP or static, etc. ) you can also decide wether to show the desktop or start an application directly. This wasn't tried out so far, but sounds promissing. Also you can set up the resolution up to 1024x768, but only at high-color (16Bit). And that's why the device is not suitable as a multimedia-terminal, because the color depth is too low. Also the framerate over the network is too low. But for showing cover art and playing music it's very suitable. Of cause you must be satisfied with stereo sound, because there is no S/PDIF for digital audio output.

=> Do not use with multimedia applications

What's nice is the box itself. Quite good design, easy to install. Completely silent without any fan, just three blue LED at the front. It has a hard-switch at the back to switch off. As far as I figured out it's not possible to perform a soft switch-off and a wake-on-lan to start-up again. The power consumption is quite low, but this has to be improved. Software and firmware is remote updateable over the internet, so maybe with the next version.

USB is not supporting much devices. So far USB flash memory sticks are recognized, but no usb keyboard or mice or external cd-writers. So this will also not work with USB touchpanels (as written above).

=> USB support is very basic

The network usage is quite low, what was never higher than 1% (without heavy surfing and video-playback, but with music playback in background and working with applications). I believe it's a good replacement for your desktop PC to work with. The feeling is quite good, you don't feel like beeing on a remote connection. On the server are running all my services (exchange, IIS, tv server, Girder, ...) but the cpu consumption stays also very low. But I am not sure if the task-manager is displaying the real consumption, so I have to investigate a little more. Anyway, I don't feel any performance issues.

=> Good replacement as a workstation. If a suitable touchscreen is available it would be a great solution for a homeautomation control-center.

So far... If I have any updates, I will let you know.

Cheers,
Marc

[NeoMorph]

Thanks for the review Marquis. The "no" to having USB touch panels is going to make it a no-no for what I want to use it for. For around £250 you can have a fully functional no-fan mini-itx system that has S/PDIF out and it will work with touch screens too. Considering the power usage of these systems is a measly 14w it's pretty economical too. If you use a compact flash adapted for IDE instead of a hard drive you can get fast responces boot too. My only worry is the cpu as it's only a C7. Will it handle JRMC + Google + NetRemote running all together?

I think in the new year I'll be getting a mini-itx system. I should have all my money sorted by then. I've got to raise £1249 for my new car on Dec 1st this year. I'm only £400 of the way there as yet and I've got to repair my current car as a nice neighbour kicked the rear of my car because he couldn't open his gate onto MY drive because I had parked on it. I can't prove he did it because there was no witnesses and I only heard it... not saw it happen.

Back on the L200 I don't think distributed dumbish terminals appear to have the capabilities I require unfortunately - shame but that's life I guess :(. I could have used a couple for my flat.

[Marquis]

Today I figured out why I won't use it either. The video capabilities have been tested with MediaPlayer 10.0, but today I tried JRMC and the TheaterView is not working!!!! This is because Direct3D could not be started. But even if for my needs the playback of videos is not that important, I won't accept the missing theater view.

Bad luck, the device was so promising. But on the other hand it's a fact that thin clients are *not* made for multimedia. They are designed for business-use. This could be a marketing idea :-)

BR/Marc

[Jlee]

I always found Theatre View to be so horrible to use and it was one of the reasons I started using NetRemote. My NR interface blows Theatre View out of the water for looks and ease of use. There's no question that JRMC is the best media player and media organisor but personally I can't imagine why you'd want to use Theatre View if you have a nice NR interface.

[Marquis]

@JLee:
I am not so talented as you seem to be. Your Design is really good *thumb up*

My graphic-design is horrible and my time is limited, too. I am also no programmer to finetune NR in a way that TheaterView can be replaced. So far I focus on my ccf-file for my pda :-)))

cu
Marc

[Jlee]

So borrow mine then.

[dwayned]

We make touch screens compatible with the L200, or with the L200 embedded. Email me for details.

http://www.touchtronix.com

[speedbump49]

http://www.elotouch.com/Products/Computers/1529LTC/default.asp

This is the best option for a NR touch screen solution that I've seen. Its a slick fanless XP computer/touch screen all-in-one. Can be wall mounted or table top. They are available for $800 on ebay!

Cheers,

-mw