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Hi Gregorio,
There is a company called Averatec who makes these monitors for around $600 USD for a 19" that you wouldn't have to "Frankenstein" together to have a touch enabled screen. I believe they also manufacture the touchsmart screens for HP. Your problem then would be the touch enabled apps to work with your expensive little LCD panel. I've replaced enough of the CCFL lamps in these screens to know that the old CRT's have a longer life on average by double that of the flat panel displays. It would be another added obstacle to have to fiddle with the sensors and wiring and alignment of them during a flat panel repair as well, so you may be asking for more trouble than you already have maitaining a RAID array over a number of years...
Dave
Well, first off, I already have a custom system I'm very happy with (quad-core, loaded mobo, SATA drives w/ RAID 10, on and on... )
What I would like to do, is outfit this thing with an HP Touchsmart monitor-- and have the touch capability.
I was thinking about nabbing a refurbed HP IQ504 and using the monitor from it.
Questions:
- Will I be able to load the HP Touch software onto my Vista 64-bit box?
- Besides size, are there any functional differences between the IQ504, IQ506, and IQ800-series touch monitors? (Particularly with the touch capabilities)
- Presume there's a DVI connector somewhere on this monitor? (Looking at pictures; I don't see one thus far)
What do you guys think?
Thanks
Greg
You could also buy a screen overlay from NextWindow or one of their distributors. They are the technology provider for the HP TouchSmart touch screen.
Greg, If you are interested in touch enabling your home built fire breather, go here to browse some of the available touch sensitive monitors from one of the largest online consumer level resellers. These guys are great, you may already have used them, I know I've spent thousands on their website, and as a matter of fact, my IQ526 came from them about 3 or so weeks ago. The link to the page is here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=514... Hope this helps, Dave
Thanks Dave. Checked out Averatec, and their site eventually linked me to TriGem.com. The sites didn't say that the screens were touch enabled or anything like that.
Maybe they don't want to release something in competition with HP-- a contract thing. Who knows.
WaveRider said: Greg, If you are interested in touch enabling your home built fire breather, go here to browse some of the available touch sensitive monitors from one of the largest online consumer level resellers. These guys are great, you may already have used them
Yes, these guys rock! I used them to build my current beast. Everything worked out perfectly.
But, I was hoping to get a larger touch monitor, something bigger than 19". I'll keep looking around.
Greg
GeekTieGuy said: You could also buy a screen overlay from NextWindow or one of their distributors. They are the technology provider for the HP TouchSmart touch screen.
Thanks GTG-- I'll take a gander and see what they have available
Greg
WaveRider,
Happen to know how the monitor connects to the motherboard (or video card)?
I'm looking at photos of the guts of a Touchsmart-- I've yet to see anything definitive (...I see an "LVDS2" interface being occupied).
Greg
That cable sends the digital signals to the flat connector on the back of the LCD. HP and Pegatron are the only ones who know the pinout, but someone is working on it. Will let you know what I find.
Dave
Thank you.
So that's the one then. Presuming pinout is known and a LVDS to DVI converter is in place-- the monitor can hookup to whatever video card.
Greg
Well... It won't be that simple, I'm afraid. You might be able to share the signals without a switch, but I'm not sure. However, there is an interface that is empty named "LVDS1", and if you can come up with a mating connector from Newark or Mouser, you may be able to use it for an external monitor. The problem with that is that you would probably have to switch it on from the bios, and there is currently nothing in the bios to address that connector. Dave
Oh, wait a minute, you just want to use the touchscreen from a 504, right? That connector will get you the picture signals, but the touch sensors won't be as easy as all that. You have to take those raw signals and convert them to the PC in mouse input format, so you still have a bit of a brainstorm left to contend with. I can't get any answers about upgrading the existing video hardware from HP, so good luck trying to do something like this. I think that GTG was right, you need to get yourself a monitor that is designed to interface with standard PC I/O connectors. They use that kind of monitor on some of the laboratory PC's where my wife works at the hospital, maybe next time I drop by I'll take a closer look at them, there must be more than just a DVI connector there, because the touch signals don't go just to the video card.
Dave
Greg,
Go on over and take a look at these...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000010&Descript...
Luck,
Dave
If you buy a screen from 23'' up, you can get an overlay from NextWindow: http://www.nextwindow.com/products/2400/2400_touchscreen.html
They have some guidance on selecting the right size as well:
http://www.nextwindow.com/support/choosing_display.html
Using the IQ5xx screen will be quite a challenge as you are already discovering.
The NextWindow technology works via USB, so converting to mouse input may not be necessary.
WaveRider said: Oh, wait a minute, you just want to use the touchscreen from a 504, right? That connector will get you the picture signals, but the touch sensors won't be as easy as all that. You have to take those raw signals and convert them to the PC in mouse input format
GTG mentioned NextWindow provides the touch technology for Touchsmart.
After looking through NextWindow's products, it looks like they use USB (and serial on older models) to transmit signal. Wondering if it's a matter of finding the wire from the NextWindow component to USB (or serial) pins on mobo. NextWindow has their drivers and config utils for download on their site.
But yeah, I'll also keep looking around some more for a touch screen that's plug-n-play
GeekTieGuy said: Using the IQ5xx screen will be quite a challenge as you are already discovering. The NextWindow technology works via USB, so converting to mouse input may not be necessary.
Ah thanks GTG for confirming that about the USB.
The only major road block now seems to be the LVDS and also the pinout situation as WaveRider had noted earlier.
I'll checkout that link and see what's what-- I contacted NextWindow a couple days ago. I haven't heard a thing back. Going through their resellers is the way to go I guess.
Greg, you must be really getting a good deal on that IQ504 to be considering this, unless it's the challenge that draws you in...
I'd check on Pegatron's website for human contacts to see if they can steer you toward the pinout on that LVDS2 connector.
Dave
OK Greg, I did some searching for you, and the answers to some of your questions about signals from the LVDS2 connector are there, and it doesn't look good for this mod being viable. These are digital only signals, and not compatible with just any monitor. It looks like you may be stuck with what you have unless you are well versed in PLD circuitry and have the ability to re-write bios bin files. You also need a motherboard with a LVDS connector on it. You have cable length limits of lessthan 18", and there's no way it will convert to HDMI out or DVI signals. The site I found this is one of the "CarPuter" forum sites, and they separate the chassis from the screens routinely, and there is a wealth of info from the members on this forum, and you can get it here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/lcd-display/39481-successful-lvds-lcd-install...
Don't want to bust your bubble, maybe you can get more info by browsing their forum and/or joining them long enough to get the answers you need to either do it or live without it. Hope this helps,
Dave
Dave, thank you!
Yeah, the deal isn't bad on the 504, and the challenge didn't seem too bad on the surface. But from what you found, maybe it's a bigger challenge than originally thought (thanks HP and Pegatron...).
Guess I was hoping to take out the mobo, and whatever extraneous stuff is in the way. Then take the input cable (LVDS in this case)-- to the monitor-- and hook up to a video card (by converting DVI -> LVDS).
(I'm finding DVI to LVDS converters around, like this one: http://www.winmate.com.tw/IndustrialDisplay/LcdSpecBoard.asp?Prod=01_0273)
Going to check out that forum now and see what's up-- not keeping hopes too high
Greg
View unverified member's comment - posted by howkiy
Just found this thread - very interesting discussion.
I have an IQ770 with a fried motherboard and I cannot get a replacement, which essentially means that my touchsmart is now officially just a piece of scrap.
Now its got a beautiful touchscreen (okay, its only 19" compared to the nice really big ones coming out now) - very expensive to replace and I don't want to throw it when it is in perfect working condition.
So I just opened it up and realised that its connected to an LVDS port on the MB. (LVDS1).
So - my question (follow up from yours) is, can I but another motherboard with an LVDS port and expect the touchscreen to work?
If that won't work, can I get one of the new touchsmart motherboards and use that instead?
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