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Multiple touchscreen monitors?


MikeH_83
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Out of interest, Does anyone run computer control combined with multiple touchscreen monitors?  I have been thinking about it as a setup recently so that I can also use the monitors as a switchboard etc when I want to take control.  Just wanted to see if anyone has tried it and if there are any suggestions for equipment etc. 

 

Cheers

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I did try it on a 17" touchscreen laptop but found that the positioning of the finger wasn't sufficiently accurate for me - might have been my fat fingers, might have been the Dell touchscreen, it may simply have been the size and complexity of the layout or it may have been the iTrain software but in the end I found that a mouse was best for me.

 

I do think though that on a large touchscreen monitor it may have worked.

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Hi,

 

I haven't used touchscreen monitors but I have used multiple cheap Windows tablets running JMRI talking to a Raspberry Pi 3 running JMRI (using JMRI simple server option).

The tablets are mainly used to display turnout positions set via routes via a mimic display but the turnouts can be operated individually by touching on the turnout icon.

 

Regards

 

Nick

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Thanks all,  Seems like 24" monitors/screens would be better.  I shall have to look at the space I have and see what I can do :)  The multiple windows tablets and jmri thing sounds interesting though

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  • RMweb Gold

I use touch screen all in one PC's at each end of Banbury / Santa Barbara fiddleyard both running JMRI with a Loco buffer interface between each PC and the Digitrax command system. Generally works fine but occasionally one might lock up hence having each one with its own Locobuffer does normally mean the other is still running fine. Some operators have trouble using their fingers on screen but most are fine.

 

On other layouts with simpler track plans, I often do use a smaller 10" cheap Windows 10 tablet again running JMRI.

 

We can still operate the layouts should there be an issue with the tablet / PC's and have a paper track plan with turnout numbers on them.

Edited by roundhouse
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  • RMweb Gold

I’m totally unfamiliar with touch screens, so forgive my stupid question.  Is a touch screen simply a case of replacing an ordinary screen and mouse or is it a bit more complex requiring specific software to use it.

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On 21/08/2019 at 21:11, BoD said:

I’m totally unfamiliar with touch screens, so forgive my stupid question.  Is a touch screen simply a case of replacing an ordinary screen and mouse or is it a bit more complex requiring specific software to use it.

 

Yes, usually just a normal monitor that you can interact with your fingers.  On windows I believe it should just plug in and work

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On 21/08/2019 at 21:11, BoD said:

I’m totally unfamiliar with touch screens, so forgive my stupid question.  Is a touch screen simply a case of replacing an ordinary screen and mouse or is it a bit more complex requiring specific software to use it.

Originally most touch screen interfaces emulated a mouse. These days , with gestures and multi touch , you tend to get dedicated touch screen drivers 

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On 21/08/2019 at 21:11, BoD said:

I’m totally unfamiliar with touch screens, so forgive my stupid question.  Is a touch screen simply a case of replacing an ordinary screen and mouse or is it a bit more complex requiring specific software to use it.

This depends on what OS you are running, most pc's or laptops running windows 8 or 10 will pick the touch screen up automatically and then you have the bacic windows calibration tool. They may also come with some drivers which have a more complex calibration feature which you can fine tune with.

 

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On 23/08/2019 at 18:42, MikeH_83 said:

 

Yes, usually just a normal monitor that you can interact with your fingers.  On windows I believe it should just plug in and work

Windows has several touch screen drivers so most touch screens don’t just emulate a mouse , but that mode is still available 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi All,

 

I have a touch screen monitor for RR & Co.

The monitor plug is HDMI and it has a USB port back to the computer.

Conceptually it is great. However, you need to have the monitor to be close to you if the image on the screen is small.

The bigger issue for me, is getting the turnout to move when I touch it. That is you need to have a large image to touch or use a pointing device to make the exact contact.

 

 

 

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