Touch screen

[ZaX]

Lo guys,

I've been thinking a bit about K404's idea about a touch screen and how it would look in my Mach rig. Heres the screen I've been reading about...

It's a Lilliput 7" touchscreen made for cars. I've done a bit of research here and its quite easy to strip out the LCD. As you can see it has a VGA input and the USB is for the touch screen software. I was thinking of modding it into the lowest section of my rig which contains all my water cooling parts, here...

I'd have to make a new front panel but my only concerns would be that it would break up that Lian Li hole pattern, which I think looks really cool. I've checked out the dimensions of just the screen (it's a Hitachi TX18D11VM1CAA) and it would fit right in the front there. As my PC is on a pedestal cabinet the screen would be at just head height whilst I'm sitting in my chair. I could then make some samurize screens to monitor different system readings. I could even make them touch screen activated too, I've checked out the software for the screen and it seems pretty easy to use. What do you think a screen would look like down in the bottom of my rig there? or would it just break up my Lian Li hole pattern? This screen can be bought for about £150.

Cheers guys.

 

[stocky]

Well that seems pretty cool to me! I was thinking it's a bit odd to stick it in the bottom of the case; but I can seen that you have your computer sitting high so it would actually be ideal

I'd say go for it, as there will be plenty of Lian holes in the rest of the case

 

[maverik-sg1]

AS long as you keep the aluminium effect going mate I see no reason why you can't use it and (like all your other mods) still look cool.

Mav

 

[boardy]

I've been thinking of something very similar for Kool160. Will be interestin to see what happens I think cos I have lots of ideas floating around for that atm.

Need to contact Phil about some stuff I need which I know he can get but this could be what I'm looking for. I say go for it!!

 

[maverik-sg1]

Could that touchscreen be used with a like a shuttle system (as in just placed ontop of the box) and full use of the touchscreen to control windows?

Going back to my other thought of a 24/7 machine for net useage and not much 'in front' time?

 

[ZaX]

The software for the screen is pretty powerful, because its made for cars it actually allows you to control windows without the need for a keyboard or mouse. All inputs can be done via the touch screen.

 

[ZaX]

Lo guys,

This project is moving!, I should take delivery of the screen sometime soon. I have come up with two designs so far for the front panel...

The top hole is for my existing controllers. The holes in the bottom there will be to replicate those on the LCD's control panel so spacing of those will be restricted. The dotted lines are where the main chasis of the radbox lies behind the front panel. The second design carries on the Lian Li holes theme (very important Stocky )...

The existing controllers would be moved into the floppy bay section of the main case. This design would envolve more work, extending wires etc but I think this would look nicer. Any thoughts and suggestions guys?

 

[justin]

one of these mounted on the front of a mach would be pretty cool, just potential airflow problems...Im back by the way, i like your idea. I was thinking of doing the same with a MM

 

[ZaX]

Good heavens my boy! not in the Mach panel, in the radbox panel below. Look again carefully at my rig.

 

[justin]

no lolll, i was saying for another rig, lollllll. It would mess up air flow for condensor anywayz but would look rather cool. WHat software do you use with the panel, is it included with it?

 

[ZaX]

I've been messing around with Samurize and I have to say this thing is pretty powerful. This is what I've managed to knock together so far but as you can see it's still not finished yet...

I've managed to display this on the 7" LCD panel...

Now I have to mount just the screen into the custom panel without the case. Playing with Samurize has been great fun, the possibilties are huge. I still have to look into utilising the touch screen facility of this screen. The only problem I can forsee with that is that some programs (like games) will loose focus and immediately minimize if the second desktop is used

 

[justin]

amazinggg work, send me your config file lol. IM actually thinking of doing the same thing now, that is just so awesome, phil radbox with touchscreen

 

[K404]

Zax for the win!

That looks great!

 

[ZaX]

Thanks guys, I'm really loving this Samurize. Now their site is back up I've started to add some amazing plugins...

As you can see I've added BF2 stats aswell as Fraps, the fraps graph changes to red when the fps drop below 60. The CPU graph changes to red when the load reaches 100 % and so does the CPU temp when it reaches 20 o C. I just have to add the weather and world news plugins. Now i've run out of space and I've just found a cpu-z plugin aswell. Samurize is not a resource hog either, Aquamark takes a hit of about 6k my score drops from 102k to 96k, I can live with this as I dont notice any performance decrease in games. This kicks the pants of my Crystal fontz LCD, I'll probably take it out of my rig now and stick it in my work rig.

 

[Phil Stanbridge]

That looks the choppers mate well done. Very flexible software. I am loving the Extreme Prometeia Mach III

 

[fatty]

Sweet mate I was thinking of one for the mountain mods case

 

[ZaX]

Cheers guys, this Samurize is really consuming me now, the possibilities are mind bogling. I've finally figured out the weather plugins with updated satellite weather map :B ...

...and I've still got some space

 

[BAcon]

awesome

 

[Skull_Fcuk]

Thats just too tasty for words. Im on the phone to my bank manager right now.

 

[ZaX]

Cheers guys for the nice compliments.

I know it's been a while since I started this project but I'm drawing near completion now. Heres an update on what I've done. First I had to open up the touch screen, I tried to do this in such a fashion that if one day I want to put the screen back into its original case, I can.

My initial idea was to mount the screen on the inside of the front panel and the PCB in the case, this way I could ensure that the screen was aligned correctly in the panel...

...but as you can see attaching those three very short wires to the pcb would be too difficult. So I had to mount the screen in the case aswell. This made alignment an extremely difficult process.

I used armaflex to cushion the screen from behind. I also hit on the idea of routing the screens menu buttons to the bottom of the case, so I havent lost any of it's functionality.

...to get the screen exactly positioned like this took two days of fidling, filing cutting, sawing, drilling, riveting and dremeling. But the end effect was worth it...

Now to get my conroe E6700 in there One more pic because I like threads with pics...