In-wall touch screen

[brent2009]

Can anyone recommend a cost effective nice touch screen for in wall mounting? similiar to this?

android based
http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-HST-IWAR7-In-Wave-Touch-Screen-with-HSTouch-P1403C260.aspx

Also the ipad has some really nice in wall mounting devices that would look really nice and mount flush and the linuxmce orbiter im sure would work great with it but i just cant dish out $1000 for the ipad and a nice ipad mount. Seems like an overkill.

Thanks.

[brent2009]

I found this and it might be worth looking into.. Not sure if it is meant to be mounted in the wall but I might give it a try...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-S3C2440-ARM9-Board-7-TFT-LCD-Touch-Screen-/110865526317?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d019ae2d

It should work well as a linuxmce orbiter... I hope!

[jamo]

My plan is just to use cheap Android tablets with wi-fi weborbiter running. Haven't tried it yet but for me that seems a great option. You can have a wall bracket (with power) which they can potentially detach from and be roaming orbiters for controlling media directors or they can sit on the bracket as a wall-mounted orbiter/ security camera viewer. When Qorbiter is flying they can always move over to that as well.... haven't tried this, but those are my thoughts.

[Marie.O]

jamo,

the problem with your regular tablet as a wall mount is, that there aren't any wall mounts that work universally, and most of the tablets I have seen have the power input on the smaller side of the tablet. This means, it looks very ugly, imho.

[jamo]

Makes sense... as I said, hadn't tried it myself (was planning on ordering one) but yes, you do need power from the back otherwise it's going to be nasty.... hadn't thought of that.

[Randall]

One option is to mod the case and resolder the power cable connection. But then you need to hide the brick...

Another issue (IMHO) is the lack of an ethernet port (which could also provide you with POE). At my place the 2.4GHz band is very crowded and my wifi often drops packets.

[Techstyle]

I was going down the same route but going to go to a professional framing shop to get it framed and hide the side mounted power connector with the frame. I am sure I can buy a contempory styled frame that will complement the tablet.

[Marie.O]

I went with a couple of O2 Jogglers and will get a local metal shop to provide a frame for it.

[jamo]

The brick, yes the brick... that's going to be another issue. This is turning into a useful discussion. Frames to hide the power jack make sense too but I was liking the idea of a removable tablet so that it could double as a roaming orbiter when required. I'm surprised no-one's made a decent wall bracket for tabs that provides discrete power and nice mounting and a clip-off feature.

O2 jogglers, I see, have ethernet which could also be nice for addressing both the wi-fi bandwidth and power (using poe) issue. Wonder if they're available in my neck of the woods...

[jamo]

Did a bit of research on the joggler and it looks pretty neat. What's more, I appear to be able to order one in RSA provided I apply rule#1 liberally. Yay.

Bummers seem to be - 1. They apparently run quite hot... hopefully that doesn't become an issue and 2. Don't have a battery so the unplug and carry around option is out.

Still... looks like a very neat option for the in-wall mount or even counter-top digital photoframe/ touch-screen orbiter.

POSDE - have you actually used these things or do you still plan to work on that ;-)

[Edit: Just ordered one!]

[Marie.O]

I ordered two, made one work, send the other to a guy whose father is going to manufacture the metal frame for it. One reason for the metal frame is, that it will act as a heatsink as well, i.e. I will remove the current stand, and replace it with the frame. Regarding running hot: I am using the joggler atm as a free standing orbiter next to my viewing area, and it works without a problem.

And I already receive 5 more joggler..., so yes, they are my weapon of choice.

[l3mce]

Possy, do these work PoE?

[Marie.O]

Together with a LevelOne PoE Splitter they do

[totallymaxed]

Can anyone recommend a cost effective nice touch screen for in wall mounting? similiar to this?

android based
http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-HST-IWAR7-In-Wave-Touch-Screen-with-HSTouch-P1403C260.aspx

Also the ipad has some really nice in wall mounting devices that would look really nice and mount flush and the linuxmce orbiter im sure would work great with it but i just cant dish out $1000 for the ipad and a nice ipad mount. Seems like an overkill.

Thanks.

Really the days of in-wall touch screens are fading very quickly...we sell a tiny handful a year (atom based with in-wall-kit etc) but the vast majority of end customers choose to use iPad's because of the greater utility. If the App eco-system around Android tablets were better that might change... but currently there is no end customer demand. And I expect the iPad mini will make that deman even less likely.

You could take one of the Touch Orbiter Android builds (search the wiki for details) and get that working on your Android tablet of choice - Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD's would be good choices. We'd help where we could on that... but it should be pretty straight forward.

All the best


Andrew

[jamo]

Good to know from a market perspective, Andrew. I'm completely unqualified to comment from that perspective, of course, but my thoughts at the moment are the following-

There appear to be two issues there- the one is the "in wall" "Permanent" mounting and the other (to me at least) is the dedicated device aspect. What I'm getting at is this:

Dedicated device: It's cool to be able to control your system from your android / iphone but my problem with that is twofold- firstly, I use my phone for other stuff so generally it hasn't got the orbiter front and centre when I need it. And when I need it I need it now. Like I need to mute the music, change the song or see the security camera NOW. So to me it is getting to the point where I need one or two devices that are predominantly orbiters. You go to them or pick them up, touch the screen to perhaps turn the screen on and it's ready to go. A mate made this point when I was trying to tell him he needed a camera at his gate and how cool it was he could see it on any browser. But he responds he doesn't want to have to turn on the TV, change the source, open a browser, go to a bookmark etc. That's where I started thinking you need the dedicated device.... and therefore you don't need all the extra nonsense that comes with these devices, really just the touch-screen and ability to run some type of orbiter. So they should be pretty cheap and easy.

iPadmini/Android tablet, of course, are fine for that purpose I would imagine but probably overspec'd and certainly overpriced for what is required... especially if you want a couple lying around.

In the wall: From what you're saying it sounds as if there is less demand for this now, perhaps I'm still caught in the 90s or something and I still think it's pretty cool ;-) I quite like the idea of "on the wall" where there is a dedicated bracket with all the wiring for charging, possibly network etc and the device can do both- be lifted off its mount to be carried around as an orbiter or whatever but also put back to serve the purpose of a control-system where you expect it to be. To me there is great value in knowing where the control device is when you need it urgently.

Just some thoughts. Thanks again for the market perspective... always useful and something most of us might not be aware of with our individual needs.