touch screen extending distance from PC for VGA and Serial

[roveer]

How can I extend my 10.4 inch touchscreen which connects with VGA and Serial (for the touch screen part), from my PC? I'm thinking 150 feet or so. This way I could centralize the PC's for xlobby and have the touchscreens mounted in the wall. Is there a CAT 5 solution that will allow me to extend the distance?

Thanks,

Roveer

[Giz_zmo]

150 Feed is quite a big distance ...
So you have no other choice than a Cat5 extender

There are plenty to find around ... just google to "Cat5 Extenders"

this is a good example: http://www.42u.com/minicom-cat5-mini-kvm-extender.htm

Good Luck!

[btrcp2000]

roveer-

i just went through this with a xenarc 10.4 serial touchscreen (sounds like yours?), so maybe I can save you some headaches. However, this will be a big brain dump, so let me apologize in advance.

I have my htpc in the basement, the touchscreen is on a flip down mount under a kitchen cabinet. I used an old belkin kvm extender for the video (found it for $100 in august at firebuy.com, but i think they are out now). Ended up using a serial to usb converter for the touchscreen, which is then attached to a usb hub in the kitchen cabinet. Works like a dream, and only took me about six months to figure it out!

Here's some random stuff I discovered along the way:

The USB/serial conversion works fine, but the touchscreen no longer functions after the pc returns from standby, requiring a reboot. Happened with two different pcs and two different converters. This doesn't matter to me, because my htpc is always on.

In an effort to save some $$ and space in the cabinet, I tried every combination of adapter (ps2 to serial, vice versa, etc.) to hook up the touchscreen through the kvm extender's mouse and kb ports, since i am using wireless usb kb/mouse, i don't need those connections anyway. That doesn't work.

You absolutely cannot do anything about the little box on the proprietary xenarc cable, it has to be involved (not too surprising, i guess), and it has to be on the monitor end of the extender setup. I tried putting it in the basement with all the other ugly crap, but the pc didn't recognize the touchscreen. My best solution was to get a 6 ft ps2 extension, which allowed me to get the little box up into the cabinet as opposed to velcroed to the back of the lcd screen.

If you go the extender route for the touchscreen (at your distance probably your only choice), search for "rs232 extenders" as opposed to "serial extenders". I considered this before i figured out my usb adapter would work, and had more success searching ebay/google with that terminology. I did see some that had rs232 and vga in the same unit.

If you haven't already pulled the cable, I would suggest solid and/or shielded cable for a quality vga signal. This may be overkill, but I didn't want to have to pull those cables again!

hth, fire away if you have questions i can answer. have fun!

[summerall]

btrcp2000 -

Can you expand on the how you extended the serial connection with the usb converter. I have a 7" touchscreen that I need to extend but my is usb whereas yours is serial. Do you think a usb to serial converter would work in my situation? What product did you use? Do you have any problems with slow/dropped touch capabilities?

[btrcp2000]

Three of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=444

One of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... ICEGRABBER

I literally strung three of the usb active extension cables together, ran one up the wall along a plumbing vent pvc line into the kitchen cabinet. I connected the hub/reader to that line, ad then connected the converter to the hub. I didn't think it would work, but it works exactly as you would think it should, with no lag. Another cool thing is that now i have a usb 2.0 hub in the cabinet, which means I have one hidden place for syncing/charging the digicam and pocketpc. I also got a usb to ata converter, and stuck an old internal cdrw in the cabinet as well, so I really have no reason to go donwstairs where the pc is. And it's dead quiet.

The converter is some cheapo that i bought online when i was tryng to get this thing to work with an old computer. It's nothing special, the kind of off-brand that doesn't really even have a brand, and has horrible grammar in the manual due to the poor english translation. If you have any kind of setup like i do, think about the hub idea. it changed everything for me. happy to answer any more questions![/url]

[rbziggy]

I've extended a touchscreen (8") and suceeded but have some thoughts for you.

I first tried a USB Cat 5 KVM extender (the touch i/f being USB). I found that the screen + a keyboard and mouse worked perfectly but the touchscreen would not. It appears that a touchscreen generally is not equivalant to a USB mouse device and is not compatible with a KVM (i.e the KVM is not a USB hub). I discovered after consulting the Mrf support team!

I then got an additional USB Cat 5 extender just for the touch screen. This worked! So the setup totally works (very well, no lag) with two boxes.

Advice. Go for a video extender (if you just need video) or a ps2 KVM extender (if you also want keyboard at the remote locn) rather than USB KVM extender. For some reason USB kvm extenders are qite a bit more expensive. Then add the USB hub extender.

I can send details of the equipment/suppliers I use but I'm UK based so this may not help.

[summerall]

Can you post links to the equipment you purchased? I am in the U.S. but I'm sure I could find similair items.

[rbziggy]

This is the USB extender:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Tab ... 1&doy=17m3

Works very well with the touchscreen, no drivers or anything and needs no remote power. Iwas very impressed with this widget.

This is the KVM Cat 5 extender with usb.

http://www.aten.com/products/productIte ... 4144022002

As I said in earlier post, it works very well for KVM but not touchscreen. And is quite expensive compared with other ps2 versions. (That being said it seemed to be the cheapest USB console extender around - many are v expensive designed for commercial applications.)

Instead I'd probably go for something cheaper doing just 'V' like this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Tab ... 2&doy=17m3

(Although I have no experience how well this works)

Hope this helps.