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Touch screen command center

Skins that control functions in Windows or Rainmeter
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Do you need this in your life?

Yes
12
67%
Can't believe no one has never thought of this before!
1
6%
Definitely not!
2
11%
No
3
17%
 
Total votes: 18
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StArL0rd84
Posts: 424
Joined: February 8th, 2015, 10:07 pm
Location: EU, Denmark.

Touch screen command center

Post by StArL0rd84 »

About six months ago i got my self a 3D printer to play with.
And i always walked around with the idea of having a secondary touch screen monitor for my desktop PC.
Then one day i found a small 5" Adafruit 5V touch screen on the interwebs.

Had skills making Rainmeter skins.
A NEW PROJECT WAS BORN.

A power button and a fingerprint reader will also be in the enclosure.
Still waiting on a lot of ordered parts like HDMI plugs, Micro USB breakout board, a tiny custom USB hub, ribbon cable and a lot more.
So i will be using this time to finish designing both the Rainmeter launcher and enclosure.

The USB hub:
https://goo.gl/orMhEx

Will make a guide on instructables.
Will then make the 3D STL files + the Rainmeter launcher available to download should any of you be interested.

UPDATE MARCH 17 2018:
So 2 and a half months have passed and many things have happened.
All the parts have come in and i was able to finalize the design of the enclosure, which looks nothing like the first one.
Decided to go for portrait mode because the position of the connectors on the screen.
IMG_20180316_004640.jpg
But now i have stumbled into the issue of the little size of the screen.
Thought it would be sufficient and not fill up too much space on the desktop.
But i'm afraid i have to go bigger, so i just ordered a 7 inch display which sadly means a entire redo of the electronics and UI.
But i think it'll be worth it not having the UI to be so cramped together.
+ The 7" touch screen from china is half the price of the 5" from US!
https://goo.gl/4ENqEC
The color reproduction on the 5" was bad as it is, with no option to adjust it.
Red for example looks orange and so on.

Oh and i am calling the project TAPTIC, which is ok i guess.
But i am stumped trying to name it.
If you have a better idea for a name i am open to suggestions.

And a lot of little things were learned in the process like stress on connectors causing them to break.
Too much glue and not enough thought into good assembly.
Things that will be addressed in rev 2.

Ok, enough rambling.
Here are some images of the build and screenshots of the current state of the UI.
IMG_20180310_201902.jpg
IMG_20180312_132611.jpg
IMG_20180312_171341.jpg
IMG_20180312_174042.jpg
IMG_20180313_163959.jpg
IMG_20180313_172702.jpg
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Last edited by StArL0rd84 on March 17th, 2018, 10:17 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Jcee
Posts: 8
Joined: December 11th, 2017, 8:21 am

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by Jcee »

Love the idea, even had it myself a few times...
You might want to look at LCD keyboards for inspiration, heres a few names to google
infinitton
razer blade laptop with lcd num-pad

And since I did a very similar project a while ago; heres a few tips
Cursor-lock (by snakebyte) is a handy piece of freeware if you want to keep the mouse cursor off your secondary screen. and I can confirm from personal experience, that any touch UI you throw on the secondary screen should still function. (I dont even think your cursor position is lost)

Another TIP is to obviously to use the ALWAYS ON TOP function in rainmeter to ensure no part of a window is visbile over your UI. (I think task manager may be an exception)
Lastly, you need to ensure that no windows try to maximize on your secondary display. (I ended up using display fusion for this, however, it isn't freeware, but it is a wonderful piece of software with a 30 day trial)
User avatar
StArL0rd84
Posts: 424
Joined: February 8th, 2015, 10:07 pm
Location: EU, Denmark.

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by StArL0rd84 »

Jcee wrote:Love the idea, even had it myself a few times...
You might want to look at LCD keyboards for inspiration, heres a few names to google
infinitton
razer blade laptop with lcd num-pad

And since I did a very similar project a while ago; heres a few tips
Cursor-lock (by snakebyte) is a handy piece of freeware if you want to keep the mouse cursor off your secondary screen. and I can confirm from personal experience, that any touch UI you throw on the secondary screen should still function. (I dont even think your cursor position is lost)

Another TIP is to obviously to use the ALWAYS ON TOP function in rainmeter to ensure no part of a window is visbile over your UI. (I think task manager may be an exception)
Lastly, you need to ensure that no windows try to maximize on your secondary display. (I ended up using display fusion for this, however, it isn't freeware, but it is a wonderful piece of software with a 30 day trial)
Thank you for the feedback :thumbup:
I had originally tried to use NirCMD to move the cursor back to the primary monitor whenever the skin is tapped.
But it didn't work out.
Downloaded Cursor-lock to try out, but i am a little confused about how to set it up.
Added rainmeter exe to the program and created the special Cursor-lock shortcut.
That just results in whenever i tap the skin, the cursor locks to that screen.
Jcee
Posts: 8
Joined: December 11th, 2017, 8:21 am

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by Jcee »

it can be quite confusing; Im not sure how well it works in program mode, I think Used user strict (or user) mode and threw a shortcut in the startup folder. It has been a while, and i cant say if it works on 10. It did work on windows 8.0 (even though the website only list compatibility to windows 7
also check the 'lock region' to screen. because your locking it away from the rainmeter desktop. Also it should be noted (now that I think about it) If you have 3 monitors (2 monitors and your 'command center') you would be locked to a single monitor) so the situation is not ideal. For multiple displays I dont know any way aside from hard-coding it.
Btcailloux
Posts: 1
Joined: February 21st, 2020, 1:23 pm

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by Btcailloux »

Hi !

I am planning to by this screen :
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B077PLVZCX/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_i_TYOtEb25TF929?fbclid=IwAR2FOfB2ngEIY2SbPbJ9N7U_fMYdb8Q8NLVqPBgkQyJxLorF47yhkNXGuy4&th=1

And i would love to do something like you did !

However, i have never touched Rainmeter yet :(

You said that you will do instructions. I searched in the forum and didn't find it :(
Did you wrote them ? I would be very interested !!!

Other questions : by using Cursor-lock, can you play and use the touchscreen without going out of the game like it would do by clicking elsewhere out of the game ?

Thanks !
User avatar
StArL0rd84
Posts: 424
Joined: February 8th, 2015, 10:07 pm
Location: EU, Denmark.

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by StArL0rd84 »

Btcailloux wrote: February 21st, 2020, 1:31 pm Hi !

I am planning to by this screen :
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B077PLVZCX/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_i_TYOtEb25TF929?fbclid=IwAR2FOfB2ngEIY2SbPbJ9N7U_fMYdb8Q8NLVqPBgkQyJxLorF47yhkNXGuy4&th=1

And i would love to do something like you did !

However, i have never touched Rainmeter yet :(

You said that you will do instructions. I searched in the forum and didn't find it :(
Did you wrote them ? I would be very interested !!!

Other questions : by using Cursor-lock, can you play and use the touchscreen without going out of the game like it would do by clicking elsewhere out of the game ?

Thanks !
Hi, sorrry for the late reply!
I have abandoned the touch screen project for the time being, because i couldn't find a solution to the cursor issue.
And could not get Cursor-lock set up and working 100%
Did not test with games.

I planned to make a detailed guide/instructions to print, build and setup the skins for the screen when i released everything.
But since the project was scrapped, that obviously never happened.

If you have particular questions about the project, i will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Right now i just have a 1280x800 non-touchscreen underneath my main monitor.
It's not fancy touch, but it does the job.
x.jpg
Tommo117
Posts: 1
Joined: December 22nd, 2020, 12:20 am

Re: Touch screen command center

Post by Tommo117 »

Looks like a great little project. I'd like to have a go myself but am new to rainmeter and am unsure of the best way to set it up. Would you mind sharing the code so that I can build off that?
Thanks.
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