Another Cheap Touchscreen Computer...

Just search for Intermec 5055B on Ebay. Note that the model you want is the Vehicle computer (B34) as the other one (B24) has a lower resolution screen.

I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the ELK RM software, but just look at the minimum requirements for it. If it's requirements are under a 333mhz, then it's fine.

Please also keep in mind that most of the units for sale don't come with a power supply and they boot to DOS on a 128MB Flash drive. Therefore you'll have a bit of work to get them going, but it's an enjoyable project (at least for me).

I did see a couple people selling units that included the power supply, but the last one that sole with W2K and the power supply included sold for over $300. Sadly, I think the HA crowd is driving the prices up quite a bit, as most of the non-power supply and non-windows touchscreens are being driven up to about $122.
 
I gave it another look and the vendor says that shipping out of the continental US will involve "siginificant additional charges". I might have to ask them. I dont have an use yet, but expect to be needing it later this year or ealy next year - and the offer is too good (within the continental US).
 
I bid on the unit with W2k and the power supply and was disappointed at the final price. The one I bought ended up around $140 if I remember right. Price has definitely gone up on these since people have found out about them...
 
Its funny people are paying as much or more for the base version which is 640x480 as they are for the better one (vehicle Version with better spec tft) that is 800x600. One note these will only do DirectX 5 and the video chip doesn't support overlay so don't expect to use these for very good video playback of any sort.
 
I'm not sure why anyone would use these for video playback to begin with? The prices have risen significantly. I should ask them for a commission. Luckily I bought three of them before promoting them and sharing all of the information others and myself have collected on these. What's even more humorous, is as I stated, they still have at least 300 of the vehicle touchscreens (R34) left, so there is no reason to bid these over 200. I know they're worth it, but patience is key.

I'm planning on trying a 550mhz K6-2 upgrade and also upgrading it to 512MB. I've already tried other PC100 144 pin SODIMM chips, so I know the memory upgrade will work fine. I have both on order and will post details at my site. The primary issue with the processor upgrade is figuring out how to increase the voltage to the processor with no documentation on the motherboard.

These will be around for quite some time, and will fall in the next couple weeks as the impatient people (myself included) grab their units.

One last question on the directx 5, why wouldn't they do higher versions? I didn't realize later versions were dependant on hardware. This video card is a chips and technologies 65550.
 
Intel bought out C&T and didn't do onging driver support for any new features -- they will run on directx 8 but won't do any of what you would expect for motion video. My thought about video was mainly for cameras -- so much of home automation is starting to tie in security that a lot of people expect touch screens to do video as well now days.
 
I have all my cameras running to the touchscreen without issue. I'm still not clear on how directx8 would improve performance for the cams, but since the security is 30 fps max for video, I don't think it makes much of a difference.

As always, I could be mistaken, but I can say I have no issue with a live stream from my Dlink DCS5300's (~20-30 fps), nor the other cams which only do a second refresh via Java (I may change those to a stream).
 
Stinger- can you talk about what it took to load the real OS on these PCs? Any driver concerns?

Thanks

Markd


edit: Never mind, I found your website. :-)
 
Just ran into this while looking for the ram pin count on the 5055.

Be aware that this device is not a touchscreen, but if you plan on using a keyboard it certainly is a decent idea. Whatwith the dual radios, laptop drive and ram.

edit: As for power you just gotta figure out the pinout on the 3 pin DC connector. It's 12V DC since they're made for forklifts.
J
 
jpkishere said:
Argh - trying to buy from ebay - keep getting outbid...

Is it hard to find power supplies for these things?
Click to expand...
I purchased a power supply on eBay - should be here any day. I think it was ~$25.

The PC accepts both "normal" DC (small pin connection) or a rugged industrial 3 pin connector. If my power supply easily mates - power is done. If not, then I need to pick up a 3 pin connector and connect it to the PS I just bought.

I haven't turned it on yet... but overall WAF is high right now - she can't wait for me to get it working.
 
Hah, I suck. This one IS a touchscreen, the DOS ones don't seem to support it by nature. Feh. Disregard my suckage. Anywhoo the OEM part number for the AC power supply is 852-042-002 for those ebay scroungers.
 
I didn't realize this thread was active, didn't check in a few days.. here's some answers to recent questions. I have a total of four of these, with two installed and most of the drivers and such at my website.

Paul - I've got mainlobby working perfectly with 6 cameras on my main screen being refreshed every second, so I don't think the Directx support is an issue for my use.

mdesmarais - The OS load is best done by connecting a laptop HD to a laptop and the way I loaded the OS was to start with Win98 as a base and then load XP. I basically connected a spare drive to my laptop, then dumped the CAB files for Win98 onto it and made sure it was bootable. Then I restarted and ran setup for Win98. Once loaded from the laptop, I connected it to the touchscreen and booted into safe mode. In safe mode I removed every single device from device manager and restarted. Drivers were very tough to come by and some great folks helped us gather them all for the touchscreen, NIC, video and soundcard. I directly contacted Intermec and they would not help at all with the drivers. Once I loaded all the drivers I copied the XP CDROM to my HD in the Intermec and loaded it.

Since I have multiple screens, I only did this once, and used true image to backup the image. I then simply load the image onto any HD from my laptop. I may offer this out to others if I get around to syspreping the drive, but XP can be a pain, as you can only load the license key from the same type of CDROM.

jpkishere- You make the power supply. Buy an old laptop adapter (in the appropriate range) and the connectors needed for this unit. Pin outs are provided in the documetation. Sorry you're getting overbid, I noticed prices spiked again and I suspect this thread's recent activity. I may buy 1-2 more once the price goes back down to under $120.

Epyn - Interesting posts.. as you later pointed out correctly this is indeed a touchscreen computer and a great one at that. I'm thrilled with it. I'm hoping to get more people into these so they can help us find some hacks for them. I attempted to upgrade the processor to a K6 550Mhz, but the BIOS just sees it as a 333mhz, which most likely means they forced the BIOS to only take that. NEVER BUY THE OEM power supply unless you find it cheap, it simply isn't needed. They want about $125 for these! The pin outs are listed in the docs for the unit both on Intermec's site and on my website.

jpkishere- I'm powering my 2nd unit with a spare Cat5 cable. Since I'm using wireless PCMCIA cards with the two units I have installed so far, even if I had only one cable pulled to each location I'd still do the same. I would not recommend sharing a single cable with power and 10Mb network connectivity.

There are a few more things I have on my agenda to test... Trying another 512MB RAM module from the same manufacturer as the 128MB chip that comes with it. I've tried a PC133 SDRAM 512MB chip, but it didn't work. Like the HD's, it may be just a case of finding the right one. Also, I plan on installing XP on a CF card for one of my units, and using that instead of the spinning HD. This will make the unit quieter for a bedroom area. I bought a 4GB Kingston CF card ($80.00) and a PCMCIA CF reader, but haven't gotten around to implementing.

We should probably keep this a bit quiet for those who still need these units as the more discussion there is, the higher the prices go. I was fortunate to get four of these for under $120.00, but I've seen them go as high as $350.00.
 
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