Split-VGA Touchscreens

[kd5crs]

So if I have a bunch of touchscreens that use a VGA port for the video and USB for the input function, can I connect multiple touchscreens to the same computer by using a powered VGA splitter for the video? Each touchscreen USB would be plugged in as normal. So for 8 touchscreens, for example, the computer would see one monitor and 8 "mice".

Any one done something like that?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[electron]

As long as you aren't worried about simultaneous use, it 'should' work, since Windows does support multiple USB mice.

 

[sic0048]

The danger as Dan mentioned is if two people try to use a screen at the same time. Someone might be downstairs trying to pick a album to listen to and someone upstairs hits the weather screen to see how hot it is going to be today. The screen downstairs will also switch to the weather screen in the middle of trying to pick some music.

That would only have to happen a time or two before it became very frustrating. Unless you live alone, you would be surprised at how much this can happen.

 

[DavidL]

If your HA user interface (or whatever software you plan on presenting on the touchscreens) supports multiple instances, each launching at a different pixel, then you don't have the problem of multiple users clicking.

The "clicks" are momentary and typically not an issue with multiple users. The display has to be independent to avoid the problem.

This multi use of a single PC works fine for, say 2 using extended desktop. It gets difficult with more as you then will have multiple graphics cards et al.

In practice, I would say not recommended. The issues exist why this isn't a more popular implementation strategy.

 

[drozwood90]

The issues, are only in the cost of designing your way over this. I had looked at some A/V control stuff a while ago. Really neat. Fit in a single junction switch box. Was POEish and basically plugged the video directly from a single PC into each one of these "zones". They designed it by making it so that each box only "paid attention" or was sent part of the screen. So, Windows was 1280x960 and each box was "sent" a 320x240 area of the screen.

Kind of neat.

BUt cost a lot. Same thing, since the touches were momentary, it really didn't matter that multiple people are touching, but with this, you could only touch your segment of the screen...unless you were on the server.

I was thinking of doing something like that...then I figured out my Audreys and a few custom webpages...was easier then putting together an FPGA to do clock / data splitting.

--Dan