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Home / I-Appliance BBS General / NEWS, Breaking NEWS Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer Cheep Computer for $150.

Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Here the post in the eBay section(ebay Link): http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=alinks&Post=257&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session=wordsmith.98770111439869 Info: Industrial, armored case, touch screen industrial computer made by NIS. The case is made of steel, and measures 13”x12”x4” (HWD). There are four ¼-20 mounting holes on the perimeter for mounting. The case is RF and water resistant. The display is VGA compatible Electro-Luminescent which is very bright, and easily readable in direct sunlight. The viewing area is 6.5”x8.5” (HW). The EL display is covered by a touch screen unit that interfaces to one of the four serial ports (can be disconnected). The computer itself is based on the POS-460 with a POS-103 installed. http://www.advantech.com.tw/products/POS-460.asp The installed cpu is a AMD 5x86 at 133, with one 72 pin simm slot (8 Meg included), four serial ports, two parallel port, keyboard port, floppy port, IDE port, an I/O port, a 10 Mbit TP Ethernet port, and three ISA slot. It also has 20 Meg of flash ram. PC-DOS is installed in the flash ram. There is a lot of extra room in the case for extra equipment (gps, hd, etc.). * WordsmitH 04-19-2001 10:30:39

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) EDDavis Profile Looks like it was grabbed by a board member (SmokeLiberator). 100 of 'em huh? Hmmmmm.... 04-19-2001 11:34:47

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) VivianC Profile C'mon, Smoke! Tell us all about it...... 04-19-2001 12:39:04

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile I thought it was really neat, but Im saving myself for the Connected TouchPad by Gateway. * WordsmitH 04-19-2001 12:40:25

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) wordsmith Profile Oh yeah, It has * 3 * sockets for DOC's. * WordsmitH 04-19-2001 12:41:40

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) smigs Profile Looks cool but 18 POUNDS! Kinda bulky don't ya think? 04-19-2001 13:27:29

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Thanks for the heads-up wordsmith. Yep, I grabbed it. I will file a full report when it gets here. I am very curious about the display (it might be monochrome). I've been looking for something to install on my boat. I want to set up a GPS/charting system along with a 3D bottom charting and "fish event" logger (I'm a Great Lake salmon fisherman when I'm not hacking computers). BTW, sorry for the delay. Right after I placed the eBay bid my cable modem went dead. I had to find a modem, install it, figure out where I still had a dial-up account and debug the whole mess. As much as I like the cable modem there is something to be said for the reliablility of dial-ups . Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-19-2001 14:05:30

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) EDDavis Profile Glitch, checked up on this, electroluminescent displays are monochrome. Bright as hell though. 04-19-2001 18:01:46

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) smigs Profile Just got an e-mail from the seller and he said he has about 30 to sell and they are $150 plus $15 shipping. If anyone is interested. 04-19-2001 18:52:59

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) * StarFish * Profile Orange Electro-Luminescent is K00L ! AMD 5x86s RULED in their Day ! "The display is VGA compatible" So what is the Max Resolution ? (EL & VGA Out) I would like to Know the Stock Power Supply Input Voltage Options ? (will this Run off 12VDC ??? or just Standard 110VAC ?) I see the Motherboard has an AT Power Plug Digital I/O ! (& I haven't ordered one Yet !) Any Documentation on this ??? (Amperage ?) (can it handle a Cash Drawer Solenoid type Load ?) Picture shows ISA Network Card, plus motherboard Network connection ? Tell Us what You can, There is Interest ! Thanks for Any Details, * StarFish * 04-19-2001 20:59:20

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile StarFish: You may be able to run it on 12v DC with this power supply. http://www.mpja.com/product.asp?product=12588+PS The power supply is a bit weak for the motherboard. I'm a bit more concerned about the power requirments of the EL display. Most of what read about them implies that they are power hungry. I already have one of the power supplies and the computer should be shipped today. I'll try them together next week. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-20-2001 10:36:27

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Quick Update... I received the machine today. It was made by National Integration Services, model number NIS-AF-CPU-114. The specs of the machine are exactly as stated in the eBay ad. All of the pixels of the display are firing. There is some burn-in on the display. In low light this might be a problem. Other than this, the display is in good condition. The touch screen has a row of "shiny spots" where the main display "buttons" were. If you took the time you could probably determine what features of the software were used most based on the burn-in and the most shiny spot. I haven't had a chance to test the touchscreen yet. The touch screen controller was made by ELO Touchsystems and features a nice big chip by Phillips. I connects to the motherboard via a serial port. It has an Award BIOS. Nothing special here, just the standard stuff. The outside of the case was pretty filthy. Nothing that a little elbow grease and adhesive remover can't handle. There were a few scratches and paint chips on the case. Overall it was in pretty good shape. You will probably want to repaint the case anyways. How can you be "l33t" with a computer made by American Freghtways? <g> The inside of the case was better. The case is not totally sealed. There seems to be a thin layer of black soot (diesel exhaust?) covering the inside of the case. The layer is thicker where it could settle on horizontal surfaces and around the exhaust of the CPU fan. It is pretty easy to clean up. At first glance it doesn't look like the touchscreen will be easy to remove from the case. I have to look into this in more detail since I planned on dumping the case. Speaking of the case... This thing is built like a tank. There is no aluminum here, just good old American heavy guage steel. I will try to put together a webpage with detailed pictures sometime this weekend. Until then I would be happy to answer any questions that you have about this. If you send me email, please use a unique subject name. I think I have at least 200 messages filed away with the subject name "epods" <g>. BTW, I also bought one of the 368 based Citadel computers from the same guy. Is anyone interested in info on these? Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-26-2001 21:59:54

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile One more thing... The motherboard has a C&T 65545 controller on it. Does anyone know if I have to do anything special to get graysca.. err, orangescale colors in windows? I hope to try this tomorrow sometime. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-26-2001 22:07:33

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Greenspark Profile Glitch, Yeah, I saw your ID on that auction (386) as well. I'd like details on that. From what I know, the touchscreens on these guys is very low resolution. I think it has a sensing grid of 64x40 or something like that, nowhere near the precision of a "modern" touchscreen. Don't know if you could get (or make) a windows driver that would handle the screen input (it uses character streams through the serial port). But with DOS and a simple protocol through the com port it might work as a head for an MP3 box sitting in a car. Greenspark 04-27-2001 09:04:14

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Greenspark: Chris (the guy selling these) provided me with this link. http://www.alltel.net/~vistaeng/citadel/ This looks like a good start. I haven't tried any of this yet. I'll take a closer look at the how the touchscreen is mounted. Many times they are mounted so securely that you can't remove them without destroying them. You would definitely want to repackage this. This case for this machine is also built like a tank. In fact, that is probably the only vehicle that would have room for this machine as is <g>. I'll put up a web page for this machine also. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-27-2001 09:50:55

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile I finally got pictures and descriptions up for this machine. The main site is here: http://members.home.net/smoke-liberator/Other_Projects/5x86_kiosk.htm and it is mirrored here: http://www.geocities.com/smoke_liberator/Other_Projects/5x86_kiosk.htm I have more pictures that than what I put on the website. I also have the pictures in higher resolution (if you need to see more detail). Let me know if you would like a copy of these. Also, if there is something that I missed, let me know. I will try to fill in better descriptions when I find time. I have been trying to get Win95 running on this. Obstacles so far are: IDE controller won't run in protected mode (IDE CDROMs not recognized), only have four "orangescale" levels (hard to read screen/bad graphics) and PS/2 mouse not recognized (serial mouse works). I really need to get the IDE controller running so I can make progress on the rest of the system. If you have had similar problem with ISA IDE controllers, I would welcome any advice. 'Nuff for now, I gotta get some sleep. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-29-2001 22:21:35

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Greenspark Profile Good job on the pics/info. You're running the "High Contrast" scheme in Win95 I'll guess? 04-30-2001 09:26:03

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Greenspark: Nope, it is not high contrast mode (as in accessibility options). The picture is the default windows setup. It just looks high contrast because there are only four color scales (off, about 25% on, about 50% on and all on). The installed driver is using a dithering method to get the "grays". This combined with the marginal resolution makes for poor graphics (icons, etc.). I've read that there are better methods for getting the "grays" which may be able to give more levels. The display will be alot nicer if I can find a video driver that uses one of these methods. I have no idea right now where to find such a drive (Intel C&T website?). I plan to start digging this weekend when I get some time. The default BIOS on the machine only supports the EL display (no CRT). I tried several of the BIOS's from Advantec. The CRT worked on at least one of them (with no flat panel). I was trying new BIOS's to see if the newer ones would support hard drives greater than 8GB. I got distracted by the CRT/flat panel issue and never found the answer to the hard drive question. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 04-30-2001 19:56:09

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Greenspark Profile So Glitch, how are things going with these things? I noticed the seller upped the minimum bid on the pentium box to $200... 05-03-2001 06:59:29

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Greenspark: I haven't had too much time to work on these. I spent some time with the 5x86 machine last night. I was able to get the hard drive controller and on-board network adapter to work. I have not made any progress on getting more levels of "orangescale". The machine should be a lot easier to work on now that I have it networked and the CDROM and mouse working <g>. If I get some time today, I'll work on getting the touchscreen working under Win95. I put up a page on the Citadel 386SX/25 Infostation on my web site (see links above). I still need to get a few pictures of the screen lit-up. The pictures that I took were too blurry to be of any use. I'll have to dig up my tripod since I'm not steady enough to take a clear picture without the flash. I haven't done much with this machine other that to document it for the website. If you have any specific questions, send me email. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 05-06-2001 11:15:30

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Quick update: The manufacturer of the touchscreen in the 5x86 box had suitable drivers on there website. I was able to use these to get the touchscreen up and running. I also took some better pictures of the display for both this and the Citadel machine (see website links above). With the touchscreen and different window scheme (high contrast black)(thanks for the idea Greenspark) the machine is fairly usable. I originally planned on putting this in my boat, but the display isn't going to work out (resolution too low for charts). The 5x86 (roughly a P75) is a pretty weak processor for many applications (like MP3's at "high quality" settings). With a "LP3" the machine may be an ideal shop or garage MP3 player. Next weekend I'll stick a sound card in it and see how well it does. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 05-06-2001 21:45:25

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Ecanem Profile Hi Glitch, What Bios or driver did you install to get the CDROM and Mouse working in Win95? Had one here for a while and was able to test the touchscreen using the cool Diagnostic software that the touch screen Co provided on their website. (dos version) Also am still trying to figure out if we can put in faster Pentiums, or even an Intel one in place. Jumpers dont tell me that it can go any faster.??? Have you figured this one out? EC. 05-08-2001 00:22:10

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile Ecanem: I've been using the stock BIOS. I've tried a few others but they don't work any better (actually worse) than what is in there. I never got a PS/2 mouse to work, only a serial mouse. I think that this is a limitation of the motherboard. In the manual it states that only one or the other PS/2 connector is active at any given time. The extra connector was added to facilate various case form factors. I got the CDROM working two different ways. The first was to run it with real-mode drivers (DOS drivers). The second way was to remove the Disk-on-Chip. With the DOC installed Windows would not properly recognize/start the IDE controller. With the DOC removed, I reinstalled the IDE controller drivers and it worked. With the controller running, the hard drives and CDROM will run in protected mode. The motherboard is a Socket3 type. This means it is a 486 motherboard. The 5x86 is a "souped-up" 486 cpu. AFAIK, the 5x86 designation was just AMD marketing hype (boy was there alot of that <g>) to keep them in the business when Intel came out with a true 586 (Pentium). You may be able to run an Overdrive processor in this, but I doubt that you will better performance than with the 5x86. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 05-08-2001 07:11:36

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Ecanem Profile Hey Glitch, Thanks for the great info about the CDROM setup. Looks like I wont be doing much CPU upgrading. I think it will still make a great Kids computer. Even when mine have Ice cream all over the place. Sure would be nice though to find a high res surplus display that would work in this unit. Thanks again! EC 05-08-2001 22:06:47

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) LiquidCyanide Profile Don't knopw if you covered it but i didn't see it, is the EL display connect to standard VGA or PCI or some sort of standard connector? It would be cool to get just a display and shove it in the car for an MP3 player, cause as said, it will display better in bright light. Any ideas on where to get just the display? liquid 05-14-2001 15:38:08

RE:Pentium Class Touch Screen Armored Computer (modified 0 times) Glitch Profile LiquidCyanide: The EL display is connected to the Chips & Technology 65545 video chip. It is connected to the digital flat-screen interface. It does NOT use a 15-pin analog VGA connector like most CRT monitors. You could buy an LCD controller card or VGA-to-LCD converter, but these are expensive ($200+) The EL display is readable in direct sunlight. But remember, it is monochrome so your applications may not look very good. An alternative is the extra bright LCD screens. Some of these are very readable in direct sunlight. However, they are usually very expensive. Glitch Electronics run on smoke, if you let the smoke out they won't work 05-14-2001 21:54:32

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