Touchscreen Integration and Troubleshooting

Mark Roberts
Field Application Engineer

August 14, 2002

3M Touch Systems
 Capacitive Touchscreen

Construction
• Glass panel Electrodes

• ClearTek Overcoat
Glass
Panel
• Etch or Polish

• Touch Coatings Rear

Etch or Polish
Shield
Coating
• Electrodes
Conductive
Touch
Coating

Overcoat
ClearTek

3M Touch Systems
 Capacitive Technology

1 How it works!
Voltage is applied to
four corners of the screen

2
Electrodes spread out
voltage creating a 4
uniform voltage field A controller
calculates the
position of the
finger from the
3 current flows
The touch of a finger
draws current from
each side in proportion
to the distance from
the edge

3M Touch Systems
 Capacitive Technology

S p e c ia l e le c t r o d e s lin e a r iz e
t h e v o lta g e f ie ld

V o lta g e is a p p lie d
to 4 c o rn e rs .

C u r r e n t f lo w f ro m 4
c o r n e r s is m e a s u r e d
a n d p o s it io n is c a lc u la t e d

3M Touch Systems
 Capacitive Controller Technology
• Power
• Orange - +12v, 60ma max, 47 ma typical, 400 mv
max ripple
• Gray - Power Supply Ground
• Green - Chassis Ground, as short as possible
Important: Electrostatic Discharge “ESD” path!!
• Gray/Green - Can be combined to Chassis Ground
• Touch working
– Tap the Touchscreen, LED should flash

3M Touch Systems
 Capacitive Controller Technology
Communications with System

– Power on system, should find the controller

(LED will go from “bright” to “dim” on power up)
– If not, turn power off
– unplug the Touchscreen
– power back up

3M Touch Systems
 Materials and Tools
• Recommended Materials
– Double Sided Tape (Touchscreen - display)
• 3M 4416 (1/16” thick) 8 pieces (1.5” long)
• 3M 4408 (1/8” thick) 8 pieces (1.5”long)
– Closed cell single sided Gasket (bezel - Touchscreen)
• Volara 2AF
• Epilon FR
– Cloth Tape
• Ideal Brand Therm-X No. 724
• Tools
– Isopropyl Alcohol
– Lint free cloth
– X-acto Knife

3M Touch Systems
 Removing the Touchscreen
• Peel away gap tape
• Use X-acto knife to
cut foam tape from
top, left, right sides
from the outside edge
• Lean Touchscreen
forward & cut
bottom tape from
between Touchscreen
and Display.

3M Touch Systems
 Preparing Display & Touchscreen

• Use Isopropyl
Alcohol and soft
lint free cloth
• Clean the surface
of the Display
• Clean the inside
surface of the
Touchscreen

3M Touch Systems
 Alignment of the Touchscreen

• Align the
Touchscreen
• both horizontally
and
• vertically with the
• tube/LCD

3M Touch Systems
 Cover the air gap

• Use the Black Cloth

tape
• Cover the perimeter
of the Touchscreen
fully covering the
space between the
Touchscreen and
Display

3M Touch Systems
 Preparing Power for the Controller

• Orange - +12v, 60ma

max, 47 ma typ, 400
mv max ripple
• Gray - Power Supply
Ground
• Green - Chassis
Ground, as short as
possible
• Gray/Green - Can be
combined to Chassis
Ground
3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips

• Touch Working ?
LED should go from “dim” to “bright” when the sensor is
touched. If yes, touch is working, problem is downstream from
controller
• No Response from LED or touch ?
- Is there power to the controller/Touchscreen ?
- Is there any wires broken on the touchscreen ?
- Is the touchscreen 12pin header plugged into the controller ?
- Is the controller serial cable connected to the correct port ?

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips

• Definitions:
- Serial
Serial is a very common protocol for device communication that
is standard on almost every PC. The concept of serial
communication is simple. The serial port sends and receives
bytes of information one bit at a time. Communication is
completed using 3 transmission lines: (1) Ground, (2) Transmit,
and (3) Receive. Other lines are available for handshaking, but
are not required. The important serial characteristics are baud
rate, data bits, stop bits, and parity. For two ports to
communicate, these parameters must match!

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips
• Definitions Cont. :
- Baud Rate
Baud rate is the speed measurement for communication on a serial line. It
indicates the number of bit transfers per second. Common baud rates for
touch controllers are: 1200, 2400, 4800, and 9600.
- Parity
Parity is a simple form of error checking that is used in serial communication.
Odd, Even, or No Parity is available on the controller. For even and odd
parity, the serial port sets the parity bit (the last bit after the data bits) to a
value to ensure that the transmission has an even or odd number of logic high
bits. Example is parameter setting N72. The “N” = there is no parity.

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips

• Definitions Cont. :

- Stop Bits
Stop bits: used to signal the end of communication for each data
byte. Possible values are 1 and 2 bits for the 3MTS controller.

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips
• Controller Configuration ?
- Parameter Settings ARE important:
Sample: Controller Setting “N72, 9600”
“N”=Parity, “7”= data bits, “2”= Stop bits, “9600” = Baud
Example: N81, 9600 baud = Host Communication Setting
N72, 9600 baud = Controller (default) Setting
Going by the above, the system Host will never find the controller at power
up. They are on different communication settings, thus do not see each other.
Similar to two people speaking the wrong language to each other…. They will
not understand what each other is communicating.
- Use the “MicroCal” Dos Utility to change the controller Parameter settings.

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips

• Touch is “Jittery” ?
- Noise in the system is interfering with the controller and
prevents it from receiving a clear signal. To correct
this a controller “Frequency Adjustment” Utility is available in
the 3MTS MicroCal software utility.

Note: The newly released EX II controller handles “Frequency

Adjustments” internally, thus correcting Jitter problems
automatically.

3M Touch Systems
 Trouble Shooting Tips
• Calibration:

- Target / finger positioning:

Touchscreen calibration is only as good as the manner in which it was calibrated.
Improper calibration will result in positional offsets on the touchscreen. Touch the
targets straight on, do not use a swiping motion.
- Important to take note of “Instructions” on Game Systems:
Gaming companies treat calibration in different ways on their machines. There is sub
routines going on behind the screen during calibration, caution must be taken to follow
exact instructions on the screen. Example: If the screen displays “Open door, taking
ambient, do not touch screen” it is critical that the instruction is followed. The door
must be completely open with no obstructions between the door and touchscreen. Is is
also important to assure your hands are away from the touchscreen during this time. The
touchscreen is taking an ambient measurement of the environment. If this measurement
is taken incorrectly, a positional offset will be the result on the touchscreen.

3M Touch Systems
 Questions?

3M Touch Systems