Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Roughy on January 04, 2006, 02:35:33 am
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I've got this iMac that died on me about a year or so ago and I decided it wasn't worth the several hundred dollars to fix it, however, it has an Elo TouchSystems (www.elotouch.com) touch screen monitor on it and there was no way in hell I was going to give that up. Actually, even way back then I had an idea for the monitor's future use.
What I'm curious to know is if anyone's had any experience with these before? I know it's probably a stretch, but I'm trying to find the best way to take this thing apart; dismantle it from the iMac and then I'll mount it into a wall panel bit that I'll build (once I know I can do this, I can start the project!), connect it to a mini mobo and hard drive, etc. and line out to my in-house system. Frankly, I think it'll kick all sorts of ass, even if it is not a "Metal Station". Heh...
So that's where I am at. I've provided some pictures to take a look at in the hopes that someone may have even the slightest of idea as to my best approach. I may have to simply call Elo TouchSystems and see what they say, but I just cannot bear to give up this cool--and already paid for--notion.
Thanks for any help.
(http://www.bcdtest.com/elotouch_imac_front.jpg)
(http://www.bcdtest.com/elotouch_imac_side.jpg)
(pics for reference)
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I have done exactly what you are hoping to do and it works perfectly. What I did was take a very sharp, very thing exacto knife and cut through the double sided tape that adheres the touch screen to the crt. once its free it can be reattached to another crt or (as in my case) positioned in front of a laptop screen making it touchscreen.
Just make sure that you get the controller module with it (the box the touchscreen is directly plugged into). Then its a simple matter of loading the elo drivers onto your device (laptop or what have you) and start enjoying your new touch screen.
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Just so I'm following you correctly (and fwiw, I had no idea that the touchscreen portion was actually just a bit of film over the monitor--call me naive!):
You cut off that film and re-applied to some other existing screen/monitor and also took the controller, as well. Installed the elo drivers and voila! It worked?
In this case, however, I want to use the entire screen; the monitor itself is good--just the iMac is bad.
So what do I need to salvage here beyond the controller--that is, how much is the actual monitor that I need to keep (plus, this helps with my measuring depth for the touchscreen jukebox).
Seems I should be able to dismantle, drop into my "box" and then attach "everything" to the (mini)mobo and go.
Right?!?
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My elo was just a thin sheet of glass (1/8" thick) adhered to the crt--2 separate entities--I have no idea how that Imac is integrated to the monitro so you are on your own for that bit of it. but yeah i could set that touch screen in front of any computer/laptop/lcd, load the drivers and it reads the input as mouse clicks--once you calibrate the new setting its fairly accurate (some losses cause the elo part is slightly curved)
you can see here how it looks --once the door closes it lines up well and its a touchscreen laptop/jukebox
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Gotcha. I could go that route, I do suppose, but am having a hard time contemplating the cost of a laptop.
Then again, there's always eBay!
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My iMac has a pretty tight, metal band around the monitor. To me, it appears as if that's holding down the elo touch--did you have to remove that to get yours off or am I looking at the wrong thing?
Thanks!
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mine was just doublesided tape--I'd have to see a pic to know what you mean
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Sure--look at the pics above. It's the metal thing that looks like it has mickey mouse ears on it.
it's banded together with nothing on the outside that seems to be easy enough to dismantle. What a pain in the ass this thing is!
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nope thats your monitor mounting bracket--if you need to cut that to get the touchscreen off yours is vastly more complicated than mine was--you'll have to look really closely at the edge and see if there is a lip between the elo touchscreen and the crt face--should be about 1/16"
if you could take a close up of the side of the monitor towards the face end i could advise better.
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Sure thing--there is the tiniest of lip, just wasn't sure if that'd be enough.
Here's the pics (large files):
http://www.bcdtest.com/touch_closeup.zip
(and trust me, to anyone else, these are EXTREMELY not interesting; don't waste the bandwidth)
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after looking at your pics, it appears (although i could be wrong) that your touch screen interface is a plastic membrane taped to the front of the monitor via that yellow tape. if this is the case you are in even better shape to transplant the touch screen interface to anything you want. My touch screen was a 1/8" sheet of glass so it was obvious what it was and how to remove it
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That yellow tape, to me, appears to be 2-sided tape. It's sticky to keep some of the wires in place. But under it is the black tape--sounds like that's what I should use the Xacto on...
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I wish I could just easily take off that mounting band... I'd feel much better about it all!
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don't quote me on this but the steel band on a crt also acts as a safety device--at least I thought i heard that factoid somewhere--could be completely wrong..take off the yellow tape--come on you know you want to... :D
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This thing sucks.
I cannot remove the touchscreen portion; I think it's under the mounting band, and I'm not kidding.
Bah.