Selecting an HMI for our application

[girish_jadhav]

Hello, everyone!

I am learning LabVIEW by working at a research institute and we are testing heating equipment by simulating its environment in a lab setting. There are several heat sinks and sources to emulate the real-world conditions. The front panel for one of the heat sources has been done and we were looking for an option to display it on an HMI.

The task of selecting the HMI has been assigned to me, but I am not sure how to go about it?

What are the things I should here before selecting it? Does NI offer touch panels that we can use in this application? If yes, what kind of communication protocol does it use?

I would really appreciate any feedback/help.

If you guys need any addtional info, please ask. I will edit my post to include them.

[Kemens · Accepted solution]

NI has touch screen monitors you can use for your application:  https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/category/hmis-and-displays.html?productId=118931.  These monitors communicate to the host PC or controller via USB (sends signals that usually would be sent by a mouse and keyboard if not using a touch screen).

Here's the monitors' manual: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/tsm-1012-1015-1017-feature/page/default.html

It sounds like your application only involves a PC.  If that is the case, you are probably okay using any touch screen monitor to interface with your PC too.  If you are not interfacing with a PC but some other type of controller, then it will be important for us to know what controller you are using, as the touch screen monitor will need to be compatible with your controller.

[girish_jadhav]

Hello Kemens,

Thanks for the reply. 

Yes, our application only involves a PC. How would I interface a touch screen monitor with our PC? Is there any tutorial for this? 

If you have any touch screen monitor recommendations, I would like to know. 

[proland1121]

most touchscreen monitors have their own drivers and are connected via USB in addition to the normal cable (say. HDMI or VGA).  They function by emulating a mouse click where the screen is touched.  If you have buttons only, you shouldn't have any problem integrating the touchscreen so long as your controls are large enough to click.

if you need a popup keyboard, I'd dig around a bit more. https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-to-load-Windows-quot-On-Screen-Keyboard-quot-application/m-p/22...

[girish_jadhav]

I think I need popup keyboard as there are controls to change gain values in a PID controller.

Thank you for the link. I will try that when we have the touchscreen monitor.

[RTSLVU]

My company uses touchscreens from ELO exclusively.

As was said above the touch screen integrates through USB and appears as a mouse and mouse clicks to LabVIEW so there is nothing special in LabVIEW that needs to be done to make your program work with the touchscreen.