myRIO LCD Touch Screen Support

[cody_a]

I am interested in using a myRIO for my undergraduate EE senior design capstone project.  However, one of the key features of the system to be built is a touchscreen display that is controlled by the embedded controller.  I would like to use myRIO, but haven't seen much information on driving a touch screen with it.

Can myRIO drive any kind of LCD touch screen?  If so, what are some of the best touch screens to use with myRIO?

Thanks,

Cody Akins

Certified LabVIEW Developer

[Kristoff2]

Hey Cody,

The easiest way to use a touchscreen with myRIO is to use Data Dashboard.  You could, for example, host shared variables on the myRIO and use an iPAD to read and write the shared variable values.  Data Dashboard is really easy to setup and use so that will likely be your easiest option.

If you want to add an LCD to the myRIO itself you can certainly do that as well.  Most LCDs provide an SPI Interface which allows you to shift data bytes from the controller (myRIO in this case) to the LCD driver which then renders the data as an image on the display.  The exact commands and data you'll need to send to the LCD will vary by display manufacturer.  You also have the option of adding custom FPGA code to control the LCD and achieve higher frame rates.  Keep in mind that the LCD attached to the myRIO would not have access to your front panel controls and indicators.  You will have to pass pixel data to the display to draw any text or objects your project requires.

Let us know if that helps or if you have more questions.

Thanks!

-Sam K

LabVIEW Hacker

Join / Follow the LabVIEW Hacker Group on google+

[DECONN]

Hi Cody,

Sammy_K listed the most straight-forward options. If you are using an industrial touch panel, you can typically communicate with it over ethernet. However, this would require both devices on the network and possibly the NI Touch Panel Module. See our list of touch panels to get an idea of what this would entail. This is probably out of the scope of your project but I just wanted to mention it as another option. I believe you also have access to UART lines on the myRIO so you may be able to configure some kind of serial interface as well.

Check out the myRIO community for additional resources:

www.ni.com/community/myrio

I hope this helps. Good luck on your senior design!

[DORU]

Dear Cody

Are you tested your idea to add one Touch Screen?

I like to do the same.

I worked with SmartGPU2 from VizicTechnologies http://www.vizictechnologies.com, wonderful solution.

I try to test this solution.

Yours DORU