Touch Panel for uConsole

uConsole
1

Hi All,

I ordered my uConsole and now I am looking for options to add a touch panel (Capacitive or Resistive.)

I started to check on existing panels that can fit and contact manufacturers in china : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32976239800.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002841077197.html

Edit: Vendor confirmed: Customization is possible with minimum 100-piece order.

It looks like I need a board for the resistive version such as Adafruit TSC2007 I2C Resistive Touch Screen Controller.

I wonder if other people are interested in this?
I would need support to understand how to connect that to the board and configure drivers for Raspberry OS.
In addition, if we are many of us, the manufacturer might be open to customizing the panel to have a good fit on the device.

Thanks,
Yoo

10 Likes
2

Sounds interesting. A capacitive touchscreen would be really nice but it would probably require some extra hardware

1 Like
3

Not sure a resistive touchscreen would be an upgrade.

5 Likes
4

I would love this… really hoped that it had a touchscreen. Capacitive for me :slight_smile:

2 Likes
5

I would be interested in chipping in to order one of these as well, probably capacitive as others have noted

3 Likes
6

I signed up today right now to say that I would like to chip in on the 100-piece order. I for sure would like to buy at least two of them maybe three of them.

I had asked clockwork team if they could put a touchscreen on the uConsole as well. I really really want a uConsole with a touchscreen.

7

If you go with resistive it will require a stylus and there is nowhere to store a stylus in the uconsole.

If you go capacitive it will be really hard to use with the default os unless you make all the text and UI really big which will limit usability and productivity. Also the screen is sunk into the device to protect it, but this would make pressing buttons or ui elements that are at the edge of the screen really difficult with a capacitive screen.

Might be good for certain specific apps or use cases but seems pretty niche.

1 Like
8

A touchscreen is not niche. Look at how many people have phones with touchscreens. Then you have the pinephone and pinetab family of products. Touchscreen makes things a lot more usable and faster. I have to make text and UI really big anyway because of my vision, I wear glasses. Also haven’t you seen other people saying they want to use the uConsole with Android? They would want a touchscreen especially for Android right?

9

My thought would be to go the capacitive route and then just make a local web page as a frontend with clickable buttons that were sized properly to click with your fingers. Each of those could trigger different shell actions using a php call, such as launching a program or initiating an update. This is a fantasy console after all, why limit ourselves to the traditional desktop layout?

2 Likes
10

Have a look at the Seeed ReTerminal for some options on what you can do with a touch screen CM4

2 Likes
11

The seeed reterminal does not have a battery.

12

And the relevance to the question around touchscreens and user interface is … ?

13

Those things are a pain in the ass to get 3rd party firmware to work. I have one and had to flash back to the stock firmware to get it working again.

14

The seeed reTerminal is not really a comparable device. The uConsole is a portable battery-powered handheld. The seeed reTerminal is a battery-less tethered device more akin to a small monitor/tv screen than a portable battery powered handheld like the uConsole. I’m also unsure if it is feasible to adapt the reterminal’s screen to work with the uConsole if that is what you are saying?

15

The answer was in response to “trademark91” 's point about a front end to the Uconsole accessible through the screen. Nothing about batteries, nothing abiout the uconsole as a device, nothing about comparisons, nothing about integration, a pure and simple response to a questions about possible front end UI’s of which examples for such are with the Re-Terminal.

2 Likes
16

reterminal just runs vanilla raspberry pi os. It doesn’t have a touch based gui.

1 Like
17

Wrt mobility of the reterminal: It has the E10-1 base plate: an overgrown monster with some extra ports, optional modem, optional sata ssd, etc.

But I think I’d prefer a fully handheld solution with an embedded keyboard for thumb-typing over a split solution like a reterminal (with say a small rapoo 2.4G keyboard-with-touchpad).

Regardless of the reterminal+battery base and extra keyboard weight and size:

The uconsole is a SINGLE thing to put away and find space for on a workbench and pick up later again. Way better for a cluttered workbench.

In the reterminal case, I’d either to have to find a SAFE spot sufficiently near and easy to look at, or pick up both, place one or both away, juggle with them one or two handed, …

(assumption: no wired weird stuff to connect to the device; in this case the reterminal with its ton of ports easily wins, even against a upico-uconsole pair)

18

My reTerminal is used as home assistant server at the moment with dashboard. Touchscreen is enough for that usage.
RPI OS is not nice for touch use with that screen size.
Maybe with another os

19

The need for a touchscreen is totally going to depend on the use case that will depend from user to user. The uconsole as I see it is a tool for multiple jobs. I personally don’t see the value of a touch screen but I do agree that it can be very handy in certain use cases like a ham radio or a quick access tool where a user will be able to switch settings more conveniently if the UI is set up to allow it.
I believe there should be an option to buy a uconsole directly with a capacitive touchscreen as it will also expand its’s appeal to more users. Especially if an android or lineage OS port is made for it.