IoT, Here We Come! Ubuntu Core Announced for TS-4900

In a joint press release between partners Canonical and Technologic Systems, the pairing of Ubuntu Core and TS-4900wasofficially announced.

We couldn’t be more excited!

We feel that Ubuntu Core is going to make a big splash inthe IoT world for its security, ease of management, and flexibility. Combine that with our rock-solid, industrial TS-4900 and you have yourself a reliable, production-ready IoT device.

We’re very honored to be featured in the Ubuntu booth at the Mobile World Congress in 2017. For more information, please take a look at the press release, Bringing Ubuntu Core to the i.MX6 Based TS-4900. If that isn’t enough to quench your thirst, take a look at our Ubuntu Core Powered Embedded Systems page.

Reach Out and Touch Something (Capacitive vs Resistive Touch Screens)

You only have to go as far as your corner coffee shop to realize the new human-machine interface (HMI) preference is screens. From the touchscreen Point of Sale systems to the multitude of people interacting with their phones and mobile devices, screens are king. Industry is following suit and the choice for HMI is quickly migrating away from the keyboard and mouse and towards the screen. With the abundance of touch screens on the market and the decrease in costs there has been a marked increase in their market share and penetration. When picking a screen it’s important to determine which is better for your purposes: capacitive or resistive?      Home

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Practical Guide to Getting Started with the TS-TPC-7990

Introduction

The goal of this practical guide is to get you through the basic steps of getting your TS-TPC-7990 up and running so you can begin development. It’s mostly an extrapolation of the official TS-TPC-7900 Manual, but provides a more practical and casual approach in setting up connection, networking, and general development environment.    Home

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Collaborative Digital Signage Project

Real-Time Company Announcements and Information Using Multiple Touch Panel PCs

Abstract

This project aims to improve the communication of company events, key performance metrics, and collaboration through several strategically mounted touch panel computers (TPCs) throughout the building. It also serves as an inspirational digital signage application for potential customers using our TPCs. Skimming through the technical details, you’ll find the screens are powered by our very own TS-TPC-8950-4900, a 10” resistive TPC running Debian Linux, a fullscreen, kiosk-mode browser, and a custom node.js web app.

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Develop a Simple Qt Quick Interface for HMI/SCADA Applications

Introduction

We’re graduating from our Getting Started with Qt Creator on the TS-TPC-8390-4900 guide, where we ran an example program which came preloaded with Qt Creator on our TS-TPC-8390-4900, and moving into a more real world situation. This guide builds upon the foundations that we set up in the getting started guide and will walk you through building a simple human machine interface (HMI) for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) applications. We’ll be controlling a register connected to a red LED as well as reading a temperature sensor connected to our CPU. This is about as basic as you can get to demonstrate both system control and data acquisition, and it’s not far from a basic real world use case. In the real world, you’d be toggling DIO or relays instead of toggling an LED. As an end user of the touch panel computer (TPC), you’d be transferring control signals or other data via RS-232 or Ethernet with the press of a button. Once you complete this tutorial it’s a small jump to toggle DIO and relays to control a remote system.

For this guide, a project file containing TS-TPC-8390-4900 specific code written in C++ called “HeatLaser” will be provided for you. It reads CPU temperature every second and toggles the red LED. You’ll simply download it and open the project within Qt Creator. By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to run and have a basic understanding of a Qt Quick Controls application. When you’re comfortable, you can make some edits to the project file to implement other similar tasks that may be more relevant to your needs.

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Getting Started with Qt Creator on the TS-TPC-8390-4900 or TS-TPC-7990

Introduction

In this getting started guide, we’re going to look at what it takes to get an example Qt Creator project running on the TS-TPC-8390-4900 or TS-TPC-7990. This will help pave the way for developing a human machine interface (HMI) for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). We’ll start out by talking about the expected workflow and specific versions compatible with our chosen hardware, TS-TPC-8390-4900 or TS-TPC-7990. Next the TS-TPC-8390-4900 and Qt Creator will need to be prepared to work together. Finally, we’ll test our environment by running an example Qt Quick Controls Application. In a follow up guide, titled Develop a Simple Qt Quick Interface for HMI/SCADA Applications, we’ll look into what it takes to gather some system data and control DIO.        Home

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