Setting up your Touchscreen and TouckKit Drivers

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Setting up a Touch Screen

Things you need to know first:

• You need a video card to plug in your touch screen, just like you do for your primary monitor. Some cards support 2 monitor outputs, and some only 1. I had to buy another cheap video card, and put it in my pc for my touch screen. But if your video card has 2 outputs you may not need to do this. If your card has DVI output right next to the VGA output you may be able to just go get a $5 DVI to VGA Adaptor for the DVI output for your VGA Touchscreen.
• Most Touchscreens have 3 input modes. AV1, AV2, and PC-RGB. That is 2 Audio/Video Inputs, like from a DVD, VCR, TV or whatever. And also 1 pc. So, this thing could be hooked up to all at once. There is a button on the front of the touch screen that lets you swap between all three. Set it to PC-RGB so you can see your computer screen once you get it correctly setup.
• The cable on the touch screen is like an octopus. That just means one cord comes out of it. It is about 3 feet long, and at the end there are about 5 wires.

Setting up your Touch Screen for Windows:

First, make sure you have a video card you can plug it into.

• Most Touchscreens come with one cord that has an octopus on the end.
  • Plug your power supply into an outlet, and plug the octopus power connector into that power supply's cord.
  • Plug the octopus's USB plug into one of your pc's USB slot.
  • Plug the octopus's VGA Monitor into your Video Card.
• Install the TouchKit Software from the CD that came with your touch screen. Follow the instructions. You will probably need to reboot your computer.

• Press the button on the front of the Touchscreen to change the Input Mode. On the front/bottom/right of my Innovatek TM-868 the button is labeled PC/AV. Press it until the screen says PC-RGB. That is the PC computer input.

• Configure the Windows Software so it uses your new touch screen.
  • (Check out: How to Set Up 2 Monitors at Microsoft.com for more info)
  • Open the Control Panel and double-click on the Display icon.
  • Select the Settings tab. You should see 2 monitors now if you have your touch screen connected to your pc.
  • Click on the touch screen in this window and the window should change to now show the touch screen property settings. (NOTE: You can drag these boxes around and place them where your touch screen actually is in relation to your primary display.)
  • Check the Checkbox that says 'Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor.

At this point you should be able to see your windows desktop on your touch screen as well as your primary monitor. The Start Menu and Taskbar will only stretch over to the touch screen if the resolutions are the same size. You don’t need it to do this though. You can still drag windows and icons over to the touch screen and it works like your desktop.


Setting up your Touch Screen software:

This can be the flakey part. Some drivers work better than others and for different computers. After you do it once or twice, you'll understand how it works.

• Open the TouchKit Software. The icon should be on your desktop.
• Select the Display tab. There should be 2 boxes labeled 1 and 2. These represent your Display Monitors. Check the checkbox ‘Enable Multiple Monitors’ so the Touch software now knows you use 2 monitors.
• Then double-click on the box labeled 2 (circled below) so it knows THIS is your touch screen. The box should be outlined white and the other monitor should be outlined in gray. If when you touch your touch screen with your finger, the cursor jumps to the wrong monitor, it is probably because this is set incorrectly.

• Now click on the Tools tab and click on the ‘4 points Calibration’ button. This has you touch your touch screen so it knows where your finger is touching. Touch each Red X, and wait for the next one to appear. You have to hold your finger on the X for a few seconds. If you want to exit without finishing the calibration, just press Escape to Exit.

Touch and HOLD the Red X.

• NOTE: If the Calibration screen does not appear on the correct touch screen, go back to the Display tab and try setting it to the correct monitor again. And… repeat the calibration.

Hope this works. It can be kind of flakey. But after a few tries it usually works. Sometimes you may just need to download some new TouchKit software Drivers.

You can check for Driver & Software Updates at the eGalax website here: http://www.eeti.com.tw. Also, you can open the Website from the Link in the About Tab in the TouchKit software. Apparently the TouchKit Manufactures-Touch Panel|Touch screen|ITO Touch Screen|Touch Monitor|Touch Controller|controller|Touch Panel manufacturers website is out of date, and 'not' the best place to look for Touchkit drivers.

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TouchKit Settings:

Now that you hopefully have your Touchscreen working, it's time to check out and tweak the settings. You can change how the Touchscreen works in the TouchKit Options. Most settings don't need any changes unless you want to customize it for some reason. But here are a few items to configure that will help it work better with TouchBuddy.

Settings Tab:

• Double Click Time - Set this as low (to the left) as possible and still have Double-Click function well. This allows your single clicks to happen much quicker if you are tapping the screen several times in a row. Play with it and see if it helps. It helped me.
• Mouse Option/Enable Auto Right Click - Turn this OFF (Uncheck the Checkbox). If this is on, then when you click/touch and 'hold', TouchKit will see this holding action as a right-click. So, in TouchBuddy, when you do a normal Left-Click and Hold on a Touch type button, TouchBuddy does not receive the Left-Click and Hold.

Hope this helps.

WBK