Magic Touch Kit

[blaster454]

Ruggbutt (or anyone else)...

I think you said you have one of the Magic Touch retrofit kits. If so, would you be willing to post a few pictures of how it's mounted to your LCD? Does it fit flush against the lcd screen or is there a space between the planes of the touch screen and the lcd (such that it will deflect when applying pressure)? Are you satisfied with the performance of the kit versus an oem style touch screen?

I'm in the market for a larger screen (15" or 17") and would appreciate anything you might be able to offer.

[ruggbutt]

The overlay sits flush on the frame (bezel) of the LCD. There are two L shaped brackets at the top of the overlay that "sit" on top of the LCD. There's two strips of velcro placed on the top of the LCD that the velcro on the bottom of the brackets mate to. Then you place one piece of velcro at the bottom of the inside of the overlay that sticks to another piece of velcro on the bezel of the LCD. I noticed that Zorlac is using panels that mate in-between the LCD's bezel but there's no way I'm going to mess with that. I'm prone to break stuff. Mine costs more but I like the fact that it works when I'm done with the install. I couldn't say the same would be true had I been forced to do surgery on the LCD. It's fairly easy to tell which is which in the pics. The bezel on the LCD is silver, the overlay is black.

[blaster454]

Thanks...appreciate the pics. For some reason I was thinking that the overlay was thin and flexible but the pics seem to show a glass-like appearance. Guess I'm gonna hafta bite the bullet ... with the new features coming out, I want a whole lotta stuff on screen

[ruggbutt]

Originally Posted by blaster454

For some reason I was thinking that the overlay was thin and flexible but the pics seem to show a glass-like appearance.

I thought that too, but it's like a thick piece of glass. It's really sturdy and the glass is very clear, much more so than the membrane on my 8" Lilliput.

[blaster454]

Yeah...guess I'm convinced. I looked at what Zorlac uses...I'm not too worried about opening the LCD but it seems just as expensive as the Magic Touch kits when shipping is considered.

All I hafta do now is decide on whether it's the old 15-inch Sony or the new(er) 17-inch Viewsonic that gets the facelift

[blaster454]

Some more pesky questions, if I may

Do you find that you are:

- making your profiles bigger to fit the screen?
- putting more controls on the screen?
- using all the screen area you have available?

I'm trying to decide now whether it's 15" or 17" ... and I imagine you still use the smaller touchscreen...but for what special purpose?

Appreciate your patience

[ruggbutt]

Originally Posted by blaster454

- making your profiles bigger to fit the screen?

My profiles are still 800x600. My 17" LCD's native res is 1280x1024 but the desktop icons are too small for me at that res.

- putting more controls on the screen?

I've thought about that at length. I'll probably put together some "custom" profiles for those with larger screens. My F15 profile is awesome on the big monitor, and the controls are just about life size to their real equivalents. If it turns out that my new profiles translate over to the larger size then I may just continue programming profiles in 800x600.

- using all the screen area you have available?

Yeah, there's no wasted or dead space.

I'm trying to decide now whether it's 15" or 17" ... and I imagine you still use the smaller touchscreen...but for what special purpose?

It depends on what profile I'm using, as I fly all the planes in LOMAC but I don't have profiles for all of them. If I'm flying the '15, I have my 199th profile running on the 8" and I use the comms tabs. With the new active modules that Zorlac has added, I can see adding a tab to the 199th profile to run my TEWS fullscreen on the small monitor. I've been switching back and forth with Brewber's Su25T profile. It's missing some of the commands that I prefer to use but the profile is excellent so depending on my mood I'll use it or 199th. For the A10 I'm using WBK's profile. The only thing I'd add is a cannon fire rate switch to it. But I have that in my 199th profile so I use my 8" to send that command.

I'm putting together an A10 profile that will be like my F15 profile, but I'll be using some of WBK's A10 profile in it. His profile is extremely intuitive and after 5 minutes with it I didn't have to hunt for the command I was looking for. His page with the compass rose is fantastic.

I've been considering buying another 17" monitor and Magic Touch. I'm a bit torn because I'm extremely happy with my setup and the only reason I can justify the purchase is if I send my 8" to one of my squaddies so he has one. Several squad leaders in my group have purchased joysticks for our guys. Recently we sent an X52 to our newest member and we should be seeing him online soon. He also has my TrackIR 2. Ultimately that will be the deciding factor.

[blaster454]

Thank you!

I have been communicating with the Magic Touch folks and they have some sizes of overlay in refurbished stock. The 15" one in beige is $99 plus shipping and I think I'm gonna try that first. Warranty is 90 days parts & labor and as long as it's working out of the box and not scratched it should be ok.

I've just started playing with the 1.03 releases...there's a lot of good stuff in there so I can see really starting to have some fun.

I am also thinking about getting rid of my XKeys which I use for some games and some apps (like photoshop) and using TB instead. Don't need a lot of graphics design there...just good usability.

I appreciate you're taking the time to answer my silly questions

[ruggbutt]

Ask away any time. I'm gonna keep my X Keys because if I'm right it will come in handy to use in concert with TB.