AMX CAPACITIVE TOUCH © AMX 2011 | All Rights Reserved

OCTOBER 10TH, 2012 AUTOMATE | CONNECT | CONTROL | MANAGE

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Agenda © AMX 2011 | All Rights Reserved

Comparing Resistive vs. Capacitive Benefits & Drawbacks The Technology AMX has implemented for Modero X Type of Capacitive Touch, Touch Controller Supplier, etc. The difference between the panel sizes 19” and 20” Power Source Touch Implementation 4.3”, 7”, and 10” Power Source Touch Implementation How to handle calls for various sizes More info

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Resistive vs. Capacitive - Benefits and Drawbacks © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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RESISTIVE •

Benefits – More affordable, less power, not affected by dirt/water/light/emi noise, etc. , works with finger, gloves and any pointing device.

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Drawbacks – Reduce display brightness (typically 25%), less rugged due to flexible layer, difficult for accurate multi-touch, user calibration and accuracy.

CAPACITIVE •

Benefits – Clearer so brighter (exceptional optics), wear resistant (solid surface), high resolution abilities, drift free touch coordinates, operates in environmental extremes, Multi-touch capable - up to 10 fingers (3 for now), flexible sensors can be contoured to curved surfaces, potential for lighter activation force.

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Drawbacks – Higher cost, more power, EMI, dirt, gloved hand or pointing device limitations.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 AMX’s Capacitive Touch Technology © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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There are two types of Capacitive Touch Technology. •

Surface – used for simple applications; prone to false signals; requires manufacturing calibration, and has lower resolution

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Projected – uses an x-y grid; can have additional layers on glass, no manufacturer calibration, and has higher resolution

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Modero X panels use Projective Capacitive Touch

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AMX has selected Atmel as our Touch Controller chip partner. •

In March, 2012, iSuppli reported that “The leaders of the touch controller space last year were Atmel Corp., Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Synaptics” and had over 60% of the market.

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On September 13, 2012, Zacks.com reported that Samsung selected the Atmels MXT1664S to power their new 10.1” tablet.

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From July 17, 2012 ElectronicDesign.com “Atmel’s MXT224 capacitive touch-screen controller has racked up most of the design wins in smart phones and tablets—except for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.”

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 19” and 20”: Modero X Panels © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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Power Source •

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These panels are powered via AMX 12v power supplies. They have a direct connection to the earth ground provided through the AC outlet, and some degree of filtering from the 12v power supply.

Touch Implementation •

Atmel Touch Controller chipset

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Touch Adjacency (19.5mm x 13mm) for 20.3”

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Touch Adjacency (19.5mm x 8.5mm) for 19.4”

Key notes •

Much larger display/touch interface than typical products shipping today.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 4.3”, 7”, and 10”: Modero X Panels © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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Power Source •

These panels are powered via AMX PoE power supplies. They have a decoupled connection to the earth ground available at the wall outlet. The panels are “tuned” to operate with the approved AMX PoE supplies. •

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FG423-81 PS-POE-AT, HIGH POWER POE INJECTOR FG423-83 (new) PS-POE-AF, POE INJECTOR, 802.3AF COMPLIANT FG2178-62 NXA-ENET8-POE FG2178-63 (new) NXA-ENET8-2POE, GIGABIT SWITCH, 8 PORT POE, 2 PORT SFP

Touch Implementation •

Atmel Touch Controller chipset

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Touch Adjacency (11mm x 8.5mm) for 10.1”

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Touch Adjacency (18.5mm x 17mm) for 7.0”

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Touch Adjacency (11mm x 10mm) for 4.3”

Key notes •

Running panel directly from PoE is very rare in today’s world and presents some unique challenges.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Potential Issues and Resolution Recommendations © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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Conducted EMI (Facility AC Power) •

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Problem: •

Noise on the facility ground (primarily in the 50KHz-300KHz range @ ~ 10Vpk-pk or more) can cause touch issues.

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Panel FW algorithms try to prevent “phantom touches”, so the likely reported symptom is a loss of touch or a non-responsive panel.

Resolution: •

Removal of the Ground connection at the AC input to the Power Supply can remove noise originating on the ground line.

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If the noise is on the Hot/Neutral lines, this must be corrected at the facility.

Note: Many older/international facilities can have poor earth ground connections, or non at all.

Radiated EMI (Noise emitted from nearby device) •

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Problem: •

The “sensing” nature of Capacitive touch technology can result in noise generators (especially in the 50KHz-300KHz range, such as power supplies) causing touch issues when placed in extremely close proximity to the panel (a few inches). This is especially problematic during boot.

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Panel FW algorithms try to prevent “phantom touches”, so the likely reported symptom is a loss of touch or a non-responsive panel.

Resolution: •

Remove/relocate the noisy device.

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AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Notes and suggested steps for Touch issue resolution © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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Distinguishing between Noise and a Possible bad unit •

A bad panel might be identified by running the overlay Self Test Command •

Telnet into the panel and issue the command “show selftest”

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The output of this command is as follows: Welcome to MXT-1000 v2.104.12 Copyright (C) AMX LLC 2002-2012 >show selftest Result[0]: fe

Result[1]: 0 Result[2]: 0 Result[3]: 0 Result[4]: 0 Result[5]: 0 > •

The status code of Result[0] is what we are interested in. Anything other than ‘fe’ is potentially something of interest and should be noted.

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Result codes for our panels are the following: Code

Test Result

0xFE

All tests passed.

0xFD

The test code supplied in the CMD field is not associated with a valid test.

0xFC

The test could not be completed due to an unrelated fault (i.e. internal communications problem).

0x01

Avdd is not present on at least one of the slave devices.

0x12

The test failed because of a pin fault.

0x13

The test failed because of a SYNC line AND gate fault.

0x17

The test failed because of a signal limit fault.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Notes and suggested steps for Touch issue resolution © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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A noisy environment might be identified by one of two methods. In the GA version of the panel firmware (2.103.52), the only method available is through the use of Super User commands. In Post GA loads (2.104.X), there is a telnet command available, which is the preferred method. •

To make use of the Super User method, obtain Super User access to the panel. It is preferred to have two windows open with Super User access. In one window, issue the command “cat /proc/kmsg”. This command will display the logged kernel messages. Ctrl-C is used to exit this command, but do not do so until finished diagnosing the panel. In the second window with Super User access, issues one of the following commands : •

For 10, 19, and 20 inch panels, issue the command “echo 17 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-005b/debug” to turn debugging on.

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For 10, 19, and 20 inch panels, issue the command “echo 16 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-005b/debug” to turn debugging off.

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For 7 and 4.3 inch panels, issue the command “echo 17 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-004b/debug” to turn debugging on.

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For 7 and 4.3 inch panels, issue the command “echo 16 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-004b/debug” to turn debugging off.

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Make sure to turn off debugging or reboot the panel after troubleshooting as active logging via this method is very CPU intensive.

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Output in the first Super User window is as follows: atmel_mxt_ts 2-005b: T48 Msg Received: STATUS: 32 ADCSPERX: 32 FREQ: 4 STATE: 6 NLVL: 4

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The NLVL field in the above message reports the current noise level seen by the touch controller. If this level is continually high (above 15), a noisy environment should be suspected. Normal values in a quiet location vary per panel and location, but are typically between 3-8.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Notes and suggested steps for Touch issue resolution © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

The telnet command method available in Post GA loads is “show overlay”. The output from this command is:

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>show overlay Touch Overlay Monitor - Interval is 400 milliseconds

--- Enter ESC to exit ---

Touch -------------- --------------------------------------------------

Date Time

Currently

Total Count

Current

Date Time

Suppressed

Suppressed

Noise Level

(Yes/No) ----- --------

(0-255)

--------------- ------------

---------------

10/26 17:27:11

No

0

4

10/26 17:27:11

No

0

3

10/26 17:27:12

No

0

4

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The Currently Suppressed field indicates whether touch is being actively suppressed at the reported time.

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The Total Count Suppressed field indicates the total count of active touches suppressed.

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The Current Noise Level is the same value from the Super User method and indicates the current noise level seen by the touch controller.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 Notes and suggested steps for Touch issue resolution © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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Plug the power supply into a different outlet/room. Is the problem still present? •

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Does the panel have issues at multiple sites? If so, it is likely a panel issue. •

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Bad/damaged ITO sense layers, bad touch sensor controller board, bad or misaligned sensor cable, etc.

Obtain a photo/video of the panel in the location/configuration where failing •

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If touches register somewhere besides where the touch is occurring, the panel is likely seeing a second “phantom touch”.

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The AMX calibration screen does not support multi touch, so it will consolidate all touches into one cross hair location.

What is the Manufacturer and Model number of the power supply? Only AMX approved PoE sources are supported for the 4.3”, 7”, and 10.1” panels. Third party and some legacy AMX PoE sources will not work well with the Modero X panels due to the noise they generate/transmit to the panels. The Modero X panels are tuned to operate with our approved supplies.

Remove the power supply ground via a 2 pin wall power adapter, or remove the PoE injector IEC cable ground prong. •

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Are there any potential radiated noise sources present in close proximity to the panel?

The panel calibrates during boot up and auto-calibrates as it deems necessary. There is no user calibration.

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It could be a poorly grounded outlet.

Large motors, fluorescent lighting, etc. can add noise onto the facility wiring.

If the above steps fail, a reading of the facility power is recommended. AMX Engineering has created an AIB Test Box that could be shipped to troublesome sites to confirm suspect facility AC power line noise.

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential

AMX Capacitive Touch Training 10-10-2012 More info © AMX 2012 | All Rights Reserved

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More information on Resistive and Projective Cap Touch •

http://www.ocularlcd.com/library/papers/pcap_touch_technology.pdf

© 2010 AMX / Copyright & Confidential