by btrcp2000 on Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:44 am
roveer-
i just went through this with a xenarc 10.4 serial touchscreen (sounds like yours?), so maybe I can save you some headaches. However, this will be a big brain dump, so let me apologize in advance.
I have my htpc in the basement, the touchscreen is on a flip down mount under a kitchen cabinet. I used an old belkin kvm extender for the video (found it for $100 in august at firebuy.com, but i think they are out now). Ended up using a serial to usb converter for the touchscreen, which is then attached to a usb hub in the kitchen cabinet. Works like a dream, and only took me about six months to figure it out!
Here's some random stuff I discovered along the way:
The USB/serial conversion works fine, but the touchscreen no longer functions after the pc returns from standby, requiring a reboot. Happened with two different pcs and two different converters. This doesn't matter to me, because my htpc is always on.
In an effort to save some $$ and space in the cabinet, I tried every combination of adapter (ps2 to serial, vice versa, etc.) to hook up the touchscreen through the kvm extender's mouse and kb ports, since i am using wireless usb kb/mouse, i don't need those connections anyway. That doesn't work.
You absolutely cannot do anything about the little box on the proprietary xenarc cable, it has to be involved (not too surprising, i guess), and it has to be on the monitor end of the extender setup. I tried putting it in the basement with all the other ugly crap, but the pc didn't recognize the touchscreen. My best solution was to get a 6 ft ps2 extension, which allowed me to get the little box up into the cabinet as opposed to velcroed to the back of the lcd screen.
If you go the extender route for the touchscreen (at your distance probably your only choice), search for "rs232 extenders" as opposed to "serial extenders". I considered this before i figured out my usb adapter would work, and had more success searching ebay/google with that terminology. I did see some that had rs232 and vga in the same unit.
If you haven't already pulled the cable, I would suggest solid and/or shielded cable for a quality vga signal. This may be overkill, but I didn't want to have to pull those cables again!
hth, fire away if you have questions i can answer. have fun!