Rugged I/O devices for remote installation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bart
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B

Bart

The company I am working for sells control and monitoring equipment for gas
wells. We are creating a new control device using an embedded PC running
Embedded XP.

The problem we are encountering is finding I/O devices that are easy to
integrate with a Windows application, yet will survive the harsh
environmental conditions (particularly temperature extremes) that will be
found at the installation sites.
The PC and the I/O devices will be housed inside a weather proof box. So
they don't have to be water proof. But the temperatures will be uncontrolled.

We were hoping to use a touch screen. But we can not find any that can take
the temperature extremes.

We could get away with a simple LCD display (either character based or
graphic) and a keypad (having only numeric keys and programmable function
keys). These would need to use standard USB or RS232 or VGA ports and come
with appropriate Windows drivers.

I was hoping someone else had faced the problem of I/O devices in an extreme
environment.

Thanks for any help.

Bart
(e-mail address removed)


Additionally, the installations run off power from solar panels and 12V
batteries. So we need devices that do not use much power.
 
It would be helpful to know more about your requirements such as form
factor, performance, and price sensitivity however as a starting point I
would look at laptop motherboards. There are some ruggedized ones made for
military use etc. that you might be able to find.

HM
 
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