Which touch screen do you have?

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

Hello eveyone!

I have just purchased an X50 CNC without a touch screen. Your answers will help me choose a touch screen that is compatible with the controler. Thank you for your help!

[HardtailSr (robert mainville)]

this is the one i got from amazon I have had zero problems

Amazon.com: ASUS VT229H 21.5" Monitor 1080P IPS 10-Point Touch Eye Care with...

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Stéphane,

here a few useful links:

• Confirmed Aftermarket Screens/Monitors that work with the Onefinity
• Criteria for a compatible Touch Monitor
• Thoughts on better using the monitor in portrait orientation
• If using a Touch Display, don’t choose one too small

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

@HardtailSr

this is the one i got from amazon I have had zero problems

Thanks Robert, So with this model, you only have to connect the HDMI cable to the controller box?
Do you used this thing with you CNC IoT Power Relay? See the picture

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

[HardtailSr (robert mainville)]

I am not sure i understand your question. yes it conects via the hdmi cable and of course a power cable. I do not know what a IoT is.

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

You understood my question correctly. Of course the power cable must be plugged in. Do you need to plug in another cable in order to have touchscreen capability? The IoT relay starts and stops your router without your intervention during the execution of a job. Do you speak French, your name sounds French?

[HardtailSr (robert mainville)]

my grand parents were from Canada the name mainville is from a little town just north of paris there is also a mainvile pennsylvania lol. and no no other cable is needed i simply turm my router on but it is plugged into a relay with my vacuum to turn the vac on several seconds after the router. as for speaking frenchi grew up around it but i do not really speak it except for a few cusses and phrases

[JimHatch]

@HardtailSr

I do not know what a IoT is.

IoT stands for “internet of things”. It’s a class of devices that are connected to the internet so they can be controlled or accessed remotely. A Nest thermostat for instance is an IoT device.

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Stéphane, hey all,

@Stephane

External IoT relay (FAQ)

Further Reading

• The good ole ‘tool-enable’ IoT Relay Breakout Board Thread

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

Thank you, I will consult them, because I had this module, with my Workbee 1010 Openbuils.

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Stéphane,

@Stephane

Do you need to plug in another cable in order to have touchscreen capability?

yes, the touch device is an input device (a HID) that you plug into a USB port on Onefinity controller.

@Aiph5u

The Monitor and the Touch are in fact two different things, even if they always are inside the same device. That’s why you need at least two different cables (besides the third, power cable) and why they have different connectors. The Monitor you need is any HDMI (or DVI-D or DVI-I which is compatible to HDMI) monitor. You connect it to the HDMI output of the Onefinity Controller which contains a Raspberry Pi 3B . And for the Touch it is the same, you have to use one that works on a Raspberry Pi 3, but the touch device is an input device, therefore you need a second cable with which you connect the monitor to a USB Port of the Onefinity Controller.

How to connect the Touch Display is described in the Onefinity Manual on page 38 and 39.

The monitor you need is in fact a monitor with a Touch device that the OS has a driver for. The operating system of the Onefinity Controller is Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian because it is based on Debian GNU/Linux), so in fact what you have to look for, is a Touch Monitor that works on a Raspberry Pi 3B and under Raspberry Pi OS. Note that the version of the Raspberry Pi OS on the Onefinity Controller version 1.0.9 is Raspberry Pi OS 9.3 Stretch of 2017 with a Linux kernel 4.9. But don’t worry, Linux has integrated driver support for many touch devices. Usually you don’t need to install drivers separately. Which touch monitors are running successfully on the Onefinity Controller is reported here .

Note that you don’t forcibly need a Touch Monitor to use the Onefinity CNC. You can use a a (non-touch) monitor, a mouse and a keyboard. The desire to use a Touchscreen on a CNC milling machine comes from the fact that when milling wood, there could be wood dust around, and most keyboards and mice don’t really like that.

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Stéphane,

if you switch the touch monitor and the controller on at the same time with a power strip, the problem will be that the Onefinity controller may not have been able to auto-detect the correct resolution, since this is only possible after the touch monitor is ready to provide this information, and fall back to (wrong) VGA resolution. In this case a possible solution is to hard-code your native screen resolution into the Onefinity Controller. This is described when you follow the link at the end of this quoting:

@Aiph5u

in its stock configuration, the Raspberry Pi 3 that is inside the Onefinity Controller is set to auto-detect the video mode. Of course it can achieve this only if the monitor is already powered up and ready, because it requests this information from the monitor. If the monitor is not ready, the Raspberry Pi boots into a very low default video resolution (as you already found out).

However, in all situations where you don’t connect a different monitor every day, this auto-detection is not necessary. In that case it is possible to enter the resolution of your monitor in the Raspberry Pi and it will always boot to the correct resolution, even if the monitor is not on yet. This is desirable if you don’t always want to switch on the monitor first, but at the same time as the CNC controller, e.g. with the same power strip. How to do this is described here .

Should you have a Rev. 5 Onefinity Controller with the pushbutton power switch, switching the Controller on with a power strip will not work out of the box. In this case there is this solution here:

@Aiph5u

the Onefinity Controller with Rev. 5 AVR Mainboard with the power pushbutton is the current model that is shipped (circuit diagram / pcb). If you attach it to a power strip, it will not come on by itself because of the pushbutton circuitry (shown here). The circuitry allows the controller to power itself off after shutdown.

But you can short J18 on AVR Mainboard and then it will stay on and be switched on and off with the power you supply (e.g. a power strip). You could also retrofit the rocker switch that was found on previous models by attaching it to J18. Don’t forget to shut the controller down over the user interface though.

[Sawdustmaker]

I second the ASUS VT229H. I have it on an $40 arm from Amazon.
I started with a regular monitor and a mini keyboard/mouse combo. I quickly got tired of not being able to touch the screen.
I think a 15" would be just as good, I just could not find one in-stock.

[Stephane (Stéphane)]

@Sawdustmaker

ASUS VT229H.

I bought this one from amazon.ca. A forum member mentioned that a similar model worked very well. My second choice will be the Asus VT229H if the Kenowa proves to be a poor choice. I ordered an X-50 Woodwooker a few days ago.(https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/gp/product/B0BNGZGNHJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

[RikR]

I have the same. It’s easy on my aging eyesight.

[gtorres (Gregory Torres)]

Do you have internet near your 1F? (a router or good WiFi)

I’m not sure why more users are not recommending an actual smart computer tablet?

Here’s a reply I posted last year.

Sometimes the best things come to fruition when you have an accident. The space is very tight in my small shop/shed, hence after the second time I knocked my “monitor” off its magnetic mount I needed to replace it. Note, it still worked but I cut my finger on the cracked glass. Instead of buying another dummy “touch screen monitor”, I replaced it with a computer tablet (MS Surface Pro). Having an actual dedicated tablet computer connected to my 1F and to my home network was/is a total game changer. No more usb sticks, all files in one place, no longer having to walk back to the house for a small or large design modification, and being able to design something else, read emails/texts, or buying materials online all while monitoring the 1F has been life changing. I know, NOT RECOMMENDED!, but everyone does something and most not right at the table.