Dr D's Abode

So as some of you may know already, I bought an eeePC, for fun and to mess around with.  Well my latest fun with it was adding a touchscreen, and adding internal bluetooth!

Well, I purchased the Hoda Technology 8.9″ Solderless Easy and Fun TouchKit Touch Screen Kit, which came with a touchscreen, the controller board (with added USB hub) and the wires to connect it solderlessly to a internal USB header (I had one as I do not have a built-in cam, though even if you do, you can still use this!)

— The following pictures and more are available in my gallery –

Below is a quick guide on what I did to add in the touchscreen:

Here is the contents from the kit, included a dual pen/stylus!

First I took apart my machine following the many guides to make sure I did not break anything I shouldn’t.

Next I tried to find the best path for the wires to go, without making new holes or pinching the wires.

Whoops, the included wire to go from the controller to the motherboard is too short for where I am placing the controller.  Time to make a mod to the mod!  I had to very carefully take apart the JST SR04 jack and swap it with a longer wire.  Good thing they provided all the needed parts. Note the correct pin layout to make sure its recognized (the included cable had the pinout backwards!)

Next, the bluetooth adapter.  The kit also had two JST SR05 to USB connector. After removing the plastic housing to my already small bluetooth adapter, I could easily fit it inside the case. Now I have all 3 external USB adapters free again, and nothing to forget or lose. Now I can tether to my cell and still look cool!

A Better view of the touchscreen controller.

Fitting the touchscreen.  This was a PITA to get correctly centered, but I got it eventually.

After putting everything back togeather, I had to first turn the “camera” port on in the BIOS, then Fedora recognized the controller and USB devices on boot!

Now, even though I am running Fedora 11, which has support for just about every product under the sun, I still had to install drivers for the controllers, which was easier done then said.

First, I had to make a generic Xorg config, as Fedora does not make one now (its made on the fly)

[root@localhost ~]# Xorg -configure :1
~~ some output from Xorg ~~
Your xorg.conf file is /root/xorg.conf.new

To test the server, run 'X -config /root/xorg.conf.new'
[root@localhost ~]# mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Second I had to download and install the latest (2.06.2905 [beta]) drivers from the website [Local Copy of Drivers].

Then extract, and run the setup utility:

[root@localhost ~]# cd /tmp/
[root@localhost tmp]# tar xzvf ~drdelaney/Download/eGalaxTouch-2.06.2905-32b-k26.tar.gz
eGalaxTouch32/
eGalaxTouch32/readme
eGalaxTouch32/Guide/
eGalaxTouch32/Guide/How to rebuild kernel.pdf
eGalaxTouch32/Guide/How to build module.pdf
eGalaxTouch32/Guide/Driver Guide.pdf
eGalaxTouch32/eGalaxTouch.tar.gz
eGalaxTouch32/eula.pdf
eGalaxTouch32/setup.sh
[root@localhost tmp]# cd eGalaxTouch32/
[root@localhost eGalaxTouch32]# sh ./setup.sh 

(*) Linux driver installer for eGalax Touch controller 

(I) Check user permission: root, you are the supervisor.
(I) Begin to setup the eGalax Touch driver.
(I) Found and removed previous eGalax Touch driver.
(I) Extract eGalax Touch driver archive to /usr/local/eGalaxTouch32.
(I) Create eGalaxTouch utility shortcut in /usr/bin.
(I) Create TKCal tool shortcut in /usr/bin.
(I) Check X window version: 1.6.x
(I) Copy X module: x16/egalax_drv.so to /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input.

(Q) Which interface controller do you use?
(I) [1] RS232 [2] PS/2 [3] USB : 3
(I) Using interface: USB
(I) Found a HID compliant touch controller.

(I) Found X configuration file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
(I) Removed touch configuration from /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
(I) Add touch configuration into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

(I) Please reboot the system for some changes to take effect.
(I) After booting, type "eGalaxTouch" to do calibration.

After rebooting,  running eGalaxTouch, and calibrating, I had full touchscreen support!

Coming soon, a touchscreen for my eeePC!  http://spedr.com/5h0ci