What is an Industrial Display Kit?
An Industrial Display Kit, or LCD Display Kit, includes the portion of a display solution that covers all components necessary for the LCD display integration. The IDK consists of an LCD panel, backlight unit, touch sensor, touch controller (if selected), and cables for the LVDS and backlight. A matched LVDS cable is a key for operability with an embedded board. Advantech offers a full line of Industrial Display Kits such as its IDK Series. Two series are provided; IDK-1000 series is ideal for indoor applications while 1200-nit IDK-2000 series is perfect for outdoor applications. These Industrial Display Kits use an LVDS interface, as compared to VGA input kits.
What is in an Open Frame Monitor?
An open frame monitor already includes a video board and back cover so it can be easily connected with embedded boards and systems via VGA or DVI interface. Its front bezel-less design allows customers to design their unique enclosure and is suitable for versatile embedded applications especially Kiosks. Advantech offers a full line of Open Frame Monitors as its IDS-3100 Series. The series includes resistive touch/non-touch, and standard/economic versions to better fulfill customers’ needs.
What is in a Panel Mount Monitor?
A panel mount monitor is an industrial monitor with front bezel design. This type of display meets the needs of customers who want to quickly and easily integrate their solutions with embedded boards/ systems via DVI and VGA interface and is suitable for machine automation and transportation applications. Advantech offers comprehensive Panel Mount Monitors such as its IDS-3200 series. The series includes resistive touch/non-touch, and standard/economic versions to better fulfill customers’ needs.
What is in an Industrial Grade Digital Signage Display?
An Industrial grade digital signage display is designed with rugged mechanical integration with high resolution to provide high definition images, and withstand the constant interactivity inherent in public access venues. The series can easily connect to signage box system solutions via HDMI or DVI interface for a total digital signage solution.
Reasons for Choosing an Industrial Display
LVDS Interoperability
Although factors such as brightness and resolution have their priority, many designers are aware of the pitfalls of display kit incompatibilities when integrating LVDS cables on their board or PC system. Designing your own LVDS cable in order to interface the LCD to the SBC can be labor-intensive, as well as needing specialized tools, so customized cable fabrication is usually assigned to a cable vendor and naturally, this causes an increase in system costs.
Since each LCD Display Kit has a different LVDS and power cable for different embedded boards, Advantech launched
an online tool to save time finding the right display for the right Advantech board product, as well as matching the right LVDS and backlight cables.
Brightness
Measured in candela per square meter (cd/m2) which are informally referred to as 'Nits', an LCD display's brightness, or luminance, can be a part of a selection process to ensure visibility requirements, given the system's environment. Most consumer grade desktop LCDs for indoor use have a luminance of 200 to 300 Nits, whereas 450 to 2000 Nits are considered ideal for industrial and outdoor use.
Resolution
The display’s resolution, or pixel dimensions, also weighs in to the selection process. Display size, the graphic requirements of the application, and dimensions of the enclosure may all be factors in the resolution of your ideal display.
| Abbreviation |
Resolution |
Panel Size |
| VGA |
640x480 |
5.7” / 6.5“ |
| SVGA |
800x600 |
8.4" / 10.4" |
| WSVGA |
1024 X 600 |
7“ Wide / 10.1” Wide |
| XGA |
1024x768 |
12.1" / 15" |
| SXGA |
1280x1024 |
17" / 19" |
| HD |
1366 x 768 |
15.6” / 18.5” / 32” |
| Full HD |
1920 x 1080 |
21.5” / 42”~ |
The actual supported resolutions are resident within the board’s BIOS. Advantech has compiled this information for its Embedded Board products, and will indicate the compatible IDK products for each board.
Contrast Ratio
Contrast Ratio is the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color that the display is capable of rendering. As a baseline, a Contrast Ratio of 500: 1 is considered standard for a consumer desktop PC display.
Backlight
For embedded solutions, there are generally two kinds of backlight products on the market. Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL), are a technology that has been in place for some time. They handle temperatures well, and have low initial costs. There are other design aspects to consider, however, such as the need for an inverter to supply separate power to the CCFL device.
LED backlights have grown in popularity for embedded applications due to benefits of low watt consumption, low heat dissipation, and lower overall cost. LED backlights generally deliver 20-30% lower power consumption. However many PC solutions require a separate LED driver board for its function.
Touch Function
The Touch Sensor adheres to the front of an LCD Panel as a separate layer. The sensor's controller determines the location of the touch. Within this spectrum, different touch technology can be incorporated to fit the application. Resistive Touch is popular for embedded applications due to its accuracy, cost effectiveness and ability to respond to any object, including a gloved hand or stylus. Capacitive Touch provides better clarity and durability and is suitable for KIOSK applications. Projective capacitive touch becomes increasingly ubiquitous for its intuitive and multi-touch operations offering more alternatives for applications such as gaming and retail kiosks.
Comparison Table for Different Touch Solutions
| |
Input Method |
Durability |
Multi-touch support |
Touch Driver |
| Resistive Touch |
Stylus, Finger |
1~36million touches |
NA |
No need under Win7/Win8 OS |
| Capacitive Touch |
Finger |
225million touches |
NA |
| Projected Capacitive Touch |
Finger |
50 million touches |
YES |
Backlight MTBF
MTBF means the life time of backlight in LCD display module which is a key point for industrial display applications.
Product Longevity
Industrial applications usually require high product longevity to ensure the consistent specification and quality. Consumer grade displays provide only 0.5~1 year longevity while Advantech offers 3 year longevity to better meet customers’ need.
Advantech Customization Services
With its own class 10,000 clean room, Advantech provides various LCD customization services with high quality and reliability. Our custom items include optical bonding, brightness enhancement, touchscreen integration, and AR film lamination.
Versatile LCD Size
All sizes from 5.7" to 55" for small and large projects
Optical Enhancement
- Optical Bonding
- AR Coating
- Brightness Enhancement
Touchscreen Integration
- Resistive Touch
- Capacitive Touch
- Projected Capacitive Touch
Sunlight Readable
- High Brightness
- AR Film Lamination
Advantech industrial display products are provided with competitive warranty offerings for your product. Generally speaking, Advantech provides a basic 2-year warranty while the industry average is 1 year. Customers are also able to upgrade their warranty to 3- or 5-years to fit your project needs.