Thin Client for Java

I’ve started using Foxconn’s Nettop PC’s:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119034

With 2GB Ram and 32GB SSD, that puts me at about 280 dollars. Add about 140 dollars if you stick Win7 Pro on it, although you can still get XP OEM versions for about 80.

I also have a few boxes with Ubuntu on it. They run dipslay boards that have no ActiveX requirements. If it wasn’t for the ActiveX thing, they’d all be on Ubuntu!

The XP machines are running Panel Edition with no issues as of this writing, but I’ll be sure to tell you if there is.

Dennis,
I was still referring to the C90LEW. Also, we have been using the Hope Industrial touch screens, which the [Elo] drivers are apparently (I wasn’t aware) loaded on all of Wyse’s thin clients except the C90LEW. But supposedly they can be loaded from the factory.

Anyone have any experience with Mysaifu JVM? It is an open source JVM for WinCE.

Dennis

[quote=“DennisWomack”]Anyone have any experience with Mysaifu JVM? It is an open source JVM for WinCE.

Dennis[/quote]

Warning, we use the following super-duper-unreliable-not-guaranteed-to-be-there JVM options:

-XX:PermSize
-XX:MaxPermSize
-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC
-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled
-XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled

Other JVMs likely don’t have these options, and Ignition’s stability is not guranteed on them!

So, Kevin help me understand your message.

Are you saying Ignition is normally used with the Sun/Oracle JRE with those command line options you mentioned?

Or, are you saying if we try to use the Mysaifu with WinCE, then we need to set those command line options?

I was wondering if anybody had even tried Mysaifu to see if Ignition would work with it.

Still looking for a touch panel, WinCE based, configured by the vendor, that could support Ignition.

I guess my preference would be to be able to by a standard product that could have the JRE installed and we just install Ignition. This is looking at Panel Edition as a fallback mode.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Dennis

[quote=“DennisWomack”]So, Kevin help me understand your message.

Are you saying Ignition is normally used with the Sun/Oracle JRE with those command line options you mentioned?

Or, are you saying if we try to use the Mysaifu with WinCE, then we need to set those command line options?

I was wondering if anybody had even tried Mysaifu to see if Ignition would work with it.

Still looking for a touch panel, WinCE based, configured by the vendor, that could support Ignition.

I guess my preference would be to be able to by a standard product that could have the JRE installed and we just install Ignition. This is looking at Panel Edition as a fallback mode.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Dennis[/quote]

We normally use it with the Sun/Oracle JRE and those options set. I don’t believe other JRE’s even have those options.

Ignition would probably still run, but you would be in uncharted territory because those options affect garbage collection and memory usage/leaks related to soft restarts.

That’s what I expected.

Thanks, Kevin.

Linux may still be the best option. I know it will work.

Dennis

Hi,

I have one application where we would like to put in place some linux based thin clients as part of a redundant controls scheme for a Water treatment Plant. Ideally I’d like for it to be a touch screen so that I can package it completely inside a control panel without having to worry about the attached keyboard and mouse.

Does anyone know if there are industrial touch screens out there that have linux drivers available? Otherwise we may have to go with either a non-touchscreen option, or install a Win XP option such as the Wyse thin client mentioned previously in this thread.

Thoughts?

Alex

Have you tried Advantech?

Just did an entire line using their 19" touchscreen touch monitors along with the Foxconn Nettop PC I mentioned earlier. Got the Penmount driver working under Ubuntu without a hiccup.

Unfortunately, I had to go to XP because I was having issues routing through the wireless connection to the hard-wired PLC connection and keeping it stable-- admittedly the problem was probably between the chair and the keyboard on that one! :unamused:

Aside from my infrastructure issues, though, I was very pleased with this setup under Ubuntu-- and I was able to put it together for about $1280 each! :smiley:

Monitor: $990
PC: $170
2Gb Memory: $30
32Gb SSD: $90

Where is anyone finding a version of JRE that will install on a thin client? The Oracle website just runs me around in circles, and only offers a version which is too big to be installed on my Wyse thin client.

I used the Wyse client several years ago without issue.

Wyse sent me to technote KB10687 (on the Wyse website). This got me closer, but JRE 6 is still too big. Anyone?

Ok, I hope this helps someone…

I’m using the Wyse R90L with XPe. I closely followed the directions in Wyse technote KB10687 along with JRE v6 on a USB stick, file name jre-6u27-windows-i586.exe. This worked.

Good luck!

Weird. Did the same thing with the second Wyse thin client and had different results. :frowning:

  1. FBWF Disable
  2. Ramdisk from 30 MB to 64 MB
  3. TEMP & TMP variables from Z:\ to D:\ (my USB stick)

When I run the Java install from the USB stick, I get an ‘out of disk space’ error. Any suggestions?

I am trying to follow along with out a manual…

FBWF Disable means what?

File Based Write Filter

It must be disabled to save changes to the client.

5 out of 6 thin clients set up using Wyse technote KB10687. Must be something odd with #6.

So this is the feature that preserves your bootimage, and makes it bullet proof?

Turn if off to make the changes in the bootimage and then turn it back on.

Any changes made without this won’t be there after a reboot.

Did I get close?

That’s correct, and the ability to turn it on and off is only available when logged on as Administrator.

I was hoping one of the Wyse experts might have some input. Also, once delivered to the field, how are people setting up the thin clients to automatically start up and connect to the server, displaying the Ignition program?

On Windows clients I set up a batch file to query the service and make sure it is running before starting the client. You can find it here.

Thanks for pointing me to the batch file.

We have a lot of Wonderware around here and in the past they provided a program called Startit to sequence the startup of programs.

Just putting links in the startup folder doesn’t guarantee their order of execution.

Finally, I started using a batch file that would ping 127.0.0.1 once a second for x numbers of times. There was not a sleep command that could be used to generate the delay.

This way you could be sure programs started and had sufficient time to stabilze before starting the next one.

Question, if FBWF is enabled, do you lose any log files or data files on reboot? Place them in an unprotected partition?

Thanks

Quick and dirty, but it works, consistently.