Thin Client for Java

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 someoneā€¦

Iā€™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 ā€˜out of disk spaceā€™ error. Any suggestions?

I am trying to follow along with out a manualā€¦

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 wonā€™t be there after a reboot.

Did I get close?

Thatā€™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 doesnā€™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.

Back to your original question, Iā€™m working on my first Ignition project and have set up an Ubuntu server with some HP t5565 thin clients (~$235 ea.). They have a 1Gb SSD and 1Gb RAM and run an HP OS that is actually Debian Linux and comes with just about everything needed pre-installed (including the Java jre) and an ELO touch driver.

While I havenā€™t put this into production yet, from what I can see so far, they appear to work quite well for this application.

Thanks for posting this. You experience will help all of us.

Dennis

Has anyone come across a thin client-like setup that includes a 6-8 inch touchscreen display? We have a project that will require a small form factor client, but that will likely need to be either panel mounted or in-vehicle mounted. Thanks!

I am looking for a simple to implement, panel pc to replace some PLC touchscreens. Size is about 10". I read though all the posts in this thread and wonder if the recomendations are the same given how technology becomes outdated so fast. What are you guys currently using out there. I must avoid linux based solutions since I already lost that battle here. We are currently paying $1,400 for vendor specific panels so I think budget is a non issue.
Thanks

Hi Tim,

I still install the same hardware as before. The only thing that Iā€™d recommend differently is that I had to go away from the SSDs as they were just not holding up-- but it was still worth a shot to use! :slight_smile:

Also, having separate units (monitor and PC) lets you replace one or the other cheaper than replacing an entire set (like a PV+ or PPC)

SSDs not holding up?

What was the issue here? I thought SSDs were vastly superior to hard drives. No moving parts etc.

There are certain workloads that SSDs arenā€™t perfect for.
Using them as scratch disks for lots and lots of non-random writes is one of those.
Consumer flashā€™s number of write cycles per cell determines this.

We use SSDs in all of our SCADAs now and have had great luck with them. Some tweaks are required, disable defrag, disable indexing, etc.

We had heat issues with them. They werenā€™t really rated for industrial environments, and, well, eventually it showed. They worked great for a few months, but overall, it wasnā€™t one of our more stunning successes. :laughing:

Part of the heat issue we came across, was that the 19in screens we use put out a surprising amount of heat. Enough so that the fans on the cabinets couldnā€™t keep up. :unamused: