USB problems with a BENQ Touchscreen Display TL550

[Zourous]

This thing is driving me mad...

 

The USB cable (for the interaction) is moulded into the back of the display and isn't particulary very long and not long enough to reach the desired PC. Every sort of USB extension I put on it seems to cause problems and it can be very intermittant so I never know if I've fixed it. If I put a standard USB ext on it, the display seems to reset the mouse to a lower middle position on the display every 30 seconds or so if you are using the mouse on the PC. If I put an active USB ext on it, the interaction is fine but it causes flickering on the screen. I've tried a laptop (as a test) on an usb extension and I get the same result. On one occasion I thought i'd fixed it. I moved the USB cable from the back of the PC to one of the front ports and it started behaving. I then moved it back and forth and it was switching between working and not working. I left it at that, problem solved, but now a month on and it's back to not working again either on the front or the back USB ports. I have been in contact with support but they are not giving me the impression they know what is wrong either. It does seem like power running through the usb is the issue, whether it is too little or too much I don't know. I have another display (same model) on another site, where I went through a similar procedure, but that is now working (on a standard usb ext) for some reason and I don't want to upset it at the moment.

 

Anyone have any experience with these or have any ideas I haven't tried?

[exim]

I've been through what you've been through. Had screen flickering and curser shuffling until I replaced a USB extender, thought it fixed both at first, but the curser issue remained. Even replaced the entire PC at one point. That wasn't it. We then just gave up and just disconnected the USB. The T650 doesn't seem to have any problem.

 

BenQ realy need to sort this out and issue a firmware upgrade or something.

[Zourous]

Thanks for that info exim

 

I'm stilll in contact with support and their next bit of advice is to use a self powered usb hub or usb to cat5 extender. This to me sounds messy and I don't see why we should have to purchase something so specific. IWB's have never needed these unless they were over a long distance, so what is the difference? We haven't got any of these solutions to hand so I'm going to bring a powered hub from home to test it out.

[Zourous]

Hi Exim,

 

I've had a bit more success with a gold plated belkin USB extension cable. There is a definite difference between this cable and a standard usb extension. The only niggle I've found is that the pointer will stop dead in its tracks about once every 30 seconds if you keep you finger in continuous contact with the touchscreen whilst doing S shaped motions. This solution just needs to survive the test of time now, and with the summer coming up no-one will be using it, so I will have to check it come September time.

 

I'm in continuous contact with Benq support at the moment so I'm pushing for a better solution if they can come up with something. I'll post here if I hear anymore

[exim]

Thanks for the update. If I get the time, I might pull out a cat5 extender currently in use for something else just to see how it fairs temporarily. Will let you know of any results.

[Zourous]

They checked our bios version (0.33) and said this was not current, so they are coming out to our site to update it to version (1.00). Apparantly they have to do this update and we can't, so maybe this is why they try every other option and test first before coming out. I'll let you know how it goes.

[exim]

How can you check the Bios version? And do you have a contact number / method that gets you somebody useful?

May need to check this out.

[Zourous]

You can check the bios option using the TV remote, choose the spanner icon and then choose advanced. I contacted benq support as our screen is under a 3 year warranty. You might want to see if my update to v1.00 makes it any better before going further, but up to you.

[Zourous]

Ok, I've reached the end with this particular problem out of my own choice. The best solution is to use a good quailty gold plated (i'm using a belkin one) usb extension and that will give you the best connection. I've been jumping through hoops with benq support and wasted a lot of life to get to this point. They finally admit themselves, there isn't currently a better solution on this particular model after we upgraded the bios and swapped units over. You also have some luck with a usb to cat extender, but I haven't tried one of these.

[exim]

So the particular gold plated USB extender resolves the issue completely and the bios makes no difference?

Is it the Ex-Pro Metal Pro 24K Gold USB series?

 

thanks.

[Zourous]

Correct, the bios makes no difference. The support guy said that I'll have to move the PC nearer the display and use the 1.8m coming out of the TV. I said I didn't want to, so this is the only solution. I can't tell you the specifics of the USB extender, just that it is gold plated and made by Belkin and around 2m in additional length. I found it lying around.

[Fleetwood]

Query: If the USB cable has been snapped by a little rascal, how can it be replaced?

 

The fact it's moulded into the side panel is leaving me confused as to how it's replaceable.. or am I just being dumb?

[Zourous]

I don't think they can be replaced. This was our worry when these units turned up.

[Fleetwood]

Bugger, thought as much here's hoping it's covered on the warranty! harhar.

 

Cheers anyway Z

[BenQ_Support]

"Dear Sir,

We understand that you had a problem using our Interactive Flat panel, precisely the model TL550, which have an USB cable moulded in to the back off the unit.

 

Regarding your present problem, we want to advise you to use an active USB extended cable from Lindy to extend the built-in USB cable. You can find the product at this link:

5m USB 2.0 Slimline Active Extension Cable | LINDY UK

The cable has been tested and worked flawlessly with BenQ Interactive Flat Panels.

If you have a set up where you used faceplates, we strongly suggest you to contact your trusted installer.

It is important to know the type, quality and length of the cable that runs between the two faceplates to avoid any possible loss of signal.

 

We hope we have been able to provide you an acceptable and useful explanation, but we would like to invite you to contact our technical support if you need any more information or assistance. We will be more than happy to help you."

[Zourous]

Be aware I brought one of the cables mentioned in the previous post and can confirm it doesn't work and still causes issues with the cursor jumping around. We have no faceplates in the equation, just the cable mentioned running straight from the TL550 to the laptop. This is the 3rd TL550 we have and all three have the same problem. With the other 2 I used gold plated (2m) usb extensions from belkin, but on this one I need a distance close to 5 metres. Any type of 5m active usb I've used (now tried 3 different ones) either works and cause inferrence on the screen or does the usual jumply cursor.

[Zourous]

Just an update in case anyone stumbles across the same situation.

 

This is in relation to our TL550 that has the teachers desk around 5 meters away. We needed to use a active USB because of the distance, some active USB's didn't work and caused a jumpy cursor. One that did work was a Sanberg version. The mouse pointer is fine, but you then get interferrence on the screen if you are using it in conjunction with a normal VGA cable. Support advised that the VGA cable was not well shielded enough, but I brought a double shielded VGA cable with ferrit cores at both ends and the results were the same. We've had to reluctently move to using a HDMI cable instead as a sensible solution can't be found.

[exim]

Do you have a link to that Sanburg product? We have a screen with issues, however a cable length of 10 to 15m is needed.

[Zourous]

Look on the ebuyer site for sanberg active usb 5m. You should be able to buy a couple and link them together.

[Zourous]

You would need to use hdmi with it though to stop the interferrence.

[exim]

Thanks. Luckily a HDMI cable was installed. Will need a dvi to hdmi adaptor though due to no hdmi on the PC.

 

I hear BenQ's new touchscreen range is out next month, apparently with improvements to the connectivity and screen glare. The s*** speakers could be better too.

They'd be great screens if they actually worked. Don't know if I can trust them again at this stage though.

Edited November 11, 2013 by exim

[exim]

@Zourous what you suggested works. Thanks again for that. There are visual artefacts that no one but me would notice, but I think it's the PC refresh rate and something to do with using dvi to hdmi causing that - will tweak when I get a chance.

 

Do you use the bundled Smart Notebook? I still don't know if the smart software is supposed to see the screen as a compatible device as it's connection wizard can't detect it. Are you supposed to just ignore that?

I can't seem to mimic the act of picking up a smartboard pen and annotating anything on screen the way you would with a smartboard - either you can't or I'm missing some setting.

Edited November 29, 2013 by exim

[Zourous]

The interferrence is probably coming from the active usb. Try unplugging the usb for a second and see if it goes. We also found that there is also interferrence noise on the audio cable as well (again caused because we have to use the active usb). We are using the HDMI for video and sound so this cuts out that problem as the interferrence isn't affecting this interface.

 

Yes we use the Smart Notebook, and also had the same problem. What you can do is launch notebook, go to the view menu and choose transparent background. It kind of gives you something similar. It looks like the normal ink layer you use on the smartboard is integrated into the smart driver which of course you can't use.

 

Also found for us that we couldn't use the active usb in conjunction with a faceplate, so we have the TL550's usb tail cable connected to one 5m active usb going straight to the laptop. With this set-up the touch facility is perfect.

[exim]

Yes, we've bypassed the faceplate too.

The dodgy picture via HDMI must have been due to the PC graphics card, once I downgraded to 720p resolution it was fine.

[Zourous]

Just an update to say if you have any Benq T650's you can now get in touch with Benq support and they can send you new firmware and flash program so you can enable the freeze function. You will also need a PC with a serial port on it and a female to female serial cable. Once complete, you can freeze and unfreeze the screen by pressing the up arrow followed by a 0. We had 3 T650's and can confirm this worked on all of them although instructions can be a little tricky to follow as it looks like they are translated from Chinese.

 

Has anyone else suceeded with any anti-glare treatment with any model of Benq? Benq claim any such product may mess with the interaction and invalidate the warranty, but if anyone else has tried it....