Hello everyone, I am planning to start a project for developing a POS (Point Of Sale) system, I am going to build it in such a way were I would put a small PC with the minimum requirements for running the program and running Linux and connect it to a touch screen for input.

The touch screen's main purpose would be to make the machine more user friendly and faster for employees to work on, I would plug in a touch screen monitor with the PC and then assemble all the components in a small and good looking case of my design. For the PC, I am thinking of throwing in a small laptop with an Intel Atom processor and 512 MB Ram which I think would be more than enough.

Now my question is, were can I find a cheap and small PC touchscreen in Lebanon, the screen's dimensions should be not more than 12 inch and not less than 8 inch, and with a price not more than $150?

Another question, if I use a laptop, will I be able to easily remove the non touch screen that comes built in? I am afraid that if I remove it, some other parts may be affected, I am not sure about this, If you know about a good method please tell me.

Thank you very much for your help and have a good day :)

EDIT: I checked out [url = "http://www.lcds4less.com/laptop-lcd-removal-instructions.shtml"]this tutorial[/url], the removal operation looks easy. What do you think?
Good question but I don't think you can find what your looking for in Lebanon best bet is to try and buy them online and I think you change the interface of the laptop screen but how I don't know but I will try to find out cause I liked your project idea :)
AymanFarhat wroteNow my question is, were can I find a cheap and small PC touchscreen in Lebanon, the screen's dimensions should be not more than 12 inch and not less than 8 inch, and with a price not more than $150?
Compuworld were selling touch screen, dont know if they still have them. search the forums for their number.
I am not sure you can have them at this price though... and I think they were bigger then 12"

Also take a close look at any POS touch device in a restaurant or pub in Lebanon, you will see that they run windows with a software that is made in lebanon. Last time I checked, the screen displayed the name of the software company (I forgot it, but It's a known company here, they also sell accounting software) and also a bunch of phone numbers. You can call these numbers and maybe you will find someone nice enough to assist you on where to find the hardware, or any other questions :)
AymanFarhat wroteAnother question, if I use a laptop, will I be able to easily remove the non touch screen that comes built in? I am afraid that if I remove it, some other parts may be affected, I am not sure about this, If you know about a good method please tell me.
I think the BIOS might beep and refuse to boot if it doesnt find the screen. It might as well boot normally, I dont know! Why would you want to do that? If you want the hardware, I suggest you buy a cheap board that has everything in it. It would be safer and more supported. You can also order on the internet very small computers "embedded devices" of the size of a credit card (only thicker, of course) which will run a version of linux. I always wanted to work on these :)
I thought that the laptop screen is attached to the graphic card only , the bios is meant for other things
You can also order on the internet very small computers "embedded devices" of the size of a credit card (only thicker, of course) which will run a version of linux. I always wanted to work on these :)
Cool idea, but will they be able to run a JVM? Anyways I will search for this kind of device. :)
AymanFarhat wrote
You can also order on the internet very small computers "embedded devices" of the size of a credit card (only thicker, of course) which will run a version of linux. I always wanted to work on these :)
Cool idea, but will they be able to run a JVM? Anyways I will search for this kind of device. :)
Most probably can.
Looks like the Lintop 2 can be a great choice it's size is good and the specs are great and the price is 280.00EUR which is not bad compared to this neat piece of hardware. I also liked the Lintop 3 which IMO should be used in internet cafes and some university libraries instead of spending money on powerful PCs for users just to surf the web and do some research or just search the local DB for books. very nice, now I will have to look for the screen, thanks guys :)
AymanFarhat wroteLooks like the Lintop 2 can be a great choice it's size is good and the specs are great and the price is 280.00EUR which is not bad compared to this neat piece of hardware. I also liked the Lintop 3 which IMO should be used in internet cafes and some university libraries instead of spending money on powerful PCs for users just to surf the web and do some research or just search the local DB for books. very nice, now I will have to look for the screen, thanks guys :)
I think thats's a bit expensive, considering that you can get (pcandparts prices just for example purpose)
AMD Sempron LE-1150 Dual Core 2.0GHz + PCChips 6100+ Board w/Vga+Sound+Lan+SATA+PCIe $84.00
(includes CPU)

Compact Flash 4GB - High Speed Pro $36.00
(for storage - you dont need an HD)

And just for information:
CTX PV7931T 17"LCD Touch Screen $333.00
(too big for you, but that's just to give you an idea of touch prices vs normal lcd prices. They seem to be roughly 3x the price of plain LCDs)


If you want to go the embedded device way, I bought a book a long time ago (5 years?), with the title "Building Embedded Linux Systems" (O'Reilly). I never got into it although I wanted to. I will be glad to assist if you want to :)

Here are some links taken from the book which might interest you. The book is old as I said above, so it might be outdated, and I am not checking the links, but here they are:
alllinuxdevices.com
embedded-linux.de
linux-automation.de
linuxdevices.com
tldp.org
siliconpenguin.com
ucdot.org
busybox linux


Magazines
embedded.org/mag.html

Organisations
embedded-linux.org
emblix.org


Hardware projects
freeio.org
lart.tudelft.nl
azpower.com/mylinux
opencores.org
imputer.org
tuxscreen.net
uclinux.org

Java
blackdown.org

If you want a copy of the book, please let me know!
@rolf, thanks a bunch man, really appreciated, I will surely contact you in case I needed a copy of the book, or any help, thank you very much for all your help :)
Hey ayman, why would you actually need the touch screen for testing anyway?
If you just make sure your designing guide lines respect a few rules, you'll be good to go on deploying on touch screens.
I've had flash websites behave correctly on touch screens without even designing them to do so in the first place.
I prefer the thrift business decisions :)
I agree with you arithma, I will start brainstorming and designing the program for now and after I finish I will later check it out it on a touch screen and then try to find a solution for the hardware :)