Rugged I/O devices for remote installation

[Bart]

The company I am working for sells control and monitoring equipment for gas
wells. We are creating a new control device using an embedded PC running
Embedded XP.

The problem we are encountering is finding I/O devices that are easy to
integrate with a Windows application, yet will survive the harsh
environmental conditions (particularly temperature extremes) that will be
found at the installation sites.
The PC and the I/O devices will be housed inside a weather proof box. So
they don't have to be water proof. But the temperatures will be uncontrolled.

We were hoping to use a touch screen. But we can not find any that can take
the temperature extremes.

We could get away with a simple LCD display (either character based or
graphic) and a keypad (having only numeric keys and programmable function
keys). These would need to use standard USB or RS232 or VGA ports and come
with appropriate Windows drivers.

I was hoping someone else had faced the problem of I/O devices in an extreme
environment.

Thanks for any help.

Bart
(e-mail address removed)


Additionally, the installations run off power from solar panels and 12V
batteries. So we need devices that do not use much power.

 

[Henry Markov]

It would be helpful to know more about your requirements such as form
factor, performance, and price sensitivity however as a starting point I
would look at laptop motherboards. There are some ruggedized ones made for
military use etc. that you might be able to find.

HM

 

[KedarB [MSFT]]

From your description you seem to be targetting the Industrial automation
segement
(http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/devices/agm/industrial-controls.mspx).

A scan through the embedded partners portal
(http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/partners/default.mspx?seed=208) or similar DL's should get you more information