Touch foil, maybe a solution ?

wibimaster

Hi !

I read all I can about touch solutions on this forum, and I see that everybody turn to IR frame because touch foil fails on metallic coat of 2-way mirror.

But I search harder because I really want a result without the 1 cm between my wood frame and the mirror…
And Airbars are too small, no 24" :/

Anyway, I change my strategy and search a 2-way mirror without metallic coat.

I thought starting with the Mirropane Chrome Spy, affordable price with delivery to France (from Germany), good reflection, low transmission to get a good result in dark room too (with high contrast MVA monitor).

But Pilkington claims that their Mirroview is made with non-metallic coat, and compatible with touch foil (and, affordable price too) :)

So, I have 2 questions :

does anybody have already tried to do a touch mirror with Mirroview and touch foil ?
does anybody have tried to build a magic mirror with Mirroview to tell me if the high transmission (26%) isn’t too high for dark room ? (even with a 3000:1 contrast screen)

I talk about the standard Mirroview, not the 50/50 that should be really “transparent” on dark room, even with a black background on MVA screen…

Thanks !

joela85

Sounds interesting, have you asked the company for a sample piece for you to try?

wibimaster

Yep, but the sample is 9x9 cm, really tiny to test a precise touch… And I didn’t buy the touch foil cuz’ I’m not sure it can work ;)

That’s why I’m ask here if anyone has tried that before :)

wibimaster

Hmpf, I don’t know which touch foil I should buy ; most of them didn’t say if it’s compatible with Raspberry PI ARM architecture…

wibimaster

Hi,

Little update, after a looooot a research, I find a touch foil that should be compatible with Raspberry Pi and its ARM architecture.

Some discussions with the seller later, I bought the XTM-24S (10 touch points, 24", side controller). The seller sent me the touch foil for 50$ + shipping (for me, in France, shipping double the price…)

I’m waiting for glass samples, and when glass + touch foil will be there, I’ll test them all and give you the results :)

FYI, touch foil is : https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/XTM-24-inch-capacitive-touch-screen_62070523970.html

One thing to note :
Touch foil contains some conductive “lines”, they can be visible on a glass, maybe not behind a mirror. I will try it.
For 32" and more, conductives lines are 10 µm ; for smaller size, lines are 15 µm.

Photo from the seller :

15 VS 10 um

joela85

Cool, I look forward to seeing how you get on with this project.

wibimaster

I received mirror samples (not the touch foil for the moment).

Tried Mirastar, MirroView, and ChromeSpy.

MirroView permit to view any colour clearly, and without metallic coat, should be compatible with touch foils. But reflection is a little poor, and in dark room, event with luminosity at 0 we can see the black screen. So, should be used for touch capacity and in very light room.
ChromeSpy has better reflection, but a little “brown”. Much better in dark room, in light room it needs a good luminosity behind. Great for white text on black screen, but not for colours.
Mirastar has the best reflection, and work really great in dark room. Like ChromeSpy, it needs a higher luminosity in light room. Great for white text on black screen, not for colours too.

So, if we really need touch capacity or colours, MirroView is the best, but a little sacrifice on reflection (not really useful as a real mirror)
If we need a better reflection, no colours behind, and no touch screen, Mirastar is the winner. Maybe need an adaptative script/screen to adjust luminosity in function of room light.
ChromeSpy is near Mirastar, let a little more colours passed, but with a little worst reflection.

pnobrega

Hum.
Glad I found your post. I was just looking for a possible solution for my magic mirror project. Initially wasn’t going to do it, but after my wife started seeing the “thing” she starts talking about being touch, bla bla. And if she likes it… Ehehe
I bought a Mirropane Chrome Spy 6 mm from Brigla and had no idea about that metallic coat thing.

Since the mirror is 60x90 and behind is a 32inch monitor, touch foil was the only solution I saw.
I was checking AliExpress, and found some that work behind 12mm glass. but now have to check that metallic coat thing.

Thanks

pnobrega

I just re read your post ansy you mentioned Pilkington said they don’t use metallic coat.
I bought a Pilkington Mirropane™ Chrome Spy from Germany, so probably the same you mentioned.
Where you got that info?

they answered me this: “the delivered Mirropane is a chrome based mirror with metallic characteristics.”

Thanks

wibimaster

@pnobrega It’s MirroView that doesn’t have metallic coat

I just received a sample of Mirrorworld Ultra Silver, I’ll post a review after some tests