VDL-02 Touchscreen Cable Not Connected Randomly after Win7 upgrade on CF-31

Good morning everyone! :hi2:

I created a new acct on here because it looks like there's alot of smart people in here and alot of people have had experience with CF-31's. I've asked everyone around me including vendors and we still can't figure out what's going on. Here's our issue:

We recently upgraded our CF-31 toughbooks from Windows XP to Windows 7. We have patrol cars with VDL-02 touchscreens in the front of the car with a docking station and harness in the back trunk where the CF-31 sits. After we've upgraded the screen in the front randomly shows a cable not connected issue, could happen 5 minutes after docking or 5 hours later, it's really random.

We thought it was the touchscreen drivers but I'm leaning towards the the graphics drivers. When the issue occurs, I can see the screen flicker on the toughbook when the front VDL-02 cuts out and then it shows a generic pnp monitor in device manager. We checked the power settings to make sure it's always on. The bios is set properly to use the external monitor. We made sure to update all the drivers on the toughbook (chipset, graphics, etc...) We also tried a VGA cable with the pin removed for auto-detecting (because apparently this is an issue in win7) we also bypassed the docking station with a VGA cable. We bought the touchscreen drivers for the VDL-02 and thought it was that, but the vendor says it shouldn't be related.

One of our other patrol cars has a VDL-03 (using USB) and it's working perfectly fine with the same win7 image on the same CF-31 toughbook.

Your help is greatly appreciated

 

Welcome to the forum.

Have you tried changing the cable to the VDL-02, or are you saying that the unit had the same problem when you hooked it up with the VGA cable?

 

Hi there,

Yeah we went to our hardware vendor tried a bench setup outside of the car with new cables, new keyboard, and a power source from an outlet. So we thought it was the docking station because there's two different models in our fleet, but that wasn't it. We also found out that if you turn the brightness past a certain point it would recreate the cable not connected error. To rule out drivers we had our desktop team get the MK4 software package directly from Panasonic (which they claim is backwards compatible) and tried that, it didn't work either. The silly thing is while we were at that vendor they had another clients computer that was the exact same model and we tried on the same setup and it worked fine. We're totally flabbergasted.

 

Have you had any resolution to this issue? We are having a very similar issue in our Water Patrol boats and have spent hundreds of man hours already trying to figure this out. We replaced all the cables, swapped out docks, swapped Toughbooks from a similar setup that was working and the problem stayed. The only thing we have seen that will reduce the frequency of this happening is turning down the brightness on the external touchscreen monitor. We have the CF-VDL03U's touchscreens in our boats with CF-31WBNEHLM's (MK-4) and use both the Gamber-Johnson and Panasonic docks.

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

Nope, never figured it out. The thing is we do have a lot of smart members here but no one with this type of setup or as new as yours. Maybe later on someone will come up with something.

 

I guess we will have to call our Panasonic rep and see if we can get any resolution there. If not, we may just end up replacing the whole setup with a touchpad or something less involved.

 

If Rob (Rugged depot) was here I know he could help you. Let us know if you get it figured out.

 

A wild guess, but perhaps the power supply to the external monitor is not providing enough amperage/watts. Those external monitors have multiple CFL tubes to get bright, which likely draws alot of power. Try powering it with an older 8-amp adapter.

 

We are experiencing this exact issue with our Toughbook CF-31's running Windows 7, but not with a slightly older rev of the CF-31's running Windows XP. We have the VDL-02 in the front of the patrol cars and we are finding that when we put in the "new" CF-31's with Windows 7 (using all the latest drivers from Panasonic and Microsoft), the video blanks out with the Cable disconnected message. It's very random...it may do this constantly or not at all for hours. Very odd. When we pull that device out and put in a CF-31 (slightly older revision), the video connection is rock solid reliable. We have also reproduced the entire setup on a bench test but couldn't reproduce the problem. Based on the experiences that everyone has shared, it seems our best bet may be to spend the money to retrofit a front-mount and get rid of the VLD-02 entirely and if there are vehicles where that's not possible, then to try the VDL-03 option (USB).

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

I think maybe it is time to let Panasonic know about this problem. I would contact them ASAP. I bet they are a lot more than just you guys having this problem. I have a few friends that are RCMP officers and I will check and see what kind of setup they have in there cars and SUV's.

 

Wild guess....
It may have to do with the power management in Win7....Either Microsofts' or Panasonics'...

Was the Win7 installs a recovery disk or a generic disk?
If it's a generic disk, then it's a probably a Microsoft setting..
I would uninstall the Panasonic power management driver and see what happens..

 

Anyone tried these:

Isolated Power Adapter—Model PA1540I-3486

We are going to get one to try out for 30 days to see if this resolves our issues. I will post our results once I get them in and tested. It might take a few weeks though.

 

This reads as a wire size/run issue. The unit (VDL02) draws 50W......another place in the users guide it says DC Current Draw 2.6A or more. VDL03 draws 60 W.

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/CFVDL02.PDF

Which statement was repeated in a sailboat forum. (in 2011) (With no solution stated)

BUT...here's a thought, have you tried this in XP Compatability Mode? (VDL02)

Are you seeing action with the internal heat monitoring lights? "Temperature LED Indicator"

I thought it would be fun to write about something I know nothing about for Post 2,000.

Good luck,

Jeff

 

Good catch Jeff..
What is the amp output of the power adapters?
What gauge wire at what distance between the adapter and the laptop?
What gauge wire going to the power adapter?
Every Lind adapter recommended for a CF31 is 8amp which equals 120watt..
I wonder if Win7 uses more power than Win XP?

What powers the remote screen?
Same questions about wire size and distance...

 

Minimum wire size 18 gauge....I looked it up on the Innernet (sic)
I run a lot of 12 Volt equipment (off the grid) and more 24V to reduce wire size. I have very little 12 Gauge involved. Mostly I use 10 and bigger. Stranded not solid copper.

What caught my eye was the picture of the Lind. The wire looks small but it might be the picture. It's gotta be better than a cigarette lighter plug though.

J'd

 

Our Panasonic rep came onsite today and said that this same problem described by everyone in this thread is a known issue and has been resolved previously. He named a couple of very large agencies in SoCal and I contacted them to confirm. This power supply was the solution for them (though they also replaced the power cord with 12awg at the same time). The Panasonic rep brought this power supply with him and we installed it in a vehicle. The problem has not occurred once all day and we were seeing it occurring several times in 5 to 10 minutes before. We are going to run that car around the clock through the next four days and if it indeed appears to solve the problem, then we will be ordering a bunch of them from LIND. FYI, the technical contact at the very large SoCal agency that confirmed this fixed the issue for them also mentioned that there could be multiple factors such as the age of the battery in the vehicle, the gauge and length of the power cable to the VDL-02, the other power demands within the vehicle such as radios, AC, etc....the amperage of the Alternator. While I can not dispute that, there seems to be something to this new power supply which the Panasonic rep stated was designed to solve this problem.

 

I was being nice for a change in my post above....IOW my wire sizes were MINIMAL

In "my book" 12 AWG is for running lights....o.k it will work with trailer brakes @12V.

Saving money by using smaller wire is.....well you learned what it is.

My solar batteries are connected with 0 or 00 size wire. That's $3.25 /foot .

Sounds like the Pana rep had it dialed in mostly. My advice is to live "off the grid"for a while ....you will learn a lot.

I'm glad you got it sorted.

Jeff.....PM if any questions....

 

So...What model power supply did not work?
What model power supply is the new recommended one?

Jeff, can you put electric brakes on the F350 water truck? Just a thought...

 

Oh Shawn....Jeff will get you for that one

 

I am happy to announce that the power supply that I linked to resolved our issues. Turns out the standard Lind power supply allows any noise on the input to go straight through to the output and the monitor then will flicker and turn off. This isolated ground power supply stops that from happening.

Enjoy!

 

Do you have the brand / model number of the one you are using now?