Tacton Panel PC – Technical Resources

This page applies to the TC401 and TN101 model systems

Documents and Downloads

Spec Sheets: TC401 Panel PC / TN101 Display

Product Manuals: TC401 Panel PC / TN101 Display

Tacton TC401 BIOS Manual

Drivers

Drivers are provided in INF formats, allowing for either server/network deployment or installation via Device Manager. You can follow our guide here for Installing via Device Manager.

Tacton Windows 10 IoT Drivers

Tacton Windows 11 Drivers

Microcontroller

LPMCU Tool	Changelog	Link
v0.1.7	– Initial release. Tools is used to interact with the embedded microcontroller with various functionalities	Download

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Auto Power On

The Tacton TC401 is configured to turn on automatically when DC power is connected. This is useful for power outage recovery or if the unit is mounted in a hard to reach location. You can adjust Auto Power On settings by following the steps listed below.

• Note: In future revisions the name of this setting will be changed. “Auto power ON’ under the Power tab will be the new name and location.

1. Power on the system and press Del a few times to access the “Front Page” menu
2. Choose “Setup Utility”
3. Navigate to Advanced > PCH-IO Configuration

4. Locate “State After G3”
5. Change it to”s0 State” to enable Auto Power On. Set to “s5 State” to disable Auto Power On.

6. Press F10 to Save & Exit

Additional Features

Microcontroller

The Tacton platform uses an embedded low-power microcontroller unit (LPMCU) to access the DIO, brightness controls, and more. The LPMCU Command Line Tool is provided to interact with the microcontroller. You can download it from the link at the top of this page.

Ignition Sensing

Using the optional The ignition sense feature can be used to turn TC401 on and off with a battery, a vehicle’s ignition, or other variable voltage source. It can also be used in non-automotive applications using a switch instead.

The switch connects positive DC power to the IGN pin. The unit will turn on when power is applied to the IGN pin, and turn off when power is removed. These events have configurable delays.

Ignition sensing can be enabled and adjusted through LPMCU-tool. The following shows an example configuration for automotive timings. Enter each command one by one.

Command	Example	Effect
./lpmcu-tool set automotive-mode [Boolean]	./lpmcu-tool set automotive-mode true	Effect: Enables/disables automotive mode Example: Enables automotive mode
./lpmcu-tool set startup-timer [X]	./lpmcu-tool set startup-timer 10	Effect: turn on X seconds after IGN pin receives power Example: turn on 10 seconds after IGN pin receives power
./lpmcu-tool set hard-off-timer [X]	./lpmcu-tool set hard-off-timer 60	Effect:force shutdown system after X seconds (failsafe to protect battery) Example:force shutdown system after 60 seconds (failsafe to protect battery)
./lpmcu-tool set soft-off-timer [X]	./lpmcu-tool set soft-off-timer 20	Effect:shutdown X seconds after IGN pin loses power Example:shutdown 20 seconds after IGN pin loses power

Ignition sensing simulates a power button press. In Windows, the default behavior of the power button press is to put the system into Sleep mode. You will want to change that to “Shut Down” instead.

Brightness Control

The TN101 default to 100% of backlight brightness. The brightness could be adjusted down by the lpmcu-tool. On the TC401 platform, brightness is controlled by the OS.

For TC401 brightness adjustments, access the lpmcu-tool from Windows Command Prompt. For example, set the brightness to 50%:

$ lpmcu-tool.exe --port COMx set brightness 50

or, from Ubuntu Terminal, set the brightness to 50% duty.

$ chmod +x ./lpmcu-tool
$ ./lpmcu-tool --port /dev/ttyACMx set brightness 50

Proximity Sensor

The Tacton’s built-in proximity sensor inside the panel can wake up the system upon object detection with a range of 35 – 50 cm. It uses an infrared emitter (IRED) transmitter for the proximity measurement. This is a Wake event that can be configured using the LPMCU tool via the proximity-trim command:

Windows Command Prompt:

$ lpmcu-tool.exe --port COMx set proximity-trim 0

Linux Terminal:

$ chmod +x ./lpmcu-tool
$ ./lpmcu-tool --port /dev/ttyACMx set proximity-trim 0

The “proximity-trim” attribute can range from 0 to 65535 (number 0 for the furthest, and the closest distance is 65535). When fine-tuning this value, the reading varies based on the installation environment, so it is recommended to test the customer’s specific installation area.

DIO

TC401 12-Pin header provides 8-bit (4-in, 4-out) Digital Input Output (DIO) or General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) with optically isolated terminals.

The DIO is optically isolated, meaning that the terminal is separated from other motherboard features for protection. The DIO terminal requires external power from a 5~48V DC source through Pin 12 with GND to Pin 11 in order to function.

The Isolated Power Supply (ISO PSU) can be a voltage source from 5~48V to interface with external digital IO. The maximum power draw from the supply should not exceed 0.6A under normal operating conditions. Individual DOut pins will be damaged by loads in excess of 150mA. The ISO PSU must be a DC Limited Power Source (LPS) power supply.

From Windows Command Prompt:

// To read the pin state [true | false] of DI_0
$ lpmcu-tool.exe --port <PORT> get-di 0

// To set the pin state of DO_0
$ lpmcu-tool.exe --port <PORT> set-do 0 [true | false]

or, from Ubuntu Terminal:

// access the lpmcu-tool tool
$ chmod +x ./lpmcu-tool

// To read the pin state [true | false] of DI_0
$ ./lpmcu-tool --port <PORT> get-di 0

// To set the pin state of DO_0
$ ./lpmcu-tool --port <PORT> set-do 0 [true | false]

Intrusion Detection

TC401 provides intrusion detection feature which defaults to disable. DIO In0 signal is assigned for intrusion detection. To enable intrusion detection feature it is required to configure the TC401 in the BIOS setup menu as well as via LPMCU Tool.

To enable intrusion detection:

1. From BIOS Setup Utility menu > Advanced > OnLogic Feature Configuration > Intrusion Detect > Set to Enabled

2. From Windows Command Prompt, enable intrusion feature by lpmcu-tool.exe

$ lpmcu-tool.exe --port COM3 set intrusion-enable true

• or, from Ubuntu Terminal, enable intrusion feature by lpmcu-tool

$ chmod +x ./lpmcu-tool
$ ./lpmcu-tool --port /dev/ttySx set intrusion-enable true

As soon as an intrusion event is detected, the system would shut down immediately. Rebooting the system with a previous intrusion event existing, the BIOS would prompt a password dialog to clear the intrusion event (if a password has been set).

Optional: Password Setup

From BIOS Setup Utility menu > Security > Set Supervisory Password, set a password to clear the intrusion event. if no supervisory password set, the BIOS would automatically clear the intrusion event.

CAN bus

An optional CAN add-in card is available on TC401. The add-in card adds a microcontroller that can communicate with the host processor over USB. The card provides an interactive shell for configuration on a virtual COM port, and two CAN interfaces accessible through two additional virtual COM ports. It supports CAN 2.0 A/B and configurable baud rates from 100k – 1M.

To provide access to these features, the microcontroller supports a composite USB-CDC VCOM connection (VID: 0x353F, PID: 0xA103):

• Interface 0: An USB serial terminal supporting shell commands
• Interface 1: A dedicated USB serial VCAN1 interface
• Interface 2: A dedicated USB serial VCAN2 interface

$ ls /dev/serial/by-id -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100  一  dd mm:ss .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root  80  一  dd mm:ss ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  13  一  dd mm:ss usb-OnLogic_USB-CAN_500100092A0469D2-if00 -> ../../ttyACMx ---> SHELL
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  13  一  dd mm:ss usb-OnLogic_USB-CAN_500100092A0469D2-if02 -> ../../ttyACMy ---> VCAN1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  13  一  dd mm:ss usb-OnLogic_USB-CAN_500100092A0469D2-if04 -> ../../ttyACMz ---> VCAN2

The CAN add-in card has two on-board CAN 2.0 A/B interfaces. Both CAN interfaces supports configurable baud rates from 100k – 1M, and two message parsing modes:

$ sudo chmod a+rw /dev/ttyACMx
// Change the VCAN1 parser mode to 'slcan'
$ sudo echo "set can-mode VCAN1 slcan" > /dev/ttyACMx
// Change the VCAN2 parser mode to 'stdcan'
$ sudo echo "set can-mode VCAN2 stdcan" > /dev/ttyACMx
// Set the VCAN1 can-baudrate to 1000kbps
$ sudo echo "set can-baudrate VCAN1 1000" > /dev/ttyACMx

SLCAN

When in slcan parsing mode, the CAN add-in card interface can be used with linux ‘slcand’ utilities, which support SocketCan over serial. To get up and running with slcan:

$ sudo apt install can-utils net-tools

$ sudo chmod a+rw /dev/ttyACMx

// Change the VCAN1 & VCAN2 parser mode to 'slcan'
$ sudo echo "set can-mode VCAN1 slcan" > /dev/ttyACMx
$ sudo echo "set can-mode VCAN2 slcan" > /dev/ttyACMx
# s0 --- s1 --- s2 --- s3 --- s4 --- s5 --- s6 --- s7 --- s8
# 10         20         50         100      125        250      500       800       1000  Kbits/s
$ sudo slcand -o -c -s8 /dec/ttyACMy vcan1
$ sudo slcand -o -c -s8 /dec/ttyACMz vcan2

$ sudo ifconfig vcan1 up
$ sudo ifconfig vcan1 txqueuelen 1000

$ sudo ifconfig vcan2 up
$ sudo ifconfig vcan2 txqueuelen 1000

$ ifconfig
vcan1: flags=193<UP,RUNNING,NOARP>  mtu 16
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 1000  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

vcan2: flags=193<UP,RUNNING,NOARP>  mtu 16
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 1000  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Disassembly

Opening the system does not void the manufacturer’s warranty, however, some precautions are necessary to avoid damaging the unit. Damage caused while opening or modifying the system internals may not be covered by the warranty.

To open your TC401 system, follow these steps:
Tools requires: Flat-head screwdriver, Torx T8 screwdriver, P2 Phillips screwdriver

1. Remove the branding plates using a flat-head screwdriver. You may need to push the branding plates “outward” to allow them to move passed the aluminum heatsink. Repeat on both sides of the branding plates, and on both ends of the TC401 computer module.

2. You will now have access to the Torx T8 screws (part no. HWS151). Remove all x6 and lift straight up, away from the screen, to remove the computer module.

3. You will now have access to the internals of the system. Some components are installed to the Tacton’s mid-plate, such as ModBays, option CAN bus port, and the power-control board.

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Troubleshooting

Motherboard Reset (Clearing the CMOS)

If the TC401 fails to power on or is otherwise unresponsive, a CMOS/RTC reset may help. This will reset the motherboard to default settings and re-initialize low-level firmware configurations. Follow the procedure outlined below to clear the CMOS.

1. Unplug the system completely – remove power and all peripherals
2. Use a long, thin tool, such as a straightened a paperclip
3. Locate the “RTC reset” hole next to the power button
4. Using the tool/paperclip, depress the button inside for 30 seconds. You will feel a very slight “click” from the reset button.

5. Reconnect the system and turn it back on. Do not touch the system for ~2 minutes. It may reboot several times while it reconfigures the CMOS.
6. If successful, the unit should boot back up and run normally. The BIOS settings will also return to their default values. If the unit is still not responsive, reboot it one more time and then contact OnLogic Tech Support.