AAEON Boxer PC range

It is not surprising that the Boxer PC range from AAEON has been a cornerstone of the Impulse product range since its launch in 2004. At the time, the designers of the Japanese bullet trains needed a rugged low powered, industrial computer, and thus AAEON was commissioned to develop the now industry leading Boxer PC. Since its inception over 8 years ago, AAEON’s Boxer PC range has been expanded to over 20 systems with a wide range of specifications, designed to accommodate most industrial applications.

View entire range

What makes Boxer PCs so rugged?
The first thing you will notice about the Boxer PC is its unique aluminium “fin” style chassis. This is reminiscent of the type of heatsink found on CPUs for decades, which creates a large surface area capable of dispersing heat generated by the components within the PC. Whereas traditional PCs require a fan to cool the internal components, the fan being prone to wear and failure, AAEON’s Boxer PC does away with this as the temperature is kept under control by the natural airflow over the highly thermally conductive chassis.

The advantage of having no moving parts in a PC is that the number of failures due to wear and tear is dramatically reduced, if not eradicated completely. When combined with Solid State Storage, a type of hard drive with no mechanical parts, the Boxer PC has no moving parts at all. This creates an extremely rugged system capable of withstanding knocks and vibrations that may normally cause fans or traditional hard drives to fail.


Why should I choose a Boxer PC for my application?
For many of our customers, longevity and availability is key to deciding which products to use in their industrial applications. For this reason, alongside the Boxer PC’s rugged reliability, AAEON also ensure that all components that make up the Boxer PCs have long term availability.

The components and processors used in AAEON’s Boxer PCs, such as Intel’s Atom N270, are on long-term roadmaps, meaning supply and availability can be sustained for up to 7 years.

The Boxer PC range also has design features ideal for industrial environments. Features such as a wide DC voltage input, wide operating temperature range and industry leading certifications ensure that AAEON’s Boxer PC range is ready and capable to support your industrial computer requirements.

How flexible are AAEON’s Boxer PCs’ I/O options?
With over 20 different system specifications available in AAEON’s Boxer PC range, the I/O options are extremely varied and flexible. Many systems include isolated ports, configurable serial ports and high performance LAN interfaces as standard, with options to expand systems with extra PCI, PCI Express and Mini PCI Express slots.

If there isn't a system that meets your exact I/O requirements, you can even specify your own I/O configuration on request.

In summary

• Fanless rugged design
• The aluminium “fin” design of the boxer’s chassis enables the system to run entirely fanless, increasing its reliability and gives it the ability to be a truly rugged system.
• Long term product availability
• AAEON’s Boxer PCs are designed with long life industrial components, allowing for sustained supply and availability for as long as seven years.
• Comprehensive I/O choices
• The Boxer PC range has a wide choice of I/O options including isolated ports, configurable serial ports, high performance LAN interfaces and expansion such as PCI, PCI Express and Mini PCI Express.
• Innovative industrial features
• The Boxer PC range has design features ideal for industrial environments such as a wide DC voltage input, wide operating temperature range and industry leading certifications.

Touch Screen Technology

Does your application require a touch screen display? Unsure what type of touch screen technology to use? Impulse has created a series of resources to help explain the pros, cons and application use for each of the common touch screen technologies.

An overview of touch screen technology

View our touch screen comparison table

There are five mainstream technologies of touch screen utilised in our industrial LCD displays and Panel PCs. The most common and widely used is Resistive followed by Capacitive, Surface Acoustic Wave, Infrared and the latest Projected Capacitive (PCT).

Each type of touch screen technology has its own distinctive characteristics, some providing advantages and some limitations.

Please see below for a summary of the five key types of touch screen technology available from Impulse. Click the heading of each section to view more detailed explanations of the touch screen technology.

Resistive touch screens

Resistive touch screens offer the lowest cost type of touch screen on the market. Resistive touch screens can accept an input from almost any object, be it a bare finger, a gloved hand or even a pen.

Being so versatile, resistive based touch screens also have some disadvantages. Due to the way resistive touch screens are constructed, they are easier to scratch compared with their glass based counterparts. In addition, resistive touch screens are also affected by extreme temperatures although the latest 8-wire resistive options eliminate this problem.

Learn more about Resistive touch screens

Capacitive touch screens

Capacitive touch screens are commonly found on modern day smart phones and tablet computers. Capacitive touch screens are commonly constructed from glass and are much more resistant against scratches, abrasion and extreme temperatures. Again, capacitive touch screens have their own limitations too. Due to the way the touch sensors work, capacitive touch screens only detect touch from an organic input, such as a bare finger.

Learn more about Capacitive touch screens

SAW touch screens

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology uses ultrasonic waves that pass over the touch screen panel. When the panel is touched, a portion of the wave is absorbed. This change in the ultrasonic waves registers the position of the touch event and sends this information to the controller for processing.

Learn more about Surface Acoustic Wave touch screens

Infrared touch screens

An infrared touch screen uses an array of X-Y infrared LED and photodetector pairs around the edges of the screen to detect a disruption in the pattern of LED beams.

The LED beams cross each other in vertical and horizontal patterns. When a user touches the screen, the sensors detect an interruption in the X-Y infrared pulses enabling the controller to calculate the touch location.

Learn more about Infrared touch screens

Projected Capacitive touch screens

Traditional touch screen interfaces, such as resistive, capacitive and surface acoustic wave are surface activated. Surface activated means the user’s input needs to make physical contact with the touch interface for it to work.

Projected capacitive (PCT) touch screens do not require physical contact to operate. PCT touch screens are made up of a thin film, covered in a grid of micro-fine sensing wires.
A low voltage current is applied to the sensing wires, creating a uniform electro static field.

Learn more about Projected Capacitive touch screens 

Do you know the ADAM family?

The ADAM-6050

Advantech is a global leader in data acquisition I/O module design and manufacturing, offering complete stand-alone data acquisition modules which are broadly used in industrial applications such as facility monitoring, industrial process control and environmental monitoring.

Advantech remote I/O modules are categorised into two families, Ethernet I/O (ADAM-6000 series) and RS-485 I/O (ADAM-4000 series), further subdivided into Analog I/O and Digital I/O modules some of which support the industry-leading Modbus communication protocol.

The ADAM Remote I/O module series has been a consistent and reliable figure in the industrial automation field for almost 20 years. Whether you are implementing large or small automation systems, Advantech’s ADAM Remote I/O modules offer the cornerstone for your e-automation requirements.

The ADAM-4000 Remote I/O series

ADAM-4000 modules are the perfect choice for establishing a cost-effective remote I/O system. Customers can benefit from ADAM-4000 modules through its simple wiring - using only two wires to communicate with their controller or other RS-485 devices. ADAM-4000 modules use the EIA RS-485 communication protocol; the industry's most widely used bi-directional, balanced transmission line suitable for industrial environments.

The robust ADAM-4100 series is designed for reliable operation in harsh environments and feature a wider -40C to +85C operating temperature range, higher noise immunity with isolated input/output and a broader 10V to 48V DC power input range.

Click here to learn more about the ADAM-4000 series remote I/O

The ADAM-6000 Remote Ethernet I/O series

In the past, integrating automation and enterprise systems required changing the entire architecture of the control system. The Advantech ADAM-6000 series accomplishes this integration easily using the latest internet technology to remotely monitor device status’ more flexibly.

Industrial Ethernet is fast becoming the de facto standard in industrial networks as its open network architecture provides seamless integration between layers. This makes the ADAM-6000 series an easy choice for your automation control system as they provide the most popular and open communication interfaces available.

Click here to learn more about the ADAM-6000 series Ethernet I/O modules

Post Embedded World 2012 roundup

Embedded World Exhibition and Conference 2012 is the world’s largest international trade fair and congress event for all things embedded. From February 28th to March 1st 2012, Embedded World featured around 900 international companies, including many of Impulse’s partners, showcasing their latest products and services.

Embedded World 2012 lived up to its expectations with a wide variety of cutting edge embedded technology on show. Having visited Embedded World numerous times in the past, it certainly felt like there was an increase in visitor numbers for 2012, with many of our partners also commenting on an upsurge in visitors to their stands this year.

The Impulse team utilised some serious shoe leather in their pursuit of the latest embedded computing technology and the increased number of exhibitors and seminars certainly made for a busy few days.

Our partners showcased many of their new products and technologies, with many of them focusing on Cedar Trail based products and also a selection of very interesting rugged mobile computing products. Importantly, our team gained considerable first hand knowledge on the new products from the wide variety of technical experts that were on hand during the event.

Our marketing and technical teams are now hard at work to launch these products to the UK industrial computing market and we look forward to highlighting these in our forthcoming newsletters, blogs and press releases. You can also expect to see these products on our brand new Impulse website, which was launched just before Embedded World 2012.

For Impulse, Embedded World is not just about evaluating new products; Our management team spent time with each of our partners to help discuss our joint plans for 2012 and beyond. These talks are invaluable and further build on strong partner relationships we have built over the last 19 years of business and also allow us to provide valuable feedback to our partners from our customers.

It’s always difficult to choose one highlight from all those we experienced during the show, but the strong showing from our partners such as Advantech, AAEON, DFI, DIGI, ICOP and Winmate is always good to see. Not only were their stands chocked full of the latest products and technologies but there was a clear focus and direction on how these products fit to specific industry verticals and markets, something we are great advocates of here at Impulse.

Finally, it was interesting to see the further adoption of Intelligent Systems and the Internet of Things, with both Microsoft and Intel showcasing a number of concepts and products based on these topics. It was also good to see Impulse featured on the Microsoft stand on their Windows Embedded Silver Partner display.

Local Contact Makes a Difference

Guest Blog Post Earle Foster, VP of Sales and Marketing at Sealevel Systems

Advances in digital communications and information technology has made the world we share a smaller place. A mere 25 years ago when I first began my career in industrial electronics, the mail was the primary method of transferring information such as purchase orders, technical manuals, and any other written information. Engineers usually searched for products using industry magazines and vendor catalogs. Product distributors were primarily valuable in the logistics of moving products from the manufacturer to the customer.

Everything changed of course with the advent of email and the internet. Today we live in an age where customers expect immediate response to their requests, and manufacturers must find a way to meet these expectations if they expect to be successful. Sealevel Systems, Inc. has worked very hard to provide our customers the easy ability to access information, place orders, and receive technical support using our website and other assets. However, even in this digital age, our most important asset is the people that make up our team.

A critical component of the Sealevel team is our network of international distributors we call SeaPartners. One of our longest standing and most successful SeaPartners is Impulse Corporation in the United Kingdom. The team at Impulse is well trained on Sealevel products and does a fantastic job of taking care of our customers in the U.K. with support and services that cannot be replaced by a website or an email. It has been my pleasure to see Impulse continue to grow successfully while we have worked together, and we the value they add to Sealevel’s products and support for our customers.

Sealevel Partner Page

Discover our Live Chat system

On the 14th of February we launched our brand new website, and with it a number of new features to make it easier to find and obtain information about your product quickly and easily.

We appreciate it’s not always possible for you to pick up the phone, or spend time writing an email, just for a simple queston or enquiry. To help with this, we have introduced a new Live Chat function allowing you to get in contact with our sales team quickly to get answers to any enquires you may have.

What is Live Chat?

Live Chat is a system whereby you can talk to one of our technical sales team without having to wait for an email response. By typing messages, which will be responded to straight away by our technical team, you can get the answers you need quickly.

How do I use Live Chat?

The Live Chat system works in a similar way to most instant messaging services you may have used in the past. To start a discussion, simply click on the “Click here for live chat” button located at the lower left hand side of your screen. Select your enquiry type, enter your name and email address, and click Start Chat. Our team of technical sales staff will be alerted and will respond to your chat request as quickly as possible. You can then ask any questions and receive an instant answer.

Frequently asked questions:

Q. Do I need special software to use Live Chat?
A. No. Our Live Chat system will work on most Javascript enabled web browsers.

Q. What can I chat about, using this system?
A. The Live Chat service is ideal for receiving quick answers to basic technical and sales questions. If the discussion progresses to a point where more details is required, your Live Chat operator will be more than happy to take down your details and contact you at a convenient time.

Q. Can I request a copy of the discussion?
A. Yes. At the end of a discussion you have the option to email yourself a copy of the transcript.

Q. When is Live Chat available?
A. Live Chat is available during our standard business hours:

Monday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Tuesday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Wednesday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Thursday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Friday: 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: CLOSED

Q. Where can I send feedback?
A. Once you have ended your chat, you have the ability to submit feedback about your experience. If your feedback is a little more in-depth, feel free to get in touch via our contact page.

Looking for a reason to try new hardware? Experience the benefits of SSDs

Like you, we are constantly adapting our hardware and technology to keep at the forefront of our industry. When new boards and systems are launched we are first to identify if it has any positive benefit in our product range. This is true also for our range of peripherals.

Up until recently, solid state storage has always been an expensive technology reserved only for high end specialist enterprise applications. More recently however, there has been a rise in the adoption of Solid State Drives in the consumer computing industry. This sudden growth in demand for Solid State Drives has moved manufacturers to produce a cost effective alternative to traditional hard drives.

What are Solid State Drives?

Unlike traditional mechanical hard drives, which are made up of a series of magnetic platters, motors and reading arms, Solid State Drives contain flash memory. Flash memory is found in a wide range of every day products including smart phones, digital cameras and USB memory sticks.

What are the benefits of Solid State Drives?

When we first looked into solid state storage technology, we quickly identified the advantage it can bring to the industrial computing market. As explained by our Technical Manager, Chris Durose, the physical properties of Solid State Drives are very desirable in our industry.

“Solid State Drives offer a number of advantages over traditional magnetic hard drives. The main benefit being that Solid State Drives have no moving parts. With no moving parts, Solid State Drives are not affected by jolts, drops and vibrations.

In addition, Solid State Drives are not affected by magnetic fields and produce very little heat. These kinds of features are desirable in the industrial market where electromagnetic interference and high environmental temperatures are common.”

Thanks to not having to rely on power hungry motors, Solid State Drives consume over 20% less energy than its mechanical counterpart and produce no sound. With no mechanical parts to fail, many of the Solid State Drive manufacturers have published MTBF figures that double that of mechanical hard drives.

In addition to its physical properties, Solid State Drives also bring a number of performance advantages. For example, operating system boot up time is approximately 1.5 times faster compared to mechanical drives. Software has been noted to load within seconds and reading and writing data can reach speeds of up to 500MB/s.

With so many benefits, as well as a lower overall total cost of ownership, it is no wonder why we are taking full advantage of Solid State Drives as a rugged and reliable alternative to mechanical hard drives.

If you would like to trial a Solid State Drive in your next embedded system or would like to know more about solid state technology, then contact our technical account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Related links
Alternative high performance storage solutions available at Impulse

Discover our system integration facility

Click to enlarge

Did you know that Impulse has a system integration facility based in Stoke-on-Trent? Our engineers take full advantage of the state-of-the-art facility when designing, building and customising industrial computer systems for our customers.

Many of our customers take advantage of our flexible build and delivery scheduling service. They rely on Impulse to ensure they receive the right hardware at the right time. With our build and delivery scheduling service we can ensure we have sufficient hardware in stock ready for testing, building and dispatching, on time and on budget.

Why do customers choose us for their industrial computing needs? Here are five reasons why:

1. Purpose built production facility based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
2. Experienced team of highly qualified engineers
3. Flexible system build and delivery scheduling service
4. Strict quality assurance and revision control policies
5. Custom Windows Embedded OS design service

Click here to find out more about our system integration facility

For more information about our system integration facility and how it can benefit you, contact our technical account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impuse-corp.co.uk.

The ARK-1120 – high performance yet compact embedded system

The ARK-1120 from Advantech

This week we launched our latest embedded PC, the ARK-1120 by Advantech. The ARK-1120 is an ultra compact embedded system powered by the popular Intel Atom N455 and includes the Intel ICH8-M chipset providing a powerful combination features and performance.

The first thing we noticed about the ARK-1120 was how small and light it was. The ARK-1120 measures in at just W133mm x H43mm x D94mm and weighs only 0.7kg. The chassis is constructed out of a rugged yet lightweight aluminium alloy featuring a series of solid fins designed to help disperse heat generated by the processor and board components. The ‘fin’ design gives the benefits of a true fan-less system without the need to rely on noisy and unreliable chassis fans. The chassis features VESA mounting holes on the underside allowing you to mount it on the back of a monitor or on a wall via a mating VESA bracket.

Although the ARK-1120 is very compact it still includes an impressive range of I/O features. As standard it has four USB2.0 ports and two RS-232 serial ports. Inside the system it features a SATA port, a CompactFlash Type I/II socket and a half size Mini PCIe socket. The Mini PCIe socket is quite a useful feature to have as it allows you to expand the system’s capabilities by including a WiFi or HSDPA/3G modem card.

The Intel Atom N455 processor is part of the embedded CPU range from Intel. Integrated into the processor for better reliability is a GPU and memory controller. The GPU is based on the Intel GMA3150 and performs at a 200MHz clock speed ensuring fast graphic performance. It features DirectX 9c and OpenGL 1.5 support and is capable of hardware accelerated MPEG-2 video playback. The integrated memory controller supports up to 2GB of DDR3 SODIMM memory and up to 384MB of this memory can be shared with the GPU through Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT). In total the Atom N455 consumes only 6.5W making it an ideal solution for high performance yet low power embedded systems.

You can view the press release here. A full specification list and datasheet can be found on the product page. For more information on the ARK-1120 you can get in contact with us on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.

Impulse launch new Industrial Ethernet Switch range

Impulse is pleased to launch the new EKI Series Industrial Ethernet Switches from Advantech. These new Industrial Ethernet Switches are designed to meet the demanding requirements of the industrial environment and come with communication standards such as Fast and Gigabit Ethernet. These Industrial Ethernet Switches are avaliable with copper and fibre optic connections.

Our new Industrial Ethernet Switch range includes:

• Managed Ethernet Switches
• Unmanaged Ethernet Switches
• IP67 Ethernet Switches
• PoE Switches

To learn more about our Advantech Ethernet Switches then contact our Technical Account team on +44 (0)1782 337 800 or alternatively email sales@impulse-corp.co.uk.