This document has been superseded by a new, cross platform, Touch over IP implementation and is kept for reference purposes only.
The new method caters for this IP functionality and more.
The UPDD API topology is documented here.
The TCP/IP interface described in the link above also provides the basis for an advanced feature Touch over IP whereby a touch device connected to one system can be used to “touch” on another system. This feature requires UPDD version 6.0.114A and above.
This document describes how you can configure UPDD V6 to allow a touch device connected to one computer to control a second.
Connecting two computers with touch over IP
- Install the UPDD software both on both computers.
- On the system with the touch hardware connected (server) set a non-default port for the driver to listen on. This step is required as when the default port is used the server only accepts connections from the local computer for security reasons. This is done by setting listeningport=nnnn in updd.ini, see below.
- On the other (client) system set the updd.ini setting host to be the IP address of the server computer and port to be the listeningport specified in 2 above.
- If using Windows Firewall open the selected port to allow the connection.
- Disable touch on the server.
- Restart the driver.
Additional information on the steps above
updd.ini is a bootstrap settings file that is used to alter the default behavior of UPDD components. By default it does not exist.
You should create and edit it using an appropriate ascii text editor.
On Windows it is held at %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\updd\updd.ini. Typically this means c:\programdata\updd\updd.ini
This folder will exist if updd is installed, but it may be hidden.
On Mac OS/X it is held at /Library/Preferences/updd/updd.ini. This folder will exist if updd is installed.
You will need root access to create or edit this file.
Example updd.ini contents for the server computer:
[updd]
listeningport=4147
Example updd.ini contents for the client computer:
[server]
host=192.168.0.88
port=4147
The address specified in host= above can be any network name or address that is usable on the client computer.
The connection can be across a WAN, in which case you will need to open a port on your router and direct it to the server.
Your network administrator should be able to do this using the information above.
Example instructions to open a Windows firewall port are shown here.
Touch cannot be disabled on the server using normal API based techniques as this will also stop touches on the client (as it is using the API).
On a Windows server you can disable the touch interface in the device manager.
Right click the entry below and select "Disable".
On a Mac server you can disable touch by opening a terminal Window and typing these commands:
upddprocesses stop –a
upddprocesses stop –g
To restart the driver on Windows open a command window with admin rights and enter the commands:
net stop updd
net start updd
To restart the driver on Mac open a terminal Window and type these commands:
sudo upddprocesses stop –d
sudo upddprocesses start –d
you will usually be prompted for your password on entering the first command.
Touch over IP example
An example use case is to use a touch screen that is incompatible at a hardware level with Mac systems (error condition when plugged into a Mac) using a Windows system as an interim bridge.
The touchscreen data connection (USB) is connected to the Windows system.
The Windows system is configured as the server.
The touch screen video connection is connected to the Mac.
The Mac system is configured as the client.
Because the UPDD touch interface in Mac is implemented in one of two client programs (UPDD Daemon and UPDD Gestures) both of which use the API, touching the screen results in touch events occurring on the Mac via one of these client programs.
At the time of writing there is no API based touch interface available on Windows so the reverse configuration is not currently possible.