Introduction: Touchscreen EEE for < $50! Without Soldering!

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want a touchscreen, bluetooth, other random stuff in your eeepc but dont know how to solder and got a budget to stick to ???

ill show you how :)

cost: ~ $46.24 ( you might have some of the parts on hand)
difficulty: ( not to bad )
time: ~2hrs - 5hrs ( depending on your skill, and whether or not you already have windows installed)

result: super mega freaking awesome :D


now for the disclaimer!!
for the love of orange juice please be safe if you don't wear approved personal safety equipment (including safety glasses) while doing this you are a fool. I am not responsible for anything you do whether you set fire to yourself while grinding the metal (yes i have done this) or your pc, laptop, house, cat, girlfriend explodes as a result of making or using this. If you are stupid and kill yourself or any one else i DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT.
it will void your warranty :)

oh and the spelling and grammer? im dyslexic, no one is forcing you to read this and remember that We have a "be nice" comment policy.

Step 1: Get Yo Hack ON!!!

what your going to need.

7" USB Plug-n-Play Touch Screen Digitizer for Asus Eee PC 701 UMPC Laptops $37.50usd
Super Mini Bluetooth 2.0 Adapter Dongle $4.50usd
Super Mini Retractable Metal Stylus with Strap$1.95usd
World Smallest Transflash TF / MicroSD USB 2.0 Card Reader Keychain$2.28usd
total: $46.24*
*all prices include wold shipping, and in USD

double sided tape ( to hold the circuit board to the motherboard of the EEE) ~$2aud ( coles / safeway)

duck/duct tape to hold wires and screen in place ~ $5aud ( coles/ safeway)

oh and you will need a ASUS EEE 701, ( i have seen these go on ebay for as low as $90AUD)

windows xp ( had it left over from a pc i started, but you can be creative how you get it) free to ~$150

you yanks can get memory cheep, but we cant.
so for those of us who will need storage to put in it
here are some memory cards at a ok price. here. 8gb for about 15usd

Step 2: Its Getting Hot in Here, So Take You Case Off? Updated

follow this link to find instructions on how to disassemble your EEE pc

the reason why i link to this guide is because its very good and i couldn't do a better job.

Step 3: And So I Told It Where to Go!!!

this was the hardest and most time consuming part.
and yet ... oh so fun!

the main part to do here is find a place where you can put the controller + hub circuit board.

take a look at the pictures to get the idea, ( the notes on the images are important)

you will want to use tape to hold the wires down.

Step 4: Get Redy to Mount the Screen.

now. look close at the, notice how the orange cable comes out of one side of the screen ??
that is the "top" , so to re- the side with the cable coming out of it is the touch sensitive side.
this is very important.

now i was happily progressing thorough this hack, and the i got to the screen. and suddenly it hit me ... i had no way of mounting the screen. so like any self respecting Australian male, i used tape :)

then connect the cable from the touch panel to the extension cable from the controller

now i confess. i didnt take photos of this part,

on the screen bezel ( the part with the speaker grills that goes around the screen.) there are 4 or 5 tabs that are designed to click on to the LCD but as we have mounted another sheet of glass on top of the lcd, snap them off. or it wont close.

now close it up, just do what you did to take it apart but in reverse !

Step 5: Now Get Reddy for Con-fusion!

why do i say that ???
well you see, no matter how hard i tried i could not get it to work.
turns out that for some reason the EEE had decided to disable the web-cam port ( what our gear is now plugged into.)

so i couldn't get it to work for 3 days !!!!

so just make sure that you have turned it on, ( its under " on-board device configuration" in the bios, you get there by pressing f2 at the asus start up screen)
then save and exit, it will restart,
log in to windows.
do a little dance and proceed to the next step!

Step 6: Now for the Fun :)

the drivers that i got on the cd for some reason did not work. i have no idea why, but they didn't work, so i went out and downloaded every driver for a touch screen i could find. ( sure i could have asked DX to post me a new driver cd, and they would. but it could take 2 weeks!!)

i went through hundreds of drivers.
but i found the one that works with the touch screen i bought.

i have uploaded the correct driver and i am hosting it my self so that i can guarantee that it works and the link wont die...
All_In_One_2k_XP_Vista_5.0.1.5310_Release.rar

just run through the installer, reboot. then you will have to calibrate the touch panel.

Step 7: Its Over !

now go out there and impress the ladies with your new touchscreen, bluetooth enabled, and huge storage capacity EEE pc !!

all without touching a soldering iron ( see what i did there )



i plan to add some more pics later,

any comments on what i should add/subtract please leave them in the comments, thanks :P

luke.