WinCC Flexible Runtime without keyboard

Sparkz

Member
Join Date
Mar 2006
Location
Tessenderlo
Posts
250
Hi all,

Just bought an affordable 10" touchscreen LCD monitor... so I'm trying to get rid of both the mouse and the keyboard.

There's a problem when I remove the keyboard from the PC: If the keyboard is removed BEFORE the PC is powered up, I get the following WinCC Flexible Runtime pop up:
The driver "fwkbdrtm" could not be loaded.
The application will be terminated. ...Runtime simply won't start...

WinCC Flex Runtime runs just fine without a keyboard if I wait until Windows XP is properly started before removing the kbd. But this is not really what I had in mind when switching to a touchscreen monitor, the PC, only running WinCC Runtime, should run without the need of a keyboard, at any time.

So, I'm guessing it's a Windows issue rather than a WinCC problem?

Any suggestions?
 
With the touchscreen, maybe there was a driver disk to let the touch screen substitute the normal keyboard end mouse ?
I am guessing that if you load these drivers, WinCC Flex will think that there is a keyboard.
Just a guess.
 
JesperMP said:
With the touchscreen, maybe there was a driver disk to let the touch screen substitute the normal keyboard end mouse ?
I am guessing that if you load these drivers, WinCC Flex will think that there is a keyboard.
Just a guess.

I have used a number of touch panels from Hope Industrial Systems (very nice by the way ) , and they come with a driver that needs to be installed for the keyboard and mouse (USB) functions of the touch panel .
 
Hi Jesper, 10BaseT,

Yep, the touchscreen USB driver is properly installed, and the touchscreen works like a dream. I can use it along with the 'normal' mouse or without. In fact, I can use the on screen keyboard if I should need to enter some data.

It's just that I don't need to enter any characters or digits. I only use buttons and pull down menus, so there's absolutely no need for a kbd. I would really like to get rid of the keyboard to get a clean, tidy & most of all small setup.
 
Can't you change the device to a touch only device , then it won't load up the drivers for a keyboard ? one of the box PC 670 range should do it .
 
JesperMP said:
Maybe you can hide the keyboard somewhere
...Or fold it and put it in the CD tray...

No seriously, the funny thing of it is, you can disconnect the keyboard after Windows startup without any issues, but not before.

I'll try to disconnect the kbd and remove the standard Windows XP keyboard driver. Then recompile the WinCC project with the keyboard disconnected...

I'll keep you posted!
 
I wouldn't do that !
I would migrate the project to a non KBD device from the library , I would have thought that 12" was the smallest though .

If you unplug the hard keyboard and start windows , can you use the on screen keyboard to opertae other windows applications without manually starting the driver ? there is normally a little "on top" icon . Flex is definitely looking for the presence of a driver , when you auto start the application , are you sure that the touch panel keyboard driver is loading first ?
 
10BaseT. said:
Can't you change the device to a touch only device , then it won't load up the drivers for a keyboard ? one of the box PC 670 range should do it .
Well, The touchscreen comes with just a sort of mouse driver, so there's no keyboard driver available for the touchscreen. WinCC allows you to use an on screen keyboard and use whatever pointing device to enter any character by pointing out the wanted character and then clicking it.

That's what I did during a test drive...
 
10BaseT. said:
I wouldn't do that !
I would migrate the project to a non KBD device from the library , I would have thought that 12" was the smallest though .

If you unplug the hard keyboard and start windows , can you use the on screen keyboard to opertae other windows applications without manually starting the driver ? there is normally a little "on top" icon . Flex is definitely looking for the presence of a driver , when you auto start the application , are you sure that the touch panel keyboard driver is loading first ?
Oops, missed this post!

No, I can not use the touchscreen as a keyboard. edit: (check post #9)

The WinCC Runtime application is started by putting it in the 'Startup' directory. The touchscreen driver is located in the registry. So I'm pretty sure the touchscreen 'mouse' driver is loaded before the WinCC application starts. But maybe I'm missing something?
 
I don't know if this will help but I am using a Siemens Box PC627 with a touchscreen and no keyboard. Everything works the same with or without a keyboard. I have never had to load any drives to get Flexible to work. You may want to look in the bios of the computer. I do see a setting for not posting errors if the keyboard is not installed. Maybe the computer is telling windows there is no keyboard and this error is showing up in Flex.
 
CharlesM said:
I don't know if this will help but I am using a Siemens Box PC627 with a touchscreen and no keyboard. Everything works the same with or without a keyboard. I have never had to load any drives to get Flexible to work. You may want to look in the bios of the computer. I do see a setting for not posting errors if the keyboard is not installed. Maybe the computer is telling windows there is no keyboard and this error is showing up in Flex.

But there is a virtual keyboard though - you can use it for various windows functions as a touch popup keyboard
 
see the problem now - you aren't loading any keyboard drivers for the touch panel , windows reports that there was noy KB present at boot , and flex falls over - suggest you change the device to no Keyboard , touch only as before .
 
10BaseT. said:
see the problem now - you aren't loading any keyboard drivers for the touch panel , windows reports that there was noy KB present at boot , and flex falls over -
Exactly!

10BaseT. said:
suggest you change the device to no Keyboard , touch only as before .
How do I manage that? Do I make a TP270 project for example? Does WinCC Flex make a Runtime application for the TP270 that I can run on any PC?
 
CharlesM said:
... You may want to look in the bios of the computer. I do see a setting for not posting errors if the keyboard is not installed. Maybe the computer is telling windows there is no keyboard and this error is showing up in Flex.
Well, I did disable the 'report keyboard error' in the BIOS. But apparently it's Windows that tells WinCC Runtime it's ok to run without a kbd, IF and ONLY IF the kbd is disconnected AFTER Windows startup.

Tnx anyway, Charles...
 
Last edited:

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