IBASE Launches the IHPC-W101 Sunlight-Readable Panel PC

By Paul Hooper, President, FORTEC US

IBASE has just launched the IHPC-W101, a 10.1-inch fanless panel PC built as an HMI for machine control, monitoring, and automation lines. Its published specifications:

• Display: 1,000 nits at 1920 x 1200, which IBASE describes as sunlight-readable, or 500 nits at 1280 x 800.
• Touch: projected capacitive (PCAP), up to 10 touch points.
• Protection: an IP65-rated front panel against dust and water.
• Platform: fanless, with TPM 2.0 hardware security and a 12 to 24 V DC input.

IBASE is one of the embedded computing manufacturers we work with, so we can supply the IHPC-W101 and integrate it into your system. It is not in our online catalog. Ask us about it, and we will check it against your application, from brightness and temperature range to the power supply.

What Makes a Display Readable in Direct Sunlight?

A display is readable in direct sunlight when its contrast holds up against the light falling on it. That depends as much on how much light the display reflects as on how bright its backlight is. In our own sunlight testing, a 600-nit bonded display showed higher contrast under direct sunlight than a 1,000-nit display with an air gap. An air gap leaves two extra glass surfaces inside the stack, and each reflects sunlight back at the viewer.

So no single nit figure makes a display sunlight readable. Four parts of the display assembly decide it: a high-brightness backlight with a special polarizer, optical bonding, anti-glare or anti-reflective cover glass, and dimming that follows the ambient light. Our posts on how bright a sunlight-readable display needs to be and how to make a TFT display readable in direct sunlight cover the panels. The cover glass choice is in designing a display operators can read all shift.

When Does a Bright Panel PC Fit Better Than a Bonded Display?

When a catalog model already meets the site’s brightness, size, and temperature range. A panel PC combines the display, touchscreen, and computer in one housing, so the integration work is done. The POS-PRO IQ 13.3 High Bright is one of many options, built on an IBASE single board computer. It is a 13.3-inch Full HD panel PC at 800 cd/m², with 10-finger PCAP touch and an IP65 front. Check the whole datasheet against the site, not just the brightness. This model operates from 0 to +50°C, so a site that drops below freezing needs a different choice.

A bonded display assembly is the better choice when the sun, the size, or the housing needs engineering. Each part is then chosen for the site:

• The backlight. Through backlight enhancement, our engineers design backlights brighter than the panel maker offers, with dimming below 1 nit.
• The bond. We bond in-house in Ronkonkoma, New York, with VacuBond® optical bonding and silicone OCA, which shows no yellowing.
• The computer and the power supply. A very bright backlight draws relatively high power, and in a sealed enclosure its heat adds to everything else inside.

Display, embedded, and power expertise sit under one roof at FORTEC, so one engineering team is accountable for the whole assembly. Our HMI displays and operator panels range covers both routes, from display kits to complete panel PCs.

Looking at the IHPC-W101 for a machine that sits in the sun? Send us where it mounts, how much direct light reaches the screen, and the temperature range it has to run in. We will tell you whether the IHPC-W101 fits as it is or whether a bonded display with an enhanced backlight is the better route, then supply and integrate whichever one it is, with the computer and power supply chosen for the enclosure.

Product photo: IBASE