Distec’s 10.1-inch “POS-Line IoT” touch-panel PC is built on its RPi CM3 based “Artista-Iot” board, which also drives a VideoPoster IV media player.

In February, Germany based Distec announced its Artista-IoT touchscreen controller board based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3, and has now announced a POS-Line IoT touch-panel computer built on the sandwich-style board combo. Primarily aimed at Point-of-Sale (PoS) applications, the touch-panel can also be used for HMI devices, digital whiteboard and production visualization, medical, aerospace, and signage applications.

POS-Line IoT with Artista-IoT board and Raspberry Pi CM3
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Distec is a subsidiary of German display vendor Data Display Group, which also includes UK-based Display Technology, Turkey-based Data Display, and Ronkonkoma, NY based Apollo Displays. U.S. customers can buy the system from Apollo, which also put out a YouTube video on the Artista-IoT Starter Kit (see farther below.)

 
Artista-IoT board

The 160 x 110mm Artista-IoT board is a part of Distec’s Artista TFT controller family, and is available with a Starter Kit. This includes a 10.1-inch touchscreen, which appears to be the same hardware that makes up the fully packaged new POS-Line IoT. Distec also sells a Raspbian-driven VideoPoster-IV — an HD capable network player based on the Artista IoT and Raspberry Pi CM3 (see farther below).

Two views of the Artista-IoT board
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The Artista-IoT controller board, which is also referred to as the ArtistaMedia-III Baseboard, supports any single- or dual-channel LVDS display with up to 1920 x 1200 pixels. It includes a scaler chip, and provides display functions such as DICOM pre-set, gamma correction, and color calibration.


Artista-IoT board details
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The Artista-IoT embeds the quad -Cortex-A53 Raspberry Pi CM3 with pre-installed Raspbian stack or an optional “industrial Android” build. The board also supports the first-gen, ARM11-based RPi CM1 module. Other touch panel PCs that run on the RPi CM3 include Comfile’s 7-inch ComfilePi CPi-A070WR and 10.2-inch CPi-A102WR.

Raspberry Pi CM3

The CM3 COM ships with 1GB RAM and 4GB eMMC flash. The Artista-IoT board adds to this with a microSD slot, 10/100 Ethernet port, 3x USB 2.0 host ports, and a micro-USB port for programming. It also includes an HDMI input port, audio out, and an LVDS interface with backlight control.

Other Artista-IoT features include 10x GPIO, 3x UART, 2x I2C, and an I2C and USB touch sensor interface. There’s an IR interface for a remote control, an OSD keypad interface, an RTC, and an 8-36V or 12V power supply.

 
POS-Line IoT

The POS-Line IoT is part of Distec’s PoS-Line family of touch-panel PCs, which include several models with a choice of Raspberry Pi or Intel Atom based controller boards.

Rear view of Artista-IoT Starter Kit, which appears to be identical to POS-Line IoT

The POS-Line IoT appears to be a pre-assembled version of the Artista-IoT Starter Kit, which adds a backlit, 10.1-inch PCAP multi-touch touchscreen with 1920 x 1200 resolution. The display offers 500 nits brighteness, 170-degree viewing angles, and an operating range of -20 to 70°C.



Video overview of Artista-IoT Starter Kit

The Starter Kit (and presumably the POS-Line IoT) includes an OSD board to control the brightness and contrast of the display. Cables and a micro-USB programming dongle are also available.

 
VideoPoster-IV

Like the POS-Line IoT, the VideoPoster-IV is built on the Artista-IoT board with a Raspberry Pi CM3 module. The system, which plays media from an SD card and transfers it via USB or Ethernet, is said to be “function” compatible to VideoPoster-III.

Info-beamer software running on the VideoPoster-IV signage display
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The Artista-IoT board on VideoPoster-IV has a few modifications, including 3GB RAM (presumably 2GB on the mainboard added to the CM3’s 1GB), and a wider, -20 to 80°C temperature range.

Other apparently distinct features include a motion detector and a pushbutton. There are also options including a WiFi module and an ArtistaIO board for external control of the device via buttons.

The VideoPoster-IV has its own Raspbian driven software stack, with push updates via an Artista Control Center (ACC) package, and an ftp server for pull updates. Other software includes mixed playlists with support for stills and videos in either landscape or portrait mode.

The VideoPoster-IV ships with demo software and an Artista Device Finder (ADF) configuration tool. Options include an “info-beamer” digital signage user packages (see image above).

 
Further information

The POS-Line IoT touch-panel computer, Arista IoT controller board, and VideoPoster-IV network media player are available now at undisclosed prices. More information may be found at Distec’s POS-Line IoT announcement, as well as the Artista-IoT and VideoPoster-IV product pages.