How to be able to use a touchscreen device in a glovebox
June 24, 2017 4:47 AM   Subscribe

My spouse uses a glovebox at work (this is an inert atmosphere chamber - basically an air tight space that is filled with, in this case, argon). He needs to use a touch screen inside the glove box but since he's reaching inside of it with giant butyl gloves, it doesn't work. Any ideas for a good workaround?

The usual solution when you're wearing gloves is to sew through them with conductive fiber. To maintain the anaerobic state of the glovebox, he can't do this. The box itself is vinyl. He has ports which he could run a wire through but they're all being used and they just finished troubleshooting for leaks - so if it has to be this, there will be sighing and possible gnashing of teeth.

Any ideas for a good workaround? Does a touchscreen stylus exist that has its own battery or something and thus doesn't require that it be touching a person?

He's willing to do a bit of hacking to make this work.
posted by sciencegeek to Science & Nature (18 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Stylus?
posted by gregglind at 4:59 AM on June 24, 2017


Response by poster: A stylus works on the basis of being connected to your hand. So a regular stylus wouldn't work, so far as I can tell.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:03 AM on June 24, 2017


It depends on the device. I just held my cheapo, giveaway pen stylus with inches of various materials separating it from my hand, and it still worked on my phone. I think Microsoft Surface may be a different story.
posted by beyond_pink at 5:09 AM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


Get a tablet with a resistive touch screen. It works on pressure not electricity. (And this is why it works on a cheap tablet with a cheap stylus)
posted by empath at 5:22 AM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]


Any ideas for a good workaround?

Keep the touchscreen outside the isolated chamber and have an assistant operate it.
posted by flabdablet at 5:28 AM on June 24, 2017


Response by poster: The instrument, a Denovix Ds-11-fx, has a touch screen which cannot be replaced with a resistive touch screen. The instrument needs to be inside the glovebox.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:35 AM on June 24, 2017


This may be a time where you should contact the manufacturer. I can't imagine this situation hasn't come up before for a scientific instrument company.
posted by phunniemee at 5:39 AM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]


I know touchscreens work through nitrile gloves. But I know some chemicals are only compatible with the butyl gloves, so switching May not be an option.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 5:47 AM on June 24, 2017


Response by poster: as it turns out, my spouse hadn't done his homework and it appears that the touch screen is "glove compatible" - whatever that means.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:49 AM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yeah, seconding at least trying a stylus. I too just tested my cheap stylus on a capacitive screen and with no skin contact at all (among other things I wedged it inside various objects and held my phone up to it) it certainly worked.

(On preview - it's another option anyway :-)
posted by trig at 5:52 AM on June 24, 2017


I was going to chime in and say to contact the vendor. This is precisely why good instrument companies do customer service.

As a glovebox user with medium-sized hands, I would recommend he ask them for recommendations anyway. Glovebox gloves can be *really* clunky if they aren't your exact size (and they never are!), and that's doubly true if the instrument is weirdly located (and it's a glovebox -- it almost certainly will be!). A stylus may prevent a lot of frustration.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 6:18 AM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Capacitive touchscreen engineer here.

Just for future reference, the screen needs to see something that looks like earth ground to recognize it as a touch. Positive electrical charges on the inside of the glass are attracted to your finger.

Typically you, as a large bag of water, come close enough to do this. But if you happen to be electrically isolated via a thick glove or hazmat suit...or you happen to be a robot (like one used to test touchscreens in a factory), then a conductive probe with a flat end about 8 to 14mm in diameter electrically connected to earth ground will work just fine. Most electrical outlets will have an earth ground connection in the center screw, or perhaps the frame of the glovebox is grounded for safety.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:04 AM on June 24, 2017 [23 favorites]


Wow, I've been hoping to get a UV-vis for our glovebox, and now I won't get that one!

I wouldn't rely on glove-compatible meaning glovebox-glove-compatible; most capacitive touchscreens work with nitrile gloves, but glovebox gloves are at least four or five times thicker (which will be what causes you problems, not butyl vs. nitrile), and they tend to fit almost all users poorly, so air gaps and folded-over bits of glove will be common. Sadly, it's quite possible you'll get nothing useful from the company; the number of people who need to run UV-vis anaerobically just isn't that high, and I'm betting most people buy that particular instrument as a Nanodrop alternative.

(And yeah, it's not worth swapping out the sideports - I'm assuming he's dealing with a Coy or something similar, since you describe it as vinyl - for this unless you really have to. We just had to run some new lines and it was a huge pain in the ass that did cause a leak. I'm not sure offhand whether the antechamber is grounded in a way that is accessible from the interior of the box, but if so, I wonder if you could run a line and connect a conductive probe to it, rather than connecting anything to the outlets? If it's a Coy, the frame is, of course, external and so the only grounding opportunities will be the antechamber and any lines coming in.)
posted by ubersturm at 4:04 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


The other alternative (apart from speaking to colleagues - has he consulted other inorganic chemistry labs? I assume he's a new professor?) is to contact a glovebox company directly.

This is a problem others have likely faced. It's an avoidable problem, but I doubt he is the only person to order equipment that requires a touchscreen, particularly given how much scientific equipment operates via touchscreen these days.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 5:30 PM on June 24, 2017


Response by poster: The glove box does have an electric outlet in it, so if the butyl gloves - which are apparently not as big and clunky as the butyl gloves of chemistry style glove boxes - don't fall into the category of works with this touch screen, he will be trying to connect a stylus to the ground of the outlet.
posted by sciencegeek at 7:12 PM on June 24, 2017


One note regarding relying on the outlet: make sure the setup doesn't make the outlet un-usable. Outlets are precious in a glove-box (what if you need to put in a centrifuge and a thermomixer or something in the future?), and daisy-chaining extension cords and power strips gets sketchy fast.
posted by ubersturm at 9:22 PM on June 24, 2017


Connecting something to the ground screw shouldn't get in the way. I've done it as simply as loosening the screw, wrapping two turns of the stripped end of thin non-stranded wire around the threads, then tightening it down.

If you need something that looks a bit less hacky then a terminal lug will work fine.
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:21 PM on June 25, 2017


Are there any metal casings on existing penetrations or cables inside the box? Those should be grounded, and therefore a tethered stylus could work per JoeZydeco's info upthread.
posted by a halcyon day at 1:58 PM on June 26, 2017


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