Configuring Elo Touchscreens for Push-to-Talk (PTT) and Sustained Touch Applications

Audience: Public / Elo Customers, 911 Dispatch Centers & System Integrators

Article Type: Configuration Guide & Touch Behavior Tuning

Mission-critical environments—such as emergency 911 dispatch centers, public safety consoles, radio dispatch consoles, and industrial intercom systems—frequently utilize Push-to-Talk (PTT) applications that require sustained, continuous physical pressure on an on-screen button.

Most Elo touchscreen monitors support continuous touch-and-hold interactions; however, specific Windows OS settings and Elo touch driver parameters must be adjusted to prevent the OS or driver from triggering a right-click gesture or timing out the sustained touch event.

1. Projected Capacitive (PCAP) & Infrared (IR) Monitors

PCAP and IR touchscreens natively support continuous touch-and-hold out of the box. To optimize behavior for specialized PTT software in Windows, install the Elo Multi-Touch Driver using one of the following two deployment configurations:

• Option A: FORCEMOUSE Mode
  Installing the driver in FORCEMOUSE mode forces touch inputs to emulate standard continuous mouse button clicks, preventing Windows digitizer timeouts and disabling right-click gestures entirely.
• Option B: Digitizer Mode with "Click on Release" & "Enable Drag"
  In Elo Multi-Touch driver v7.2.1 and newer, you can retain standard Windows HID Digitizer mode while configuring Click on Release emulation with the Enable Drag option enabled to sustain the active press state.

2. IntelliTouch® (SAW) Touchscreens

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) screens include a built-in 10-second untouch timeout by default to prevent stuck touches caused by water, grease, or contaminants on the glass surface. For PTT applications requiring presses longer than 10 seconds:

1. Install the latest Elo Windows Multi-Touch Driver.
2. Open EloConfig > Properties > Advanced Settings.
3. Locate the Untouch Timeout section and increase the timeout duration:
   • Valid Time Range: 1 to 300 seconds (Default: 10 seconds).
   • Valid Distance Shift: 0 to 10 mm (Default: 3 mm).

3. AccuTouch® (Resistive) Touchscreens

AccuTouch 5-wire resistive screens also default to a 10-second untouch timeout to protect against surface pressure lock. To extend the sustained touch window on resistive displays:

1. Install the Elo Single-Touch Driver.
2. Open the Elo Touchscreen Control Panel and navigate to the Mode tab.
3. Adjust the Untouch Timeout parameter (configurable from 0 to 1200 seconds; default is 10 seconds) to match your application's longest expected transmit interval.