What is the point of adding a touch screen?  

RE: What is the point of adding a touch screen?

I've seen touch screens for the OctoPi which look cool and can be useful if your computer isn't near your printer.  I haven't seen (but I'm still new t this) touchscreens for the Einsy.

RE: What is the point of adding a touch screen?

I've always been pleased with the interface on the Mk3, go so far as replacing the small dial with a big chunky faucet-style spinner. I find the degree of control and variable sensitivity to my liking. Spin slow for gradual changes, spin fast for large changes.

I purchased an Artillery Sidewinder X1 with a nice touch screen in March at the start of the COVID push and put it to work immediately. There was no gradual learning experience, and everything was about cranking out as much quality as quickly as possible. The touch screen drove me absolutely nuts. It's gorgeous, a multi-color affair with big colorful buttons, but those buttons have to be big enough to touch reliably which limits the display to roughly 6 at any one time. This makes things like movement very cumbersome, having to select an increment (1mm, 10mm) 1st, then an axis up or down button. No rapid spinning to a set value then leaving the printer to move at its own pace. Even the information display was limited to a few less-than-helpful icons and temps. I found the dated Prusa 4x20 character display much more informative. 

I was delighted to spot TH3D's LCD replacement for the Sidewinder. Ordered it, tweaked Marlin 2.0 to my needs and happily removed the touch screen and am using a very dated looking but precise 128x64 dot matrix LCD to display character information and a few icons. I have scrolling long filenames, variable spin sensitivity, print time remaining and other information available now. I've seen compromise displays offering a big colorful touch interface, with the ability to switch over to traditional Marlin knob-driven functions. If Prusa ever decides to switch, I hope they go that route.

My personal opinion about touch screen displays is that they're much like the colorful, mouse-driven displays that came in for computers in the 90's. They slow you down, isolate you from essential information, but dammit they look pretty so will likely dominate. I wouldn't mind an off-board GUI display, and use Octoprint with Printdroid for this exact purpose, but on the printer itself, I want absolute control with a knob.

RE: What is the point of adding a touch screen?

Posted by: @bobstro

I've always been pleased with the interface on the Mk3, go so far as replacing the small dial with a big chunky faucet-style spinner. I find the degree of control and variable sensitivity to my liking. Spin slow for gradual changes, spin fast for large changes.

I purchased an Artillery Sidewinder X1 with a nice touch screen in March at the start of the COVID push and put it to work immediately. There was no gradual learning experience, and everything was about cranking out as much quality as quickly as possible. The touch screen drove me absolutely nuts. It's gorgeous, a multi-color affair with big colorful buttons, but those buttons have to be big enough to touch reliably which limits the display to roughly 6 at any one time. This makes things like movement very cumbersome, having to select an increment (1mm, 10mm) 1st, then an axis up or down button. No rapid spinning to a set value then leaving the printer to move at its own pace. Even the information display was limited to a few less-than-helpful icons and temps. I found the dated Prusa 4x20 character display much more informative. 

I was delighted to spot TH3D's LCD replacement for the Sidewinder. Ordered it, tweaked Marlin 2.0 to my needs and happily removed the touch screen and am using a very dated looking but precise 128x64 dot matrix LCD to display character information and a few icons. I have scrolling long filenames, variable spin sensitivity, print time remaining and other information available now. I've seen compromise displays offering a big colorful touch interface, with the ability to switch over to traditional Marlin knob-driven functions. If Prusa ever decides to switch, I hope they go that route.

My personal opinion about touch screen displays is that they're much like the colorful, mouse-driven displays that came in for computers in the 90's. They slow you down, isolate you from essential information, but dammit they look pretty so will likely dominate. I wouldn't mind an off-board GUI display, and use Octoprint with Printdroid for this exact purpose, but on the printer itself, I want absolute control with a knob.

What was the screen size of  your LCD? I wonder if  7" LCD used in other printers would be good enough.

RE: What is the point of adding a touch screen?

I had my first octopi with a touch screen.  I found the computer interface more effective and have removed it.