Best Practices for Capacitive Touchscreen

24 Oct 2022

This article explains some of the best practices for using Juniper Systems’ capacitive touchscreen.

Touchscreen in Cold or Wet Conditions
Touchscreen Profiles
Touchscreen with Gloves
Touchscreen with Stylus
Troubleshoot Small Touchscreen Issues

Cold or Wet Conditions

A capacitive touchscreen can distinguish the conductivity of small water droplets from a fingertip or a charged stylus, but it becomes more difficult as more water accumulates on the display. This is particularly true in a saline environment (such as a coastal region with salt fog and sea spray) or when the water has a high concentration of dissolved conductive substances (such as metals in mine runoff).

To help with this,

Limit the amount of water accumulated on the display or under the surrounding bezel.
Operate the unit at an angle.
Apply a hydrophobic coating (such as Rain-X).
Wipe off the moisture occasionally.
Use the Water touchscreen profile. You may then need to disable/enable the touchscreen, sleep/resume the unit, or perform a restart to recalibrate.
On some models, you can assign a keypad button to force the touchscreen to recalibrate as needed (such as when operating conditions change).
Use a finger or soft-tipped capacitive stylus, not a hard-tipped stylus.
Use a Grounded Stylus.
If you are using a capacitive stylus, tap holding the stylus as perpendicular to the display as possible.
Use conductive gloves.
Limit software navigation and data entry to the hardware numpad or keyboard. If needed, key combinations and hot keys are available for movement and other input, even to disable the touchscreen in extreme conditions.
If you have a screen protector, try removing it then restart the unit or force recalibration.

If you are having additional problems using the touchscreen, see Touchscreen Troubleshooting.

Touchscreen Profile

Depending on the user-selected touchscreen profile, the screen uses the conductive properties of an object and the number of active touchpoints on the screen to make decisions. The Touchscreen Profile application tells the touchscreen to look for specific inputs and ignore environmental distractions.

To access the touchscreen profile for a certain device, follow the instructions in the corresponding User's Manual:

Mesa Pro	Mesa 3 Windows	Mesa 3 Android	Allegro 3
Archer 3	Mesa 2	Allegro 2	Archer 2

You can select one of the following profiles as necessary.

Finger and stylus: A general-use setting for users who toggle between finger and stylus.
Finger: A tuned setting for users who primarily use the device with their fingers.
Fine-tip stylus: A tuned setting for users who depend on a finer stylus and might rest their hand on the screen.
Glove: A setting for users who wear gloves, although not all gloves work. Capacitive touchscreens are most responsive to modified or conductive gloves.
Wet*: A water-ready setting that adjusts the screen to differentiate between a touch and a water droplet sliding down the display. This is best paired with a bare finger, fat-tip stylus, or the Juniper Systems’ grounded stylus, which is built for extremely wet, cold situations. Loading this profile tones down the sensitivity of the touchscreen to better ignore less conductive objects, such as rainwater droplets, and only watch for more highly conductive objects, such as a finger.
Wet/Finger**: Touchscreen profile for use with a finger in wet conditions with the unit held so that the water rolls off the screen.
Wet/Stylus**: Touchscreen profile for use with a fine hard-tip stylus in wet conditions with the unit held so that water rolls off the screen.

*This option is not available on the Mesa Pro.

**This option is only available on the Mesa Pro.

Using Gloves with the Capacitive Touchscreen

Capacitive touchscreens work best with bare fingers, as fingers are generally more conductive than a stylus or gloves. We provide several touch profiles to adjust the screen sensitivity for use with a capacitive stylus or gloves. In most cases, modified or special conductive gloves generally work better than regular gloves. Some examples of these gloves are listed below.

superiorglove
nanotips
Photography Gloves
Wirecutter: The Best Touchscreen Gloves
Tom's Guide: Best Touchscreen Gloves for 2021

Using a Stylus with Capacitive Touchscreen

With capacitive touchscreens, a wide-tip stylus is better than a fine-point tip stylus. A wide-tip stylus allows more contact points on the touchscreen to be activated at once, giving a better average of where exactly the tap should be located on the screen. Some fine-tip active (battery operated) styli try to compensate for this by supplying their own charge, but this does not always work.

Because some applications include small buttons and crowded UI (user interface) elements, there are ways to zoom or make the buttons larger to allow for the use of a wide-tip stylus.

Mesa 2 and Mesa 3 Windows

Select Start > Settings > System > Display.
Scroll down and select Advanced display settings.
Select Advanced sizing of text and other items.
Select Set a custom scaling level.
In the drop-down box, select or enter a value of 150 or 200 percent.
Select OK and Apply.

You might need to sign out to apply the new display scaling settings.

Select Sign out now and then sign in to the same user account. The new custom display scaling should be applied.

Archer 2 and Allegro 2

The Archer and Allegro have a hold-to-zoom feature to compensate when needed as demonstrated in the video below.

Verify a programmable button is assigned to the hold-to-zoom feature (P1 by default). If a button has not been assigned, go to Settings > Personal > Buttons and assign a button to hold-to-zoom.
Hold the assigned button.
Tap on the screen. The screen will zoom in where you tapped.
Let go of the assigned button to zoom out.

Alternative Stylus Options

Some recommended alternative stylus options are listed below.

Troubleshoot Small Touchscreen Issues

When using a capacitive touchscreen, make sure the screen is clean from all debris or other substances, including water.
Let the screen auto-rotate from portrait to landscape then back again.
Turn the device off then on to force the touchscreen to recalibrate.
When moving the unit between environmental conditions, you may need to force the capacitive touchscreen to recalibrate for use in the new conditions.

For more information, see Touchscreen Troubleshooting.