For nearly two decades, resistive has been one of the world’s leading touchscreen technologies. Resistive touchscreens feature two layers of electrically resistive material that are separated by air. Tapping or touching the display interface forces the two layers to make contact, resulting in the detection of a touch command. There are several types of resistive touchscreens, however, one of which is 5-wire.
The Basics of 5-Wire Resistive Touchscreens
A 5-wire resistive touchscreen is an advanced type of resistive touchscreen that uses a specific configuration of electrodes. All resistive touchscreens contain electrodes. Electrodes, in fact, are an essential component of resistive touchscreens because they are used to detect touch commands.
5-wire resistive touchscreens contain electrodes, but the electrodes are placed around the corners of the layers. They aren’t just configured as a grid. Rather, 5-wire resistive touchscreens feature electrodes at the corner of their respective layers. This configuration allows 5-wire resistive touchscreens to offer some key advantages over other types of touchscreen technologies.
Advantages of 5-Wire Resistive Touchscreens
Why should you choose a 5-wire resistive touchscreen instead of other touchscreen technologies? All resistive touchscreens are durable, but those powered by 5-wire technology typically offer the highest level of durability. They can withstand environmental pollutants better than other types of resistive touchscreens, including their 4-wire counterparts.
For consumer applications, durability probably isn’t a concern. If you’re shopping for a touchscreen to use at your business’s workplace, though, the superior durability offered by a 5-wire resistive touchscreen may prove useful. You won’t have to worry about it about degrading or failing due to humidity or stress. Rather, a 5-wire resistive touchscreen will offer many years of reliable continual use without failure.
5-wire resistive touchscreens support all types of touch commands. Capacitive touchscreens, while popular, typically only support the use of a bare finger. If you press a non-conductive object against the display interface, it won’t register a touch command. 5-wire resistive touchscreens don’t suffer from this problem. They’ll register touch commands performed with any physical object. You can control them with a bare finger, a gloved finger, a stylus or any other object.
Finally, 5-wire resistive touchscreens are highly sensitive. In other words, you don’t have to press down hard or forcefully for them to register your touch commands. All it takes is a light-pressure touch with a physical object, at which point the 5-wire touchscreen will register your touch command.
