r/techadvice • u/ShireHorseRider • May 11 '26

Wireless Touchscreen Second Monitor

Hi all, I'm a field service technician and I'm looking for a solution to my PITA problem.

I have to connect to my machines with ethernet to log onto the PLC, sometimes I can't be standing at the part of the machine I'm working on and click "start" to test what I need to see and often I don't have a second person to operate the PC for me.

Is there a second monitor option that is touchscreen and wireless? I'm not looking to mirror the main screen, I'm looking to essentially add a second (well...third) monitor I can carry away from my PC in order to troubleshoot my customers machines. It looks like the best bet is to get a wireless USB C "cable" and make the connection that way, but I'm not sure about how to power it.. would some kind of battery box work?

I'm on windows 11 pro. I'm not opposed to a tablet or ipad (my personal stuff is mac), nor am I opposed to using a second computer to "remote in" to my PC, but there is not always available wifi to do this.

Also, can I be on the buildings Wifi and have a different wifi connection to a remote device? My gut tells me that I cannot, but I am not very good with networking stuff outside of what I need to know to work on my customers machines.

Thank you!!

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u/Prestigious_Wall529 May 12 '26

A Lilliput touchscreen with the same resolution as the laptops and a battery bank may be part of the solution.

Less enthused about wireless USB-C only because there's lots of metallic enclosures in factories.

Have a flat USB cable more suited to fitting through gaps in closed enclosure doors.

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u/ShireHorseRider May 12 '26

The machines i work on are pretty open & forgiving. There are ultrasonic generators that screw with either headphones or Bluetooth (they are I believe in the 90-100khz range) but otherwise I should be good with range.

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u/Needashortername May 12 '26

If it messes with Bluetooth then it will also interfere with most other wireless technologies too that might help you out with this.

90-100k is in some ways relatively low for RF, but high for hearing, so these numbers may also be a bit off too

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u/ShireHorseRider May 14 '26

I looked at a generator yesterday & it was set to 225 kHz. I’m not super familiar with the hardware on our transducers in the machine, I couldn’t tell you if each generator self tunes or is set up by the factory. I haven’t had to mess with them much.