Consumer-grade and commercial displays often lack the performance and flexibility that many harsh and demanding environments require.
General Digital’s Impact Series of open frame LCD monitors is the perfect response to the need for adaptable and durable displays built for long-term use.
The Impact Series provides elegant simplicity, modular adaptability and cost sensitivity.
Key Features
We work with you to configure and build your Impact monitor kit to meet your precise needs. Furthermore, we offer a wide range of practical options for you to custom design your unit.
What truly separates our Impact Series from the rest of the crowd is its ability to provide you with the following benefits:
General Digital offers the Impact as a technology facilitator.
In its native form, it is intentionally designed as the most basic turnkey monitor General Digital produces. The Impact is comprised of the bare necessities and does not include features such as a protective enclosure, thermal management, etc.
It is intended to offer you, our OEM customers, with a low cost, turnkey product that can be easily integrated into your existing products, consoles, protective enclosures or kiosks. You may be required to contribute engineering content to your final installation to address issues of EMI, heat or safety.
Additionally, many Impact models are uniquely designed with the intent to be in compliance with FCC Class A and UL Certification, as well as to satisfy the needs of System Integrators/VARs and OEMs/End Users alike.
The Impact’s lightweight but sturdy metal mounting frame/enclosure has been optimized to reduce cost, protect the monitor’s electronics and facilitate a variety of mounting schemes. This inherent flexibility permits Integrators and VARs to quickly and easily design and manufacture their end-products around our fully functional display module.
General Digital offers a variety of optional bezels and enclosures to transform the modular Impact models into standalone, panel mount or rack mount devices.
By default, the Impact is configured to operate from +12 Vdc. Optional AC switching power supplies are available.
For applications requiring a unique power source, we optionally offer DC input and/or DC-DC converters with a wider input power range and reverse polarity.
General Digital offers a wide range of video controllers, allowing you to fine tune the display features to support your specific video requirements.
We can reprogram the video controller firmware/BIOS to support a variety of video timings and specialty needs, such as STANAG 3350 A, B and C, RS-343 and RS-170. Most of our video controllers will also support interlaced and non-interlaced analog video (Separate, Composite and Sync-On-Green) as well as live video signals such as NTSC, PAL or SECAM. Some controllers will also support HD-SDI or SD-SDI as a standard or optional feature.
Please consult a Sales Engineer to optimize your video controller selection.
General Digital can integrate virtually any LCD display size/resolution, from almost any panel manufacturer (OEM), into our enclosures. To assist in selecting the right panel for your application requirements, we have provided a list of commonly used or recommended panels for standard/low luminance, high brightness, sunlight readable and NVIS-compatible needs.
New display models are constantly being introduced to the market by the LCD manufacturers, making it extremely difficult for us to maintain a comprehensive list. For this reason, we encourage you to speak with a Sales Engineer to share your price and performance objectives, so we can assist you in making the best display selection.
Standard Displays
General Digital has provided a sample listing of some common transmissive displays that are not sunlight readable. Typically, these displays are suitable for applications that are not going to require specialty functionality, such as sunlight readability or NVIS compatibility, and for customers with cost-sensitive budgets.
Transmissive Enhanced Displays
This type of technology boosts the efficiency of the backlight’s light utilization and minimizes surface reflection of ambient light. It is a transmissive LCD module that produces high contrast images, even in bright outdoor light and direct sunlight. These displays feature a wider color reproduction range than reflective LCDs. Featuring an LED backlight, these displays consume very little power and produce very little heat, making them ideal for integration into fully sealed enclosures, which are devoid of ventilation holes and cooling fans to dissipate heat. They also provide the additional benefit of a wide operating/storage temperature (as great as -30°–85° C), so that they can endure exposure to greater internal ambient temperatures.
As a design note, we have found that these panels work best when coupled with an overlay that has an antireflective (AR) coating. Overlays that inhibit transmissivity (e.g., resistive touch screen) or have antiglare (AG) coatings will significantly reduce the panel’s performance in high ambient lighting conditions. Since transmissive displays produce greater brightness from their LED backlights than traditional transflective displays, they are regarded as a better outdoor solution, as they can generate high contrast in total darkness, in direct sunlight or on a cloudy/hazy afternoon.
GenFlective™/Transflective Displays
This type of panel incorporates a highly reflective backlight that reflects the ambient lighting back out of the display to enhance its native brightness produced by its active backlight. Like the Transmissive-Enhanced View Displays, GenFlective panels work best when coupled with an AR-coated overlay. They are least effective with overlays that retard the light transmission (e.g., resistive touch sensors) or have a matte finish.
Sunlight Readable/NVIS Compatible Displays
These displays feature a value-add backlight, typically made from high efficiency LEDs. These displays produce significant active luminance. Often, the peak luminance is limited by internal ambient temperature constraints or must be connected to an intelligent backlight controller and thermal sensor that will automatically reduce brightness/power to avoid over-temperature conditions or thermal shutdown. The high luminance output makes them ideal for use with a wide variety of overlays such as touch sensitive, EMI filters, heaters, etc.
If our stock offering does not suit your needs in terms of size, fit or function, please contact a Sales Engineer and we will work with you to configure a system to your specifications. Customers can also request that we integrate one of our many LED-based sunlight readable, NVIS or sunlight readable/NVIS enhanced displays into their product. These solutions provide many advantages, such as increased longevity, improved durability, higher brightness, lower power consumption and/or NVIS compatibility.
A myriad of display enhancements and services are available, such as:
Please consult a Sales Engineer to discuss your specific needs or ideas.
We at General Digital are completely responsible for the design and construction of our products, allowing us to maintain nearly total control of their future. To that end, we gladly offer our engineering services to customers who require special customization of our devices to meet their commercial, industrial, marine or military requirements.
Our experience supporting Department of Defense programs has taught us the value of designing products with foresight so that they can be manufactured, serviced and upgraded for many years.
Though the market introduces new innovations and product upgrades at an alarming rate, our product management team knows the importance of proactive customer notification. Thus, we can offer product adaptation with similar or equivalent performance before designs become obsolete, thereby extending the product life cycle.
Please consult a Sales Engineer for additional details.
To assist in determining your display needs, download our Impact Series Product Sampler. It will give you some ideas of what is viable, as it lists the specifications for several recently quoted or purchased configurations. Or explore our online Product Sampler to browse some popular configurations.
Also helpful in perusing the Product Sampler is the table below, which you can use to familiarize yourself with the structure of the Impact Series model number.
| Prefix | Family | Size/Resolution | Display | Video Controller | Keyboard | Enclosure | Overlay | Power Supply | Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pp | MK CM | aab | ccc(c) | ddd | ee | ff | gg | hijj | zzz |
| Note the following options for the Prefix (pp) category: | The Family category defines the base configuration, where... |
|---|---|
| s = Sunlight Readable | MK & CM = Impact |
| d = Daylight Readable | |
| n = NVIS Compatible |
Can’t find a perfect fit? Use the form below to request a display tailored to your requirements. A Sales Engineer will contact you shortly to discuss your project.
General Digital designs and manufactures scores of different monitor configurations each year, making the creation of technical documentation for each configuration impractical. We efficiently combine data into a select few documents, which answer most questions that customers typically ask. Please feel welcome to request any information not found here.
Utilities are available to all visitors, and can be used for a variety of LCD monitor applications.
User Manuals and Calibration & Setup Guides are available for customers only.
Product Drivers are available for customers only.
If you have lost the passwords provided with your product, please contact us right away.
Impact 6.5″–24.0″ Monitor Kits Data Sheet
Impact 7 with DisplayLink® Interface Flyer
Impact Solar 10.4 Control Drawing
Impact Solar 6.4 Control Drawing
Specifications subject to change without notice or obligation.
The photos below represent a small sampling of General Digital’s standard and custom Impact LCD products. They serve to illustrate the many display sizes and mechanical configurations we offer, as well as standard and custom design features, capabilities and options. Click the thumbnails to view full-size photos.
Impact 17.0
Impact Solar 15.0
Impact Solar 12.1
Impact Solar 12.1
Impact 10.4
Impact Solar 7.0
Impact Solar 7.0
Impact Solar NVIS 6.5
Watch the videos below to learn more about display services General Digital offers for most monitors, whether built by us or another manufacturer.
Unlike your phone, a display’s position cannot easily be adjusted to increase readability in direct sunlight. General Digital’s Optical Characterization Services take the guesswork out of quantifying how your display will perform under sunlight conditions. The following video explains the process in detail.
