EV drivers have come to expect large, beautiful, interactive touchscreens. After all, these control systems are one of the primary ways to interact with the vehicle, providing access to everything from battery performance info, to navigation maps, to audio controls and cameras.
Arc One’s touchscreen has all of the features you might expect and then some, but building a cutting-edge device designed to live outdoors came with unique challenges. What we ended up with is literally the coolest touchscreen around.
Building for the elements
We knew we wanted Arc One to have a big, bright touchscreen that was easily accessible to the driver and other passengers on board. But, as you may have experienced with your smartphone, a device that spends its life in direct sun can quickly overheat. Combined with glare, standard screens are often hard to view in direct daylight.
There are all kinds of compromises we could have made to keep the touchscreen’s temperature low. We could have shrunk the overall size at the cost of accessibility, added a visor to provide shade at the cost of viewing angle, or applied coatings to the screen at the cost of brightness. But we didn’t want to make those sacrifices.
Instead, we figured out a way to maintain the integrity of our original design and utilize liquid-cooling technology to deliver an optimal touchscreen experience.
Keeping it cool
Many pieces of machinery employ liquid-cooling technology — batteries, motors, computers — but using it for touchscreens is something of a novelty.
Because Arc One’s touchscreen is designed and manufactured in-house, our engineers were able to include channels for liquid coolant in the aluminum housing. Using a circulating pump, radiator, and fan, coolant runs through the channels, absorbing heat from the display and keeping temperatures low without sacrificing performance.
We've put our system to the test in extreme conditions — including summer heat in Arizona — to ensure its performance, functionality, and brightness under stress. Across testing, Arc One’s touchscreen stayed 50% cooler than neighboring surfaces. And, as our customers confirm, it won't burn your fingers, either.
Arc One’s touchscreen is the central hub where boaters can access critical information and perform key functions like turning the lights on and monitoring water depth. It was important to us to make this system as easy and pleasant to use as possible. We think the end product turned out pretty cool, and we’ll continue to add more features to the display with over-the-air (OTA) updates.
