Ideas for an after market stylus

Hi,

I've looked around everywhere but can't see an answer for this. I have a CF-18 with a digitizer screen. I very happy with it, don't get me wrong, but was wondering if there was any after market alternative for the stylus? I mean, if there was something like a thimble with a pointy thing on it, or anything different to a 'pen', that may be a lot better experience. I never use the stylus as a pen or pencil. I use it to point at things, not write. I see it as something between the experience of a touchscreen and using a traditional 'writing' tool.

Does anyone have any ideas? I presume the digitizer must be compatible with other industry standard digitizers. Surely there must be some scope for experimentation with what is, essentially, a passive device? Or are there things out there you can buy now?

Cheers,
Andrew

 

The problem is that the digitizer model relies on a circuit built into the pen which, as far as I know, only works on Panasonic and vice versa. That's why you don't have to touch the screen; it's sensing the presence on the circuit in the stylus. That's also why physically touching it with anything but the stylus won't do any good. Short answer, I don't know of anything but that that will work.

 

Almost all tablet PC's with digitizers including Panasonic CF-18/19 use the Wacom tablet standard and use an electro magnetic stylus. So you could use styli from other tablet pc's interchangeably withoiut problems. I have never found anything that does not resemble a pen but the whole point of the tablet PC is to simulate an ink pen and paper pad for data entry so I am not sure why you would want to use any other instrument. It sounds like you should have gotten the touchscreen version which can be activated by just about any object.

 

You can use any other TabletPC stylus that uses a Wacom pen. You can also use any object if you have a passive touchscreen.

You can use SOME.. and I said SOME of the Wacom tablet pens (that are much cheaper than even the TabletPC pens) basically anything that's "Penabled" will work.

The Cross Executive pen is expensive but quite comfortable.

 

Andrew.

I’m not all that fond of my standard pen on my cf-19 or cf-18.
A larger diameter one would be more comfortable for longer term use.
I think there is some custom input devices ,used in Photoshop and maybe Cad use.
Maybe you could take yours apart and mod something up?

Alex

 

Hi,

Thanks for your views. I'm completely aware about how it works. Thanks for the info about wacom. Also, I use a digitizer because it's tougher and like the fact that you don't need to physically touch the screen (I intentionally bought it for this). I tend to use the software for maps, so I tend to do scrolling gestures quite a lot. I'll dismantle a wacom stylus that works and experiminent.

Thanks again,
Andrew

 

While they do sell after market digitizer pens I would recommend staying with the one from Panasonic... their a dime a dozen anyways (I got a box of 10 I think from Synnex for about $100 ... if you need one let me know and I might be able to ship you one for $10 (if i still have some left)... as far as the normal touchscreens are concerned (IE: CF-28/29/30) I used a 3-in-1 from Avery for a while it was a stylus, pen and pencil in one... until the eraser is gone and or i lose it entirely lol... that's the coolest feature with the CF-T5/T7/30 is that their is a tether and a spot to store the stylus W00T!