Ask the Dragon - Date has been set!

[Eight Bit]

The tip of the stylus will probably be the same as the Pandora one I reckon?
Though I use it a lot, I'm not too fond of the Pandora stylus as it's sometimes a bit sharp on one side, causing me to scratch the screen.
When I experience that I always scratch the stylus tip over my jeans to smoothen it. It helps but isn't ideal.
Does anyone have any ideas (tip) for a better stylus?

 

[Grench]

Does anyone have any ideas (tip) for a better stylus?

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/stylus-ideas.75005/page-5#post-1321375

 

[ible]

@Grench did ED ever get back to you about the design?

 

[Grench]

@Grench did ED ever get back to you about the design?

I don't recall if he even acknowledged if the RHS package made it to him. He has bigger things to be concerned with so I decided not to bug him about it.

 

[Neelix]

Hmm... not sure. English is a funny language. We say "pen input" and "stylus input" but we don't normally say "pencil input", but we could. And yes, "pencil input" did make me think of a graphite pencil (and I wondered for a moment whether a wooden pencil or a mechanical one would do more damage). But for some reason "pen input" doesn't make me imagine ink all over the screen -- my brain seems to have a separate compartment for "pen" in this context.

Oddly enough I think that's due to a tradition of calling pen- and pencil-like objects pens. Because its so rare for an English speaker to call a pen-like object a "pencil" we don't expect to hear (or read) it used to describe non-pencil objects.

-Neelix

 

[levi]

Yeah, that makes sense. There are felt tip pens, highlighter pens, fountain pens, rollerball pens, ballpoint pens (aka biros), gel pens, invisible ink pens, correction pens, quill pens, dip pens, smart pens, active pens, digital pens, 3d pens (although some of those are computer styli in disguise). Meanwhile your pencil is either mechanical or not and that's about it.

Wikipedia calls the stylus used in pottery a stylus pen on the 'pen' page, but once you click through it loses all reference to 'pens'. That linked page also covers computer styli, so they're only distinct things by 1 degree of wiki separation. To get from pencil to stylus takes three degrees of separation; the first step to 'writing implement', then 'pen', then 'stylus'.

 

[Pyramancer]

Oddly enough I think that's due to a tradition of calling pen- and pencil-like objects pens. Because its so rare for an English speaker to call a pen-like object a "pencil" we don't expect to hear (or read) it used to describe non-pencil objects.

There are the slim soldering irons called soldering pencils. But that's the only example I can think of of the use of "pencil" to mean a thin cylinder.

Edit: And also styptic pencils.

 

[Grench]

Exception:

https://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Digital-Samsung-Technology-GP-U999ERIPAAB/dp/B072N31S7C

 

[Pyramancer]

Exception:

https://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Digital-Samsung-Technology-GP-U999ERIPAAB/dp/B072N31S7C

Staggering price for that! Considering it is just a wooden pencil with a magnet in the tip, it probably costs no more to make than a regular pencil since it saves the step of putting the "lead" inside.

 

[Neelix]

Staggering price for that! Considering it is just a wooden pencil with a magnet in the tip, it probably costs no more to make than a regular pencil since it saves the step of putting the "lead" inside.

Actually, I would guess that in terms of manufacturing it's probably cheapest to modify the existing process as little as possible. as such I wouldn't be surprised if that core with the stylus tip runs the length of the pencil.

Just a thought anyway....

-Neelix

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Magnets? Is that how they work? I thought it used RF somehow.

 

[Pyramancer]

Magnets? Is that how they work? I thought it used RF somehow.

All the descriptions of the technology I have found so far are extremely hand-wavy, so I don't know. Originally I thought a magnet in the pen and an array of Hall sensors on the display. But it seems that there is maybe a magloop antenna in the pen that alternately collects energy (transmitted at radio or microwave frequencies (?) from the display) and then retransmits it to be an array of field strength sensors in the display. That would seem to require at least an inductor and a capacitor in the pen and maybe not much more. I'm curious to have a more authoritative and detailed answer!

 

[error]

Magnets? Is that how they work?

 

[TrashyMG]

Magnets? Is that how they work? I thought it used RF somehow.

On the Pandora it used one of the speakers as they have a built on magnet, the Pyra has a dedicated magnet. A Hall effect sensor is used to sense the presence of a magnetic field or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect_sensor

 

[levi]

That was in response to a brief off-topic about digitiser pens I believe. Yes, on a Pandora or a Pyra you can simulate the lid closing when it's actually open using a common all garden magnet. I think it's on the right hand side just above the keyboard on the Pandora at least.

 

[Yogendra]

The tip of the stylus will probably be the same as the Pandora one I reckon?
Though I use it a lot, I'm not too fond of the Pandora stylus as it's sometimes a bit sharp on one side, causing me to scratch the screen.
When I experience that I always scratch the stylus tip over my jeans to smoothen it. It helps but isn't ideal.
Does anyone have any ideas (tip) for a better stylus?

maybe a silicon tip stylus

 

[levi]

I assume you mean a silicone tip, which seems to be a common material for making capacitive touchscreen styli. A tip coated with silicon or silica would itself be rather scratchy - silica is the main constituent other than the paper backing in sandpaper.

But a good stylus for capacitive screens make bad styluses for resistive screens like the Pyra will have. I'll have to check if the Pyra stylus is included in the polycarbonate production runs we've seen though; I think the Pandora stylus was made out of ABS or some other soft plastic. The only danger will be that if that does get sharp on one side, or the mould line hasn't been ground out properly, I'd expect that to be hard enough to scratch the touchscreen.

 

[Grench]

I assume you mean a silicone tip, which seems to be a common material for making capacitive touchscreen styli. A tip coated with silicon or silica would itself be rather scratchy - silica is the main constituent other than the paper backing in sandpaper.

But a good stylus for capacitive screens make bad styluses for resistive screens like the Pyra will have. I'll have to check if the Pyra stylus is included in the polycarbonate production runs we've seen though; I think the Pandora stylus was made out of ABS or some other soft plastic. The only danger will be that if that does get sharp on one side, or the mould line hasn't been ground out properly, I'd expect that to be hard enough to scratch the touchscreen.

Pandora stylus was made out of the same material as the case. I rather expect it to be the same with the Pyra. So, likely pollycarbonate?

Personally I still prefer the nylon dart point that I have/had on the RHS. I'm kind of looking forward to figuring that out again on the Pyra.