🚀 go-pugleaf

Henry <htp@mac.com> wrote:

> Greetings!

Ooo, 'eck! :-)

> Quick trip to Wacom's website leads to an Aussie distributor which sells
> said pens for $163 !!!

Sounds about par for the course.

> Can anyone suggest a way for me to verify that the tablet even works
> *before* I shell out $163 for the pen.

Not without a pen or a puck. Although, almost *any* Wacom stylus should
work with your tablet - do you know somebody close by with a Wacom ArtZ
or a larger model? Think you could borrow a pen for an hour?

> And on that note, does anyone know
> if the official pen can be replaced with something less expensive?  I
> mean, it doesn't even have a battery, so it's little more than a pretty
> pointy stick - right?

Uhh, nope. Wacom's tablets are bidirectional, and the special Wacom
stylii and pucks pick up their power from the tablet surface itself. The
tablet pulses its magnetic field once and a coil in the stylus absorbs
this and converts it into just enough of a charge that powers the
pressure sensitivity circuit in the stylus. Once charged, the stylus
determines the pressure on the tip and sends a return data pulse back to
the tablet, which then relays the stylus position and pressure level
back to the computer.


Brains

-- ---------------q-u-a-n-t-i-c-@-i-n-a-m-e-.-c-o-m------------------ --
"If there was a problem, he would just come unglued and start hollering.
 I never knew whether to spank him or fire him." -- Ed Roberts (founder
  of MITS, inventor of the Altair 8800) on former employee Bill Gates