enchiridion
June 27th, 2013, 10:57 PM
I wondered yesterday what was needed to make a stylus for an iphone or ipad. I have a pogo from Wacom, but anyhow I wanted to know. Google immediately gave me a few solutions, but I didn't like the copper wiring around the body etc. So I first got a aluminum tube and some conductive foam. Worked perfect, but it lacks the style.
So I started thinking and I still have a box of 10 new rapidograph bodies from way back. After a number of daft ideas I realized the rapidograph body has thread both front and back. At the back it has the red band and the end while front you need to put the pen in.
I realized I had an old Kodak slides box full of nozzles for central heating systems. They are in messing and have thread, maybe one would fit and hopefully the whole would be wide enough to put the conductive foam in.
Worked perfect 1 out of about 20 had the perfect threading, but needed some polishing. The messing head would eliminate the copper wiring and shine with the black body of the rotring. But then when shaping the conductive foam I started becoming unhappy with that. So I started looking for alternatives and found a nice one. In an old Lacie external hard disc (they keep breaking all the time) I dissambled recently to get the HDD which worked when I hooked it up on my forensic kit I found a bar of non conductive foam covered with conductive cloth. Textile. A nice titanium grey one. The problem is the cloth is glued to the foam and therefor hard to mode for now. But anyhow I assembled, tested felt how it lay in my hand and how it went in the iphone and how it went on the ipad. I'm quite happy with the result.
Of course I can get the messing better with sandpaper or turning and I will look for conductive cloth (smooth as silk) to make a nice drop shaped or nib shaped part.
Feel free to suggest alternatives, but I was pretty pleased with my first homemade pen (be it a stylus so far).
here are some pictures:
36793680
So I started thinking and I still have a box of 10 new rapidograph bodies from way back. After a number of daft ideas I realized the rapidograph body has thread both front and back. At the back it has the red band and the end while front you need to put the pen in.
I realized I had an old Kodak slides box full of nozzles for central heating systems. They are in messing and have thread, maybe one would fit and hopefully the whole would be wide enough to put the conductive foam in.
Worked perfect 1 out of about 20 had the perfect threading, but needed some polishing. The messing head would eliminate the copper wiring and shine with the black body of the rotring. But then when shaping the conductive foam I started becoming unhappy with that. So I started looking for alternatives and found a nice one. In an old Lacie external hard disc (they keep breaking all the time) I dissambled recently to get the HDD which worked when I hooked it up on my forensic kit I found a bar of non conductive foam covered with conductive cloth. Textile. A nice titanium grey one. The problem is the cloth is glued to the foam and therefor hard to mode for now. But anyhow I assembled, tested felt how it lay in my hand and how it went in the iphone and how it went on the ipad. I'm quite happy with the result.
Of course I can get the messing better with sandpaper or turning and I will look for conductive cloth (smooth as silk) to make a nice drop shaped or nib shaped part.
Feel free to suggest alternatives, but I was pretty pleased with my first homemade pen (be it a stylus so far).
here are some pictures:
36793680