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Stylus For Otterbox Defender

dhewson777

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ShortBus said:
As long as the tip is conductive it shouldn't matter.. Ure def buying the wrong stylus.. I get like 7million ohms of resistance on my stylus tip.. Therefore it works on a capacitive screen.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Just the. General discussion has piqued my interest, so I'm doing a bit of googling. The first article outlines the difference between resistive and capacitive touchscreens.

The section on the capacitive says, "Capacitive touchscreens work by sensing the conductive properties of an object, usually the skin on your fingertip. A capacitive screen on a mobile phone or smartphone usually has a glass face and doesn't rely on pressure. This makes it more responsive than a resistive screen when it comes to gestures such as swiping and pinching. Capacitive touchscreens can only be touched with a finger, and will not respond to touches with a regular stylus, gloves or most other objects."

Obviously, the "regular stylus" mentioned here are the old school type used with resistive touchscreens.

Also came across a Physics forum where a thread goes into answering this issue in great detail (and physic speak). So as you say, the object touching the screen has to essentially be conductive enough to draw a current away from the screen to register as a tap or touch. Interestingly, most common stylus' seem to do this by having conductive material (the tip and adjoining grip or shaft) that allow the current to be drawn away and through your body to ground.

I am therefore interested in the tip you have and what the exact material it is to be able to draw off that sufficiently to register?
 

wpgmini

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dhewson777 said:
Just bought a fresh Simplism Grip Touch Pen for my iPad. It is the same model I had previously. Interestingly, there is some tips/instructions listed including: "Make sure to hold silicone grip. The grip transmits small electric current in your body to the display and holding plastic part does not work."

This lines up with my experience so far. I guess there must be styli made with other material that generates its own "current"? Any stylus manufacturers out there that can comment?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

Please research before posting misinformation.

Stop this idea of current transmission. You are distorting an electrostatic field that is measured in capacitance. Not zapping the screen with your body battery or magical current generating materials. If you we're using a normal human style stylus you would observe that your body is not required. Perhaps your stylus which uses silicone(an insulator) engineered to be conductive instead of conductive foam like 90% of all the styli in the world.

Your body is conductive, that is why your finger changes the capacitance of the displays field.
I will concede your stylus may need your body's conductivity, mine does not.
 
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dhewson777

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

Please research before posting misinformation.

Stop this idea of current transmission. You are distorting an electrostatic field that is measured in capacitance. Not zapping the screen with your body battery or magical current generating materials. If you we're using a normal human style stylus you would observe that your body is not required. Perhaps your stylus which uses silicone(an insulator) engineered to be conductive instead of conductive foam like 90% of all the styli in the world.

Your body is conductive, that is why your finger changes the capacitance of the displays field.
I will concede your stylus may need your body's conductivity, mine does not.

Hey, I am trying to learn and understand. My point is to generate discussion, not bestow any knowledge of my own. The terminology may not be quite right, so cut me some slack.

I understand the disruption of the electrostatic field. I now want to know what materials are being used on different styli to enable that to happen without human intervention. And why, in every home made stylus how to, do they have a piece of wire or metal run from the conductive foam tip to an area of the stylus where you hold it. It obviously needs human intervention.

I challenge you to: a) name your stylus; b) pull it apart and have a look on the inside. I simply want to understand how it works without any human touch/intervention? I'm not convinced you know yourself.
 

wpgmini

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Hey, I am trying to learn and understand. My point is to generate discussion, not bestow any knowledge of my own. The terminology may not be quite right, so cut me some slack.

I understand the disruption of the electrostatic field. I now want to know what materials are being used on different styli to enable that to happen without human intervention. And why, in every home made stylus how to, do they have a piece of wire or metal run from the conductive foam tip to an area of the stylus where you hold it. It obviously needs human intervention.

I challenge you to: a) name your stylus; b) pull it apart and have a look on the inside. I simply want to understand how it works without any human touch/intervention? I'm not convinced you know yourself.

I am glad you are learning but keep it out of the forums.

http://www.ifaraday.com/

The Internet has a wealth of knowledge. Use google.

Here is something for you, use a sausage as a stylus. with plastic tongs.
Then you can try to figure out why it works and perhaps learn about conductivity, dielectric and the interaction of conductive materials with an electrostatic field. The human body is not the only conductive thing out there. All you need is enough conductivity to register changes in the capacitance of the the touch screen field. Cheap stylus' use the body but are horribly inaccurate, thus needing a very large surface contact area.
 

wpgmini

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Heeey my cheap Stylii work just fine the way they're suppose to lol

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Lol. No offense!!!

Just annoyed that people would argue on a forum instead of using google and saving the grief.

The world is round, but I haven't seen it myself so prove it to me. I don't understand your reasons for saying it is round, my experience feels like the world might be flat. So prove me wrong.

Where do you go from there?
 

dhewson777

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I am glad you are learning but keep it out of the forums.

http://www.ifaraday.com/

The Internet has a wealth of knowledge. Use google.

Here is something for you, use a sausage as a stylus. with plastic tongs.
Then you can try to figure out why it works and perhaps learn about conductivity, dielectric and the interaction of conductive materials with an electrostatic field. The human body is not the only conductive thing out there. All you need is enough conductivity to register changes in the capacitance of the the touch screen field. Cheap stylus' use the body but are horribly inaccurate, thus needing a very large surface contact area.

I don't know about keeping it out of a forum, as the name indicates its a place for discussion and sharing of ideas.

Google. Absolutely. It points to nearly all stylus having a contact point with the human body, and yes, they typically use conductive foam.

I've seen the iFaraday online, but they don't go into the innards of the stylus, but only talk about the special conductive material it uses for the tip. It seems to get rave reviews, and if I ever need a top notch stylus for whatever reason, I would probably splurge for one.

In regards to the large surface contact area, apparently Apple have set up the sensitivity of the screen for fingers, hence the need for stylus tips to be a certain size to create the area needed to register as a touch. They have always maintained that the iPad is designed for fingers, and not styli, some say that is why they have not produced their own stylus to sell.
 

leelai

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Lol. No offense!!!

Just annoyed that people would argue on a forum instead of using google and saving the grief.

The world is round, but I haven't seen it myself so prove it to me. I don't understand your reasons for saying it is round, my experience feels like the world might be flat. So prove me wrong.

Where do you go from there?

Interesting conversation here and is ideal for discussion in this Forum to further our knowledge of styli and how they do work.

I see no evidence of arguing....... only an enquiring mind trying to fathom the intricacies of what is involved here.

I see no reason for this post and it would point to ridicule, which we do not take kindly here in this Forum. Please take note!
 

wpgmini

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Interesting conversation here and is ideal for discussion in this Forum to further our knowledge of styli and how they do work.

I see no evidence of arguing....... only an enquiring mind trying to fathom the intricacies of what is involved here.

I see no reason for this post and it would point to ridicule, which we do not take kindly here in this Forum. Please take note!

I am grumpy by nature.

as for the stylus, i use PS and Sketch all the time and I find it to be a lot more accurate than the targus/kensington/el cheapo styli i have used in the past.

i have mine in an Otterbox Defender and I have no issues!
 

johnhunter

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Why don't you try Elago Stylus; it will definitely help you smoothly operate your iPad with the OD screen protector. You will definitely face no problems in using your iPad with this particular stylus. I speak from personal experience.
 
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