pressing hard in Graffiti area? Why?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

This may apply to any Palm, but I've had a Zire 71 for about a year. It
always required more pressure in the Graffiti area than I was used to
compared to earlier non-color models that I had. I thought that was
just the way the new models were made, possibly for durability.

Well I had a chance to try other color Palms (ya I know, where have I
been and was surprised that they required a much lighter touch than
my Zire 71. So now I am wondering if there is anything I can do on my
own to try to fix this. Could it be an assembly problem and maybe
taking the unit apart and repositioning the parts of the screen may
help? Maybe the screen or digitizer part were just a bit out of spec
and I'm stuck? I am not interested in sending it back to the
manufacture at this point.

To eliminate software as a problem, I have done a hard reset and the
device works just the same (needing more pressure to write).

Thanks,
Russell

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

"Greg" <pailfaced88@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:38367466.0407092141.340dfcc0@posting.google.com...
> Russell <rwkeating-remove@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:<d-OdnaolQduKgnLd4p2dnA@comcast.com>...
> > This may apply to any Palm, but I've had a Zire 71 for about a year. It
> > always required more pressure in the Graffiti area than I was used to
> > compared to earlier non-color models that I had. I thought that was
> > just the way the new models were made, possibly for durability.
> >
> > Well I had a chance to try other color Palms (ya I know, where have I
> > been and was surprised that they required a much lighter touch than
> > my Zire 71. So now I am wondering if there is anything I can do on my
> > own to try to fix this. Could it be an assembly problem and maybe
> > taking the unit apart and repositioning the parts of the screen may
> > help? Maybe the screen or digitizer part were just a bit out of spec
> > and I'm stuck? I am not interested in sending it back to the
> > manufacture at this point.
>
> I had a similar problem with my TE. I discovered that if I put it in
> the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so that the graffiti area became
> very sensitive and worked very well. But alas it would get poor again
> when it warmed thoroughly. So I quit using the graffiti area, for the
> most part, and just used the onscreen keyboard. After a period of time
> I realized that the graffiti works much better than it used too. I
> still don't use it very often though.
>
> I do carry it in my pocket with no cover and it is quite warm most of
> the time. Since cold temperature makes it work better I surmise that
> perhaps the warm temperature of my front pants pocket makes it work
> poorer.
>
> You might try refrigerating it just to see what happens. Not a
> solution I know, but who knows, maybe you will discover a solution in
> the process.

And have one of the coolest PDAs on the block!

--
The DervMan
www.pda.dervman.com

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

>
> Your reply at first sounded funny, but in the end you've given me some
> good information to work with. Thank you!
>
> Russell

The way the entire screen works as far as I understand is this, and I
may not be correct, this is what I have read though:

The top of the screen is covered with two layers of thin clear plastic
which are both electrically conductive, or rather 'variably
resistive'. Going from left to right for instance, the bottom layer
increases its resistance. Going from top to bottom, the top layer
increases its electrical resistance. There is a very thin film of
non-conductive oil between these two conductive layers. At the point
where you press with your stylus the two layers make electrical
contanct, with a value of resistance which is the sum of the
resistances of both the top and bottom sheet, since it is simply two
resistors in series. As your stylus moves across the screen, the oil
fills in and insulates between the two layers of plastic except at the
very point where the sytlus is at the moment. The computer can
evaluate the electrical resistance and assume where the stylus has to
be at any time.

My theory was that perhaps with usage, the oil gets squeezed out of
the graffiti area to the point that perhaps it doesn't keep the two
sheets seperated well. The cold treatment may shrink the two sheets
and draw them taught, thus helping to seperate them. Or maybe the
colder oil tends to be thicker. At any rate, I never did figure out
what I could do to remedy the problem. But it seems that 'not using'
the graffiti area (use the on-screen keyboard instead) has indeed
revived my grafitti area which I now only use occasionally.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

pailfaced88@yahoo.com (Greg) wrote in news:38367466.0407092141.340dfcc0
@posting.google.com:

> I had a similar problem with my TE. I discovered that if I put it in
> the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so that the graffiti area became
> very sensitive and worked very well. But alas it would get poor again
> when it warmed thoroughly. S

An innocent question - What possessed you to put your PDA in the
refrigerator???

--
Geoff Cusick
Head of Medical Physics & Bioengineering

Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering,
UCL Hospitals NHS Trust
The Middlesex Hospital, Mortimer Street, London W1T 3AA, UK

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

>
> An innocent question - What possessed you to put your PDA in the
> refrigerator???

It seemed certain that the problem was related to hardware, not
software, so it only seemed logical to put the device under extreme
physical environments to hopefully gain insight.