Database Users

Little quirk of the s-pen

I've noticed something interesting with the s-pen. Having used a lot of phones that had a stylus, i am using the s-pen a lot. If I'm using the phone in bed and I'm lying down with the phone held above me, when using the s-pen, the phone will respond to the pen even if it's held up to a centimetre above the screen without actually making contact.
Anyone else noticed this? Still loving the phone though. It's clearly the best device i have ever had.
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Mine doesn't do that. In fact, I can very lightly touch the screen with the stylus without it registering. I have to give it a little pressure. This is in any position. I saw a YouTube video of someone having the same effect you describe, though; I wonder if it's a stylus thing or a screen thing.

maxh said:
Mine doesn't do that. In fact, I can very lightly touch the screen with the stylus without it registering. I have to give it a little pressure. This is in any position. I saw a YouTube video of someone having the same effect you describe, though; I wonder if it's a stylus thing or a screen thing.
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Click to collapse
Same as you. I honestly wish it was a tiny bit more sensitive to be honest.
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spfraggle said:
I've noticed something interesting with the s-pen. Having used a lot of phones that had a stylus, i am using the s-pen a lot. If I'm using the phone in bed and I'm lying down with the phone held above me, when using the s-pen, the phone will respond to the pen even if it's held up to a centimetre above the screen without actually making contact.
Anyone else noticed this? Still loving the phone though. It's clearly the best device i have ever had.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's supposed to know the pen is there before it touches the screen so it can turn off the touch screen. That way your palm does not activate it.

spfraggle said:
I've noticed something interesting with the s-pen. Having used a lot of phones that had a stylus, i am using the s-pen a lot. If I'm using the phone in bed and I'm lying down with the phone held above me, when using the s-pen, the phone will respond to the pen even if it's held up to a centimetre above the screen without actually making contact.
Anyone else noticed this? Still loving the phone though. It's clearly the best device i have ever had.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've experienced that, quite a few times (makes it frustrating to play "Crayon physics"!).

spfraggle said:
I've noticed something interesting with the s-pen. Having used a lot of phones that had a stylus, i am using the s-pen a lot. If I'm using the phone in bed and I'm lying down with the phone held above me, when using the s-pen, the phone will respond to the pen even if it's held up to a centimetre above the screen without actually making contact.
Anyone else noticed this? Still loving the phone though. It's clearly the best device i have ever had.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason it is probably doing that is because of how Wacom technology is designed. To register interaction with the screen, the tip on the stylus is pressed down to make contact with the sensor inside the stylus. It then communicates with the radio inside the screen. So obviously if the stylus is held upside down, the tip will be making constant contact with the sensor. It could be that the stylus tip is slightly loose, so you should try another Wacom stylus.

cadavar said:
The reason it is probably doing that is because of how Wacom technology is designed. To register interaction with the screen, the tip on the stylus is pressed down to make contact with the sensor inside the stylus. It then communicates with the radio inside the screen. So obviously if the stylus is held upside down, the tip will be making constant contact with the sensor. It could be that the stylus tip is slightly loose, so you should try another Wacom stylus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just confirmed this on mine. I used a piece of tape to hold the tip of my stylus depressed, and that caused me to experience the issue. Looks like some people have defective stylii.

Heard about it before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VfkXo0KU5c&sns=em

Also, if you change the angle of using the pen, the ink start from higher (not from under the pen)!

zsolti256 said:
Also, if you change the angle of using the pen, the ink start from higher (not from under the pen)!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would venture a guess that this problem is the underlying issue with the minority of people who complain that the stylus is inaccurate. I wonder if it would be possible for Samsung or someone here to create a calibration function so as to adapt to how the user typically holds the stylus.
Or we could go this route...
<apple>You're holding it wrong!</apple>

I think the offset of the pen is actually purposely added to look more natural in most use-cases, but occasionally manifests itself strangely, like at strange angles. Here's the easiest way to reproduce the weirdness -
Turn off auto-rotation.
In normal portrait orientation, bring up the S-memo quick note double tap thing.
Write your name (or whatever) along the bottom of the quick note, holding the pen as you typically would. Notice how the strokes are drawn.
Without closing that note, hold the phone upside-down.
Now write the same thing you wrote before, along what is now the bottom of the note. Notice how the strokes are now drawn.
The strokes are offset in the direction that you tilt the pen (non-inverted control scheme ), but is also offset very slightly higher up the screen that the pen by default. This is so as to look more natural in normal use, because of course the pen does not actually touch the area that it is drawing on; the glass is in the way. The effect stacks somewhat strangely, however, when holding it, for example, upside-down.

theimaginaryage said:
I think the offset of the pen is actually purposely added to look more natural in most use-cases, but occasionally manifests itself strangely, like at strange angles. Here's the easiest way to reproduce the weirdness -
Turn off auto-rotation.
In normal portrait orientation, bring up the S-memo quick note double tap thing.
Write your name (or whatever) along the bottom of the quick note, holding the pen as you typically would. Notice how the strokes are drawn.
Without closing that note, hold the phone upside-down.
Now write the same thing you wrote before, along what is now the bottom of the note. Notice how the strokes are now drawn.
The strokes are offset in the direction that you tilt the pen (non-inverted control scheme ), but is also offset very slightly higher up the screen that the pen by default. This is so as to look more natural in normal use, because of course the pen does not actually touch the area that it is drawing on; the glass is in the way. The effect stacks somewhat strangely, however, when holding it, for example, upside-down.
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Click to collapse
i think i am a lucky one, i dont have this werdness at all it works the same exactly both ways.. knowing im on middle east ROM.

hazem77 said:
i think i am a lucky one, i dont have this werdness at all it works the same exactly both ways.. knowing im on middle east ROM.
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Click to collapse
Interesting! I assumed people were seeing differences just because they were using the phone in different ways, but if you still can't see it by doing this, I guess there actually is a fundamental difference in different phones.
Was there a calibration thing when we first set up the phone? I don't remember anymore. BTW, I'm on KJ4.

No, no calibration thing at the beginning. Still hoping for one.

One thing i thought i should be clear on. The stylus works perfectly fine in all other situations and it's only if the device is angled in that way the stylus behaves accordingly. Personally, it's not a problem for me. I still see this as the best device i have ever owned.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

AnandA777 said:
Or we could go this route...
<apple>You're holding it wrong!</apple>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very Clever

I still think that if the galaxy note displayed a little dot while hovering with the pen, it would be much better. With all wacom devices on windows, with a tablet or a wacom layer above a screen, the dot lets you see exactly where the next stroke will begin.
When you use a wacom pen, you don't start your next stroke based on the location of the actual pen on the screen.
Even with perfect calibration you still have the parallax effect looking through a thick glass layer. Looking even at a slightly different angle will cause the pen to be off again.
Instead, you use the dot.
Hopefully someone will be able to develop something to put a dot or a cursor of some sort on the screen.

Stylus or no stylus???

What do you guys think? Is there a good use for it? Do you use it? What are your thoughts in general.

i use a stylus once in a while, but its not what i expected originally. I had played with the digitizer stylus on the htc flyer earlier, and that was such a fantastic stylus experience, i thought i would be able to have that same level of detail, but apparently it doesnt work that way on other tablets, htc flyer has a special digitizer layer on top of the capacitive screen, that makes input form the special digitizer pen more accurate, like i can literally write chicken scratch on that thing and it is perfectly legible.
but on regular capacitive screens, the best stylus wont do much more than what your finger does. If you want to use the stylus just for swiping, and moving stuff, then it's okay i suppose, especially when its cold. But its not a handwriting replacement, or even a decent sketching tool, just a finger replacement. Regular styluses have this weird squishy foam tip also, that annoys me.

fraz82 said:
i use a stylus once in a while, but its not what i expected originally.
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Click to collapse
^^^^
This.
I have the Samsung stylus and use it all the time. To me, it's a tad more precise than my finger and it keeps the screen clean of finger prints. The only app it seems to work better than average in is the Asus notes app that's available in the dev section. Even then, it's for quick notes and phone numbers not actual writing.

I'm using one now. The biggest advantage for me is when entering text. My wife asked for one. I grabed one at Walmart, tried it out and had to get one for myself. I like it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Yep I agree with everyone above. I purchased the Jot stylus which is supposed to be one of the better ones and it was just bleh. I wanted to use my Tab for note taking and stuff and it just won't register cleanly especially if you're trying to write 'normally'. For drawing and bigger letters it's fine, but anything smaller, forget it.

spyder560 said:
Yep I agree with everyone above. I purchased the Jot stylus which is supposed to be one of the better ones and it was just bleh. I wanted to use my Tab for note taking and stuff and it just won't register cleanly especially if you're trying to write 'normally'. For drawing and bigger letters it's fine, but anything smaller, forget it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an app for that. Touchscreentune in the dev section. It helps a great deal, though it doesn't make the Tab perfect. One caveat... You need to be rooted to use it.

S pen with out touch

When i come close to a button with s pen witout hitting it. It goes on.how can i come over it...it can be cool some times. .its to sensetive
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i notice tha s pen is not calibrated, i mean it is not exactly very accurate, its about one mm above from the contact point.

Some people say that is problem from spen, not the device.

I found that when I rotate the device and let the screen face to the ground, the spen can remote control some area. I happened to found this when I lie on my bed.

Yes it happens to me too. Doodling while in bed was one of the reasons I bought the Note.. I've just ordered a new s-pen. I'll let you know if this changes the note behaviour while facing down.
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this is pen dependent: i had three notes (each of them had another display defect), and at first i thought this was device dependent, because my first one was very sensitive (as you describe it here), my second one the total opposite. my third one was something in the middle...
then i bought the pen (with holder) from amazon, and with this pen the "feeling" when writing etc. was much more perfect. because i had the second note still available i tried the new pen with it, and it behaved totally the same as nr. 3 when using the same pen.
so my conclusion is that all this is much more related to manufacturing differences of the pen, not the note.
still, a function for calibrating the pen would be very usefull...
2 additional things:
first, rumour is spread that with ICS this should get better, because ICS has native support for (inductive digitizer-, like our wacom) pens!
second: the screen is able to distinguish between hand and pen input (standard capacitive pens would act like a finger, so there wouldnt be any difference), you can see this in the service menu: dialer *#0*# where the according tests only react to finger OR pen!
why samsung didn't include this function into s-note is out of my understanding, as it would make it a lot easier to write...

I don't know if it's coincidence but this problem begins when I put a screen protector.

happy with the S-Pen, if yes explain

I am NOT very happy with my S-Pen because I have to press REALLY hard before the S-Pen touch register on the screen.
This makes the following very hard to do and not practical:
- Taking notes: kinda hard trying to take notes when I have to keep "jabbing" the screen really hard
- Drawing: forget about the pressure sensitive feature, there is only one for me --> press really hard!
I tried replacing the S-Pen (bought one from my local Fry's Electronics), no go.
How about you? Can you use the S-Pen on practical day-to-day basis...or this is just another "gimmick" for you?

I don't have to press any harder than I would with paper and a pencil. Although even now and again it will stop writing, like show a space between two lines because I didn't press hard enough. A lot of peoples are apparently too sensitive sometimes and will start to write above the screen... Samsung seems to have screwed up a few things with the note
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Looks like you have a problems with touch screen.

I try to use it. But always end up shoving it back in it's holder and just tapping out texts the old way.
Find it difficult to write with anyway, it doesn't flow naturally and seems a little behind all the time. Not got use to how fast or slow to use it.

The S pen is ok. Its not as good as I thought it was and I actually only use it to make rage comics and post them on 9gag.
Its not very useful for taking down notes on the spot
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My Problem is as follow :
There are 2 zones in my screen that don't respond to the pen at the First time,
I attached 2 screenshots showing :
The First with the blank untouchable 2 zones,
The second, is the same try, but I added some drawings later with my finger.
So this means that my screen is OK, and May be something is wrong with the S pen.
Any body experienced the same issue?
Sorry for the second screenshot, The volume bar came in
But you can clearly See the cercle with the + incidents. At the buttom zone.

Do you have a case with magnets?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

I use mine to play draw something and its great, love how accurate it is. Makes you seems like a right artist haahah

namelok said:
Do you have a case with magnets?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tell you what,
Even If I stayed a month digging, I would'nt guess!
Thank you Thank you Thank you so much.
You saved my note
The First thing I will do now, is to throw my case away, and look for a non magnetic one.
Take a look at my thread, That could interest you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620625

My S Pen works fine for writing and drawing. It's basically the same as writing with a pen for me in terms of pressure. Granted, it is thinner and a little less friction on the surface than pen and paper.
I write a lot on whiteboards for work and it is a little similar to that for me. When writing on a whiteboard, you don't anchor your hand on the surface like you would with paper.
Sometimes if I want to draw very accurately, I will anchor my writing hand on the fingers of the hand holding the phone that stick out from the right hand side. But I find writing like this slower.
I use the S Pen a lot more than I though I would before I bought it. I originally thought it would be a gimmick and just wanted the big screen, but I use it a lot for taking handwritten notes in FreeNote+ (I find this quicker than dealing with text conversion and auto-correction) and also find it a lot more accurate for drawing and photo editing.
I also find myself using it for Swype quite a lot. It's quicker than using my fingers. I think because there's less friction and you have a longer reach, so you hand doesn't actually have to move as much.
Also, the accuracy is excellent for some games like Fruit Ninja and Deer Hunter.

It works well for me. Though, need to get a bit of used to.
I use it mainly for taking notes...

I use mine when I am wearing gloves. No need to remove them.

I use it for taking notes an play DrawSomething! I love it. Everybody prases my drawings and at several iPhone players say they envy my Note and wish they had one
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

Those who enjoy using the on, do you see any issue with it? I.e. Pen not registering in screen, must press hard, etc.

Alexanderbooth said:
I use mine to play draw something and its great, love how accurate it is. Makes you seems like a right artist haahah
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Click to collapse
+1
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useful
I find the S-Pen incredibly useful whenever you want to write something down on the go.
I find it much faster to take out my phone and launch a smartly-placed app to start taking a quick note (phone number, adress, any work-related post-it...) rather than searching your pockets for something to write on and asking for a pen (though i still always carry one on me )
The trick is then to process the notes and not just leave them in that folder you never go to. Well, that just takes a little discipline.
As for good apps, i've only tried a few but i think the first important thing to look out for in such an app is it's capacity to transform you're wavery note-taking skills into a nice smooth handwritten text on the screen. The S-Memo tool does it pretty well but i would recommend something more like Papyrus (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1580716&highlight=papyrus) which has some pretty useful vector-imaging capabilities.
EDIT : I forgot to add that the s-pen is meant to work without pressure on the phone (though it still requires a minimum of contact), and works flawlessly on mine (i don't use cases or covers to protect the phone, i just take care of it.). Anyone needing to press hard on their phone for the s-pen to work has a problem, either with the phone or the pen. Consider having it checked.

I don't use it for all tasks, because that would just make things much harder. It's good for playing basic games though, like Draw Something, or just any other game where it feels better to use the S-Pen.

lanwarrior said:
Those who enjoy using the on, do you see any issue with it? I.e. Pen not registering in screen, must press hard, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't have such problem. Sometimes, I find it a bit sensitive than I had hoped.

If you have to press REALLY hard for it to register, it might be a good idea to go to a shop and test one out to see if it's the same as your unit.
Maybe try and test their S Pen with your phone to see if it's a problem with the S Pen or the screen.

I think the spen is to small for 1 handed users. But works perfectly fine for all spen activities.
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How to Adjust Your Samsung Galaxy Note's S-Pen Sensitivity for Better Touch Response

Got this Info from Google
Touchscreens are all the rage these days, and it seems that the stylus has become a relic of the past thanks to newer and better fingertip responsive smartphone displays. But when it comes to phablets like Samsung's Galaxy Note line, the added S-Pen is definitely helpful for more accurate and precise actions (and a less greasy screen).
Of course, there are disadvantages of using an S-Pen too, one being hardware issues. Unlike your finger, the S-Pen can malfunction and become a huge problem, not giving you that precision it once used to. So, if you're having problems with choppiness, light touches, or having to press hard for your pen to register, you can...
Smack It
I am a firm believer of the "if you hit it, it shall work," theory of the mid-80s. If you hit any malfunctioning device with just the right amount of force and anger, its usually fixes the problem. And that goes for the Note's S-Pen, as well.
Take the S-Pen, and slam it decently hard on a flat surface. It's that simple. Now if that doesn't work, you can take a more technically and less-forceful route to help fine tune your Samsung S-Pen...
Adjust the Potentiometer
The potentiometer is an electro-mechanical transducer that converts the movement of your stylus into electrical resistance (or something like that). Basically it's what makes your stylus work with your screen.
And guess what?
You can open up your S-Pen and adjust the meter yourself, no matter what S-Pen it is.
This will work for the Samsung Galaxy Note's, Galaxy Note II's, and Galaxy Note 10.1's S-Pen—or pretty much any other stylus with a button. This will not work on any regular conductive styluses without buttons.
You will need to take off the click button on the body of the S-Pen. You can just pop it off with a razor. And don't worry—it can be put back into place without a problem.
Once this button is off, you will have access to the potentiometer.
The potentiometer on the LEFT in the picture above and below is the one you will be adjusting.
Using a razor or small screwdriver, you can turn the potentiometer clockwise to decrease sensitivity and counter-clockwise to increase it. Test it out and see if it works to your liking, then put the button back on.
This tip could also work with a bunch of other styli with buttons, not just the Samsung branded versions, but will not work on regular conductive styli, since all that they do is simulate your fingertip.

how about potention meter in the right?
What is it function?
correct me if I'm wrong

zaydvath said:
how about potention meter in the right?
What is it function?
correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Potentiometer Click Here for more info

Interesting Tweak:good:

Thanks for this! I tested it and this has improved the pen sensitivity... though there's still lag. And according to Andreilux this has something to do with the binary of the rom. I hope developers will work out some calibration tool for the wacom drivers. I created a thread yesterday.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39712192#post39712192

Amazung
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

useful.mark

zaydvath said:
how about potention meter in the right?
What is it function?
correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These two pots look like they are in series here, which would probably make them Coarse (Left) and Fine (Right) Adjustment. However has anyone thrown a multi-meter on this to read the resistances?

Thank you so much for sharing this!

Note 3 Neo
Confirmed working on the Note 3 Neo.
Thanks.

thanks for the info ~~