| re: -1 -< DIGITIZER TABLET >-
> Is there anyone having experience with a digitizer (tablet with
> pencil preferably) on an AMIGA.
> 1. Who are the vendors
Yeah. As far as I know, there is only one- the EASYL, from Anakin Research.
> 2. What does it typically cost
There are three versions, one for each of the Amiga models. I bought the
Amy 1000 version at Memory Location for $399, which was $100 off the "list".
When I upgraded to a 2000, I contacted Anakin to see if they would send
me an "upgrade", for less than the price of a new pad. I think the new pad
is in the $500-600 range, but that's "list", so I'm not sure what you
can get it for.
Upgrading (an internal card and software) cost $175 plus shipping and
customs (from Canada).
> 3. By what sotfware is it suported. ( DPAINT ??)
The EASYL comes with a "paint" program which I've never used, because I
wanted it to run with DPAINT II, and it does. To make it do so, you start
up one of the "drivers" provided as a background task. The version I have
now provides 8 different but similar drivers, as follows:
The pad is a white pressure-sensitive area surrounded by a 1" wood frame.
On the frame are two "buttons" which correspond to the mouse buttons.
(They are pressure points on a little piece of metal, with a barely-
discernable breakover click). Because some people are right-handed and
some left-handed, the pad should be held with these buttons on the left
or right. So there are two different sets of drivers, since button-on-left
is "upside down" from button-on-right. Then you can select a driver that
has the left "mouse" button permanently down, or one you have to hold
the button down. That's 4 drivers- right-down right-up left-down left-up.
Finally, each of these drivers has another version which allows proportional
instead of absolute movement.
> 4. How is it connected.
I started with the 1000 version, which is a small box that plugs into the
Amy 1000's bus on the side of the case. It passes the bus, also. Then the
pad, a pressure-sensitive type, plugs into the back of the box. It turned
out that the cable was a little short when the pad was held "upside down",
for lefties like me.
The 2000 version is a card which plugs in inside, and a 9-pin port out the
back, like any expansion card would do. No problem except the cable is
REALLY short now, I would have to sit behind the computer. This is solved
with a "joystick extender" cable from Radio Shack. I was told by Anakin
that this would void the FCC certification, but I checked for radio noise
as best I could, and found nothing so far.
I have no idea how the 500 version connects, but I would bet it's connected
to the bus, wherever it can get at it.
> 5. Does it replace the mouse or can one use both.
You can use both, which is rather interesting. Once the driver is running,
the pad will move the mouse pointer to the absolute location it senses
if you touch the pad hard enough. This will appear as a "jump", there will
be no intermediate positions displayed, and DPAINT will not react to them.
The mouse can move the pointer as always. One nice thing about this is
that by holding the left button down, you can "sketch" on the pad, with
the expected results in DPAINT. (That is, a line begins where you set the
stylus down, ends where you pick it up, jumps to the next line start, etc.)
The pad drivers seem to intercept the mouse-position signals at a very low
level in the software, since no application software seems to notice that
anything wierd is going on.
> 6. Does it locate absolute positions or does it only transmit relative
> positions.
Both, apparently, using different drivers. I only use the absolute drivers,
so I can't describe the proportional ones. I've also never tried to get
one driver out and put in another, but since the driver is running as a
task, I assume just stopping the task would do the trick.
In general, it is a servicable pad. I don't use it a great deal, but for
tracing and some drawing, it's perfect. Three problems showed up: The
cable was too short, which was solved. The "buttons" did not click over
easily, which I fixed myself by cleaning out some glue under the metal
strip, and the pressure required to make the pad sense the stylus is a
bit heavy for my tastes, but I have a light drawing touch, so you might
not find it so. I would suggest trying one out before investing, though.
If you really need a pad, though, I think it's currently the only one.
John O.
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