Yesterday, while at lowyat shopping for SigOth's computer bag, I spied a stylus from kensington, meant for the iPad. It was RM79.80. We decided a little too late that we should buy it, so we didn't. I did however make a mental note of it so we could get it some time in the future.
Fast forward to later that night, as I was lying awake in bed buzzed from too much coffee and bubble tea, I decided to ask google if he knew how to make a stylus for the iPad. Lo-behold, a slew of tutes came up. But most of it called for conductive foam, which can be found in computer chips packaging. Unfortunately, I don't have any lying around at home. I soon found out that what I needed was conductive surface to get my inputs to the iPad.
I tried various mediums, from aluminium foil to playdoh. They all worked but didn't work well enough. Then SigOth told me about using 3M sponges. It seemed like a good solution but that would mean having to get it from a shop as we didn't have any at home. Annoyed, but excited I went to bed at 5 a.m. Got my sponge today and made several styluses for use. They work great! So I decided to write a tutorial for my friends that want to make their own too.
The stylus I made for SigOth.
The stylus I made for myself.
Enough rambling. So are you ready to make your own? Well here goes!
To make the stylus you will need:
An empty pen/mechanical pencil barrel. It would be better if it was metal or aluminum
A scotchbrite 3M sponge. Blue or yellow.
Metal/copper wire
Scissors
Once you have gathered all your material, you're ready to start.
This is what the sponges look like. They can be found in the cleaning department of the supermarket. The top sponge is yellow in color. The bottom one is blue. They both work but I prefer the blue one. I explain why below. Please remember that you're only suppose to cut the soft spongy part. The green scouring pad is not used.
First thing you need to do is unscrew the pen to expose an opening so you can stuff the foam in. In the picture above, you'll notice 2 types of pens. One of them is a regular ballpoint pen. It has a metal barrel. The other is a shaffer (sp?) refill. Both worked fine. I decided to use the bottom half of the ballpoint pen as my stylus body. The black body with the little blue stub is my completed stylus. The beauty of this is that you can use both halves of the pen to make styluses. You can then give one to someone else!
If you don't have a conductive barrel, you can still make do with a plastic one. But there is an extra step you need to take to ensure that your stylus works.
You will need to wind some wire around one end of the foam before stuffing it into the pen opening. The wire then needs to be wound around the outer body of the barrel so that it comes in contact with your hand when you are holding the stylus.
The picture above shows the wire already wound on a piece of foam.
The next step is to push the foam into the pen opening. It would be best if the foam were bigger than the opening so that it will fit snugly into the pen and not shift as much.
If you're using a plastic barrel, you should then wind the wire around the pen like the picture above.
You can choose to trim the foam till it is nicely shaped or leave it as is. Either way, it'll work fine.
Your stylus is now ready to use!
Super easy and cheap too! Thank god I didn't buy the stylus yesterday. If the foam dries out, (I'm not sure if it will) just replace it with another piece.
Some personal notes: I bought two types of foam. Yellow and blue. I found that I prefer the blue one because it was less 'wet'. It seems the foam has some sort of liquid on it. I guess this is what makes the foam conductive.
I also would suggest that you go out and get yourself an aluminum mechanical pencil as a barrel cause it just makes the thing look better. The wire isn't really a pretty sight and it's a little wobbly when used.
That's all I can think of right now. I hope this has helped. Enjoy your new stylus!
1 comment:
Nice. :D
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