Hello everyone,
I've been meaning to post a video of the Tide-to-go pressure tip pen for quite some time now. I've finally gotten around to it.
When I made my first push button pen, writing was quite a challenge. To constantly push a button was too fidgety - the strokes had to be very deliberate and the writing was very slow. Handwriting was definitely easier than printing, since you could keep the button pressed continually, but printing, writing formulas, chemical equations, and numbers etc... was quite slow. I went from being very excited about an interactive whiteboard to being doubtful about its usefulness to me as an actual whiteboard. To be able to use an interactive whiteboard in the classroom on a regular basis, I needed to be able write much, much faster on it.
The solution of course was a pressure tip pen. After many iterations, I finally came up with one that writes beautifully - the Tide-to-go pressure tip pen. It feels very much like writing with a regular white board marker.
The main reason for showing these clips is so that others who have tried the wii whiteboard but found it to be more of a novelty and too impractical to write with on a regular basis can see that it is very possible with the right pen.
The first clip shows the pen's weight and how little force it takes to activate the LED. I've read some posts of pens requiring "only" 50 or 100 g of force to activate the pen. My pen weighs about 22 g and the tip will light up at maybe 5 g - it's hard to tell exactly by looking at the balance. The weight of the pen itself is definitely enough to activate the pen. Naturally, the less force the better - writing is very natural and easy feeling and there is less abrasion on the LED.
The second clip shows some actual writing. I teach chemistry, so I've used a chemistry example. I hope the ease of writing comes across in the clip. I'm writing on a 1/8" wood fiber board with a melamine surface which has been taped onto a blackboard. I find it to be a pretty good surface to write on. I've found that if the board is too smooth or glossy (eg. plexiglass, glass, plastic, smooth painted surface like a table or wall, varnished surface) the LED rubs against it with a lot of friction (it's very noticeable if you rub the led against the surface quickly). I think a lightly textured surface works much better.
If you want to actually write with the wiiboard, not just doodle, or write the odd word - but write for an entire lesson : notes, examples, diagrams, etc... you need a good pressure-tip pen. I'm still on the hunt for a pen tube (other than the tide-to-go tube) which will accommodate a AA battery but still fits the tide-to-go tip. If anyone finds one, please let me know.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jcRJKvIb4I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8h9iCtmf5U[/youtube]
