Games, Sketches, and Thoughts

Two weeks ago, I accidentally drop my Wacom Pen. It happened several times before but this time, the pen stop working The tablet could not detect the pen tip but the eraser tip was still working.

It’s an old model which I bought on 2002 (Wacom Graphire 2) and the replacement pen cost around 40 Euro

Now I am using a mouse.

Three years ago, I decided to stop using computer mouse and rely 100% on my Tablet. Actually, I was training my eye-hand coordination using the tablet. I found it’s more natural to use a pen so since then, I stick with it. It’s also good for your wrist since I read somewhere that you could reduce the risk of getting Carpal Tunnel.

I plan to buy a new tablet later (maybe the Wacom Bamboo) so it’s worth it to try repairing the pen

Click more to see my step-by-step instruction (with photos) how to fix a broken Wacom Pen

Disassembling the Pen

Just pull the part which has erase tip on it. Do not twist it coz the pen will break. If your hand is sweating you can try to use rubber glove for a better grip.

In order to pull out the electronic board, you have to take off the pen buttons. Just carefully use a screwdriver to peel off the button.

Now pull the board slowly and put it on a safe place. The electronic part looks fragile so you might have to handle it with care.

Fixing the Broken Black-Iron-Thingy

As you can see from the photo below, the black iron near the pen tip is broken. This fragile part is easily broken if you drop the pen. Luckily, I found on the Internet that someone has successfully super-glued that part and the pen works

Super Glue Saves the Day

Unplug the pen tip (the pointy white plastic part) before you superglue the iron part. Just put a few drops on the crack and push the iron thing with your thumb so the crack is close together. Hold that position for 40 seconds until the glue is dry. (Note: Please be careful with the glue. Later in this post, you will know that I’ve messed up the glue)

Is It Working?

After I put all parts together, I tested my Wacom Tablet. It worked ) !!! The cursor moved responding to my pen tip position.

However, when the pen tip touch the tablet surface, the tablet failed to detect a mouse click.

There was still a problem with the pen tip

When I unassembled the pen, I realized that the pen tip plastic part was accidentally glued to the iron part. I think, the glue wasn’t dry enough when I put the pen tip back. The result, the pen tip was glued to the iron part and get stuck. The pen tip cannot detect the pen pressure since it cannot move anymore

Lessons of the Day

• Be careful when gluing the broken part. Make sure you are not gluing unnecessary parts
• If you rarely use the erase tip (like me), have a lot of time and soldering skills, you might try to unsolder the erase tip part (including the black iron part) and solder it back to the pen tip side. It seems that the iron parts from pen and eraser tip are the same. Maybe they’re interchangeable?
• Never drop your Wacom pen

Update (May 2009): I add a new post about soldering the erase part to the front , replacing the pen part.