Art Stylus!

[tpope]

I've been looking for something like this (eraser, nice grip, DUAL side switch) for months now, scouring eBay and websites for a 18" or 15" Cintiq pen, and even considered trying to take the coils out of one of my spares and stuffing it into an Intuos pen.

But the nice folks at Axiotron have gone ahead and made one!

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=accessories

For Adobe apps, having that second button mapped to Shift (mostly) Control or Alt is a real timesaver, but until now the only ones I've found with two button were clunky stick pens, not the nice grip bodies that art tablets or some high-end slates use.

I haven't ordered yet, but given that they are using a standard Penabled digitizer in their Modbooks, I don't see any reason it shouldn't work on all other Penabled tablets. Once I have one in-hand I'll post a review.

[John Hill]

That is a nice looking pen! The newer Motion pens are similar in that they are thicker than a standard pen from HP, Lenovo, etc. and with a rubberized grip are very comfortable to hold.

This one looks even nicer. Can't wait to hear if you think it was worth the $$$.

[tpope]

So the pen arrived today just as I was heading out of the office to a meeting. A quick stop back to rip open the box and test to make certain they hadn't done something wonky and made it not work with other Penabled tablets and I was off and running.

I don't have my Intuos 2 pen here to compare, but for something that appears to be the exact same form factor, this one is considerably lighter than the Wacom pen. That made a poor initial impression, because it felt kind of "cheap." Note the emphasis on "initial."

At a guess Axiotron asked the folks who make the Wacom pen bodies to run a silver metalized plastic through the mold instead of the denser dark grey stuff Wacom uses. Otherwise this looks and feels identical, and I'm almost certain that the rubber grip, replacement button, and replacement buttonless grip, and nibs are all standard Wacom issue.

Once I started using it however, any complaints about the quality went away. Light or not, it's as solidly built as my Intuos pen, and very comfortable to hold. A definite improvement over all of the various stick pens I had up until now, and lighter and easier to use than the Cross executive pen. I can't compare to a Motion Computing LE/C/F/J-series pen, as I'm still saving up for a LE1700. (gonna be a while, sadly)

As much as the new body was an improvement, the stroke nib was ever better! This is a nib that has a tiny spring inside it, which gives you considerably more travel from zero pressure to full pressure. It made an immediate difference in drawing quality and comfort!

The felt nib was interesting as well. A very hard piece of pressed felt, it has a different feel on the screen than any of the others. I'm not sure I like it as much as the stroke nib, but since they are all interchangeable, I dropped one into my old art pen (Fujitsu Lifebook) to test it. Both are a far cry better than the standard hard plastic nib for what I'm doing though.

Overall I'm really glad I made the purchase. As I said in the original post, having two buttons is an absolute requirement for me (better would be 3-4) and is far and away the best Tablet PC pen I've had the pleasure of owning. The extra nibs they included are a nice bonus as well. Since my M1400 doesn't have a screen protector, I'm never using this on a rough surface, so the original nibs are likely to last pretty much forever. That lets me take the extras and keep them in my backup pens just in case I lose this one, or forget it at work.

Note that if you're already happy with your pen (or like having one that fits in the tablet silo) you can buy these nibs separately from Wacom:

https://direct.wacom.com/stores/5/Stroke_nibs_5_pack__P1057C66.cfm
https://direct.wacom.com/stores/5/Felt_nibs_5_pack__P1056C66.cfm

[tpope]

Hah! I was just poking on the Wacom store after posting those links, and what do I see but the Contiq 15X Grip Pen:

https://direct.wacom.com/stores/5/Cintiq_15X_Grip_Pen_P1177C66.cfm

I swear that wasn't there last time I looked, as I'd been looking EVERYWHERE for that or the 18X. Unlike the rest of Wacom's line, both of those older Cintiq pens should work on all Penabled tablets, though I haven't personally tested either of them.

Anyway, that one is a little bit cheaper than the one from Axiotron, but I don't think it comes with the nib set, so you'll be stuck with the plain old hard plastic nib (which not everyone minds).

[K-Pod]

So the Axiotron pen works on any tabletpcs?

SOLD! I love the Le1700 pen, but it only comes with one button and the grip is not as fat as a intuos pen

[chimera15]

You can still buy 18sx and 15sx pens direct from wacom's website. You have to search a bit, but they're there. I can't post a link since I'm still a nub. They're the same price as the modbook ones. The 15sx one is nicer looking since it's all gray I think.

[Maiklas3000]

Do any of these pens fit in the LE1700's cubbyhole?

How do you plan on using the second button with such a pen on the LE1700? (I can do it with AHK, but I'm guessing you're using Wacom drivers from somewhere?)

[digitaldoctors]

Nice review of it.
http://modbookjunction.blogspot.com/2009/10/axiotron-studio-pen.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iE8WLTkODJ0/StQdj0Je0II/AAAAAAAACDM/a0QSA0yeZvs/s400/DSC_0008.jpg

[K-Pod]

These pens are sold out or out of stock....

I've been trying to track one down for a month now with little luck. Anyone willing to part with theirs? I'd pay double :P

Either that or a Cintiq 15/17/18sx pen. Curse you wacom - cuse you

[frosty]

yup very hard to track down stylii...
surprised some chinese manufacturer hasn't cottoned onto this and cornered the market yet... patent issues?

Looking at the UP-7110E-50A Motion Computing pen for a bit over $50.. is this better than the stock M200 pen?

[oddman]

Hey Guys, Just picked up one of these on eBay for $34. Just look for "modbook". They have a few more. Received mine in a couple of days and it works great. Cheers. (not affiliated with the seller).

[frosty]

oh man, i just bought a motion computing stylus for $60! :( let us know what it's like when you receive it?

[Twopossums]

Based on the good reviews in this thread I bought the Axiotron pen. It just showed up and it is already loads better than the pen that came with my Motion M1400.

My question is how do I map the switch buttons. It seems that the eraser is already programed to use the eraser by default but I always map the dual switches to something like space bar and Ctrl-Z so I can easy move and undo without looking up from my drawing. I looked for a driver from the Axiotron website but the documentation seemed pretty adamant that it was for the Modbook and not to use it if you weren't on the right firmware or something.

When I click on the "change tablet and pen" settings and click on Pen Options I only get the options for Double-Tap, Press and Hold, Point/Hover & Start Imput Panel gesture.

Any help please?

[tpope]

To get the second button, as well as pressure sensitivity on things like Photoshop and Illustrator, you will need to install the Wacom drivers:
http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/driver.cfm

The latest batch has had problems on some tablet / OS combinations, where it fails in portrait mode however. If you have this problem, or don't want to deal with installing and then removing the newer driver, the older one works just fine:
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/showthread.php?37725

Once you do that, you will have a new control panel with a lot more options, including some really powerful button mapping.