New digital notepad gadget
UPDATES (see below). Last update: 2010-11-28
- The device works as X11 input device (pointer)
- Added the results of a sketch on this device
- Added link to python version of .top to .svg converter (thanks to Jorik)
- Photo & description of refills
- Java open source top conversion tool (Java 1.5+) (thanks to Valeri Corrado)
Today my eye spotted a nice gadget on sale at Aldi’s in the newspaper. It is a digital notepad. Well digital, you write on actual paper using a pen with real ink. All your strokes on the paper are stored in memory. Vector by vector. It has 32MB memory to store pages. You can use an SD card to extend that memory. You get the digital notepad. One pen. Two refills. Two plastic refills. Loads of (windows only) software. Best feature: batteries included, you are ready to go…
So when I got this baby, the Medion MD 85276, I ripped it from its packaging. Quick peek at the manual to make sure the batteries are inserted correctly and go go go. In an attempt to find more details about this product I searched the web. No details are available at the Medion site. This means that this is an OEM product. Some sources claim this is an Aiptek MyNote.
I love the way you write your notes. The digital notepad is only marginal larger than a A4 sheet of paper. You can actually put a stack of paper on the device, not just one sheet. The files on the device are stored in .top format. The included (windows XP & Vista) software is capable of conversion to other formats. I don’ t like the software. Not only because you need windows but also because it has a very peculiar look and feel. One cool feature is that you can replay your strokes on the paper and can decide to split those actions onto several sheets. Great feature to sort your notes.
I’m not interested in a windows only solution so I tried to find details on the .top file format in order to write a converter. Unfortunately I didn’t find any details on the file format. But I was shocked to see this project on freshmeat: top2svg. Exactly what I need. It’s a simple Perl script that transforms the .top file into .svg (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. From there I can convert it into anything I like.
Update 3: Jorik wrote a Python version of top2svg. You can find his version here
Update 5: Valeri Corrado found an open source conversion tool “VectorPen” (Java 1.5+) that converts top files to svg (and some bitmapped formats).
I obtained this gadget at Aldi’s for only €79.99 and I already feel that this is worth every penny I spend on it. Besides this device can be used as a ‘stand-alone’ digital notepad it can also be used as an input device when connected to a PC (using the included USB cable). That way it can replace a mouse and it can be used to draw in other painting programs. To do that you need to replace the ink filling with a plastic pen top to protect the device. I did not find the time to try this on Linux yet, besides that, I have a wacom pad which is better suited for that purpose anyway. Since I only have this gadget a couple of hours I can’t give you any details on battery life…
Here are some pictures of the device with the paper and some simple notes. The last image shows the converted image as obtained from the device. I did not have the time to try to convert my handwriting into actual text using OCR software. When it is possible to obtain at least keywords from the notes you should be able to implement some form of full text search on the notes.
This is the actual image ripped from the device. It is converted from svg to a png. Pretty neat.
Update 1: I successfully used the notepad as an input device in X11. It worked out of the box for me using (K)ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.
Update 2: Chris wants to know if this pad can be (reasonably) used as a sketch and draw pad (like wacom pads). In all honesty I don’t think it’s a substitute. When you look at the images below you’ll first see a (bad) photograph of the original sketch. It is supposed to be a tree. The second image is the sketch as recorded by the device. You will notice that all lines have the same weight (thickness). In the start of the shaded area it may appear as if the line is thicker but that are actually several lines close to each other. In the original sketch you can see that I applied varying pressure on the pen. So in short this device doesn’t record pressure sensitivity. The third image is a colored version of the sketch. If you paint thick the original lines of the scan may be painted over so you really don’t care about the lack of pressure sensitivity.
Depending on your purposes you may decide that the sketch capabilities are okay.
Update 4: Refills
You can buy ordinary refills for the pen. Below is a enlarged image of a pen tip and a refill. You get two pen tips (with plastic tip) and three ink refills when you buy the product. Other ink refills can be bought at any office supply store.
Tags: .top files, digital notepad, gadget, linux, MD 85276, MD85276, ocr, SVG
November 29th, 2007 at 8:59
Cool gadget!!! I think I’ll buy this too!!
November 29th, 2007 at 9:39
I recommend it! I’m currently testing this and it will soon replace my regular paper mess.
For €79.99 you can’t go wrong
November 29th, 2007 at 10:33
Very cool thang. I expect that you’ll be showing it off at the next meeting! Also I can’t wait for more reviews – keep ‘em coming, Ed!!
November 29th, 2007 at 13:20
Cool cool. But I’m still in doubt about buying this gadget. I’ve just visited the Aldi and I saw it too and had strong feelings about simply buying it. Two obstacles however were, of course, the doubt about its functionality and quality and the price (80 euros isn’t that cheap, but perhaps well worth its price). So I read this review and it leaves me with some question marks.
About how it functions as a drawing tablet (wacom for example) and if there are multiple pressure levels for example?
Do you have to press hard on the paper to get to see the lines on the computer screen?
Is 32 Megs enough for A4-filling drawings/notes?
And.. is it suitable for drawing and sketching, even though it might not be able to ‘feel’ the different pressure levels?
Please update the review soon as you have more experience with it
November 29th, 2007 at 13:35
Hi Chris,
As far as I could see this device has no (or very limited) pressure sensitivity. As a drawing pad it is not even related to (for instance) a wacom pad. You don’t have to press hard for the device to respond. It has an indicator in the display that shows when it is ‘recording’ your pen strokes.
It is not very clear but when you look at the last two pictures you’ll see a close-up of the actual drawing on paper and the version that is recorded by the device. When you look at the circle I drew you will note that on the paper version the line gets thiner at the end. For the electronic version you will see that the line just ends (it doesn’t get thinner).
So in all honesty. If you plan to use this device for imaging and sketching I would definitely recommend something else. I like wacom but there are cheaper alternatives that are also very good. I think you should try one of those instead. This is a great device for note-taking but not so much for sketching.
November 29th, 2007 at 15:00
I saw this post one day too late! I bought the same thing yesterday and I didn’t find the top2svg convertor so I reverse engineered the format wrote something myself in python. This could have saved me a few hours
Oh well, if anyone is interested in the python version, it’s at:
http://graphics.tudelft.nl/~jorik/top2svg.py
November 29th, 2007 at 15:38
Hi Jorik,
Great work! I was also thinking about how to reverse engineer the format. Draw one horizontal line, check the file, draw one vertical line check the file, draw a diagonal line etc.
There are people out there who prefer Python over Perl so many people will be thankful for your effort.
November 30th, 2007 at 16:58
Eddie, great review. It’s on sale in UK at Aldi. Only problem I can see is the buying of refills for pen. What happens when ones that come with notepad run out? At the moment I can’t see where one can get the refills. Any ideas?
November 30th, 2007 at 23:29
i have bought it today but when i write on the tablet the the pen goos on the paper from top to downn ,but on the computerscreen it goes from right to left. Wat can i do. Excuse my english. regards Jan
December 1st, 2007 at 0:09
Does it come with software to convert handwriting into a text or word document? If so, have you had a chance to try it out? It goes on sale here on Sunday and I’m wondering about buying three (3 students in my house!), but they’d need it for converting their handwritten study notes into documents that they can edit. Thanks.
December 1st, 2007 at 0:20
@Jan:
You do need to turn the tablet around (landscape mode). I think this is done on purpose since when you have the tablet in landscape mode the length and height ratio corresponds to the dimensions of your monitor.
@Mel:
You get OCR software with the notepad but that is Windows only (XP & Vista). I haven’t tried this software myself so I can’t tell you how good it is. When you convert your files to (for example) tiff files you can try to use some free OCR software as well. Since I don’t want to convert my notes to plain text (just yet) I did not make any attempt at OCR so far.
December 1st, 2007 at 13:02
Eddie , thanks for your answer. Jan
December 1st, 2007 at 23:02
Can someone give me an explanation how to use the top2svg.py? I came as far as making a bat file on windows and some characters scrolled by. how to set the svg filename as i didnt find it saved?
December 1st, 2007 at 23:32
Hi Log, you should specify one argument on the commandline that is the .top file to read. The output (svg) is written to stdout (or to your command window). You should redirect the output to a file.
December 2nd, 2007 at 0:04
Thanks for this info. I now could convert the tops. I made a bat file with many lines that batch convert top files.
IF EXIST A01.TOP C:\Python25\python “G:\top\top2svg.py” A01.TOP > A01.svg
IF EXIST A02.TOP C:\Python25\python “G:\top\top2svg.py” A02.TOP > A02.svg
etc.
Thanks
December 2nd, 2007 at 14:11
Hi I just bought this myself and I thought it would be great. Just wondering how easy is it to get the pen refills because I wouldn’t want to be stuck. Are they just normal pen refills? It seems to be a fantastic gadget, well worth the money and I am relieved that there are so many good reviews.
December 2nd, 2007 at 15:43
Identical Items: Aiptek MyNote, Genius G-Note 7000, Digital Ink Pad, My Note Pad, Aclass EZPad. Also very Similar to Adesso Cyberpad, but I noticed some extra slots on the right side. All these are basically the same product rebranded. They all use the TOP file format and in most cases features similar software.
December 3rd, 2007 at 0:57
It works as a tablet in Ubuntu Gutsy, but the tablet resolution is smaller than my screen resolution. Does anybody know how to solve this problem? Thanks!
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:09
Very cool notepad.
Would have ran out to get one if I hadn’t just satisfied my electronic note taking needs by picking up a Toshiba Protégé M200. Also a VERY nice way of taking electronic notes, and second hand you can pick these babies up for not that much at all. I managed to get my grubby little hands on one for just 52 euros…
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:16
The ID at the top of TOP files is WALTOP which is this Taiwanese company – Waltop International. This product and the other products mentioned appear to be rebadged T01S:
http://www.waltop.com/
http://www.waltop.com/P-my_note_t01s.htm
Thanks for the useful information on this page.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:33
Homepage (in German) of Uwe Henschel who wrote the top2svg perl script – http://www.angiesoft.de/
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:38
Homepage (in Babelfish English
of Uwe Henschel who wrote the top2svg perl script –
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.angiesoft.de%2F
December 4th, 2007 at 9:36
The SDK from Waltop looks interesting – anyone tried to get this?
December 7th, 2007 at 11:42
nice thing, but i dont think to use it further.
OCR: tried gocr, tesseract, but with awful results. maybe 10% recognized correct. my girlfried will try it on windows, maybe she gets more acceptable results.
HDI: Plug in and use the aiptek X modul, but its impossible to use it as a replacement for my mouse.
maybe someone else could get OCR get work better. previously, this pad does not make sense to me.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:59
excellent info. thanks.
December 12th, 2007 at 19:32
Hey guys!
This notepad is currently on sale in Germany (Aldi Süd) and I must say: It is great! Especially with the hints from this page so you can use it on Linux aswell!
Just on change for the Script top2svg: In the current version the endings of the files the notepad produces are in capital letters, so you have to change the script as follows:
Open it with any editor an change the line
my $datei = $dname . “.top”;
into
my $datei = $dname . “.TOP”;
and everything will work just fine!
I hope this helped some of you enjoying this cool gadget even more!
December 17th, 2007 at 19:59
I have slightly modified the top2svg.py .
Now it stores each new stroke as a new path in the SVG file.
So you have much more possibilities to edit the resulting SVG file e.g. in the Inkspace.
If you draw the rectangle or the circle as a single stroke, than yoe can easily change the fill or the line properties.
The change is very simple (below is the contents of the diff file:)
$ diff -c top2svg.py top2svg2.py *** top2svg.py 2007-12-12 23:31:48.000000000 +0100 --- top2svg2.py 2007-12-17 19:54:18.000000000 +0100 *************** *** 1,3 **** --- 1,4 ---- + #!/usr/bin/python # (C) 2007 Jorik Blaas, use in any way as you please. import sys *************** *** 41,46 **** --- 42,49 ---- if drawing: code = "L" else: + print '" style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:1" />' + print '<path d="' code = "M" drawing = TrueDecember 17th, 2007 at 20:08
Ooops, the indentation was lost in my above post…
You have to indent the added lines properly to get the code working. The quotes have also been changed
.
Well, you should just copy the lines: 51 and 23 of the original file after the line 44 of the original file, assuring the proper indentation.
Then you can add the “#!/usr/bin/python” at the begining of the file.
PS. My tablet was bought as Genius G-Note 7000 and it looks exactly the same way as MEDION MD 85276 (except the “MEDION” name replaced with the “Genius”)
December 18th, 2007 at 22:53
Has anybody tried to use the handwriting recognition software with the “.top” files produced by the digital notepads?
I have found a few solutions, but had no time to check it out (probably the first step will be to write the file converter…):
1. CellWriter:
http://www.linux.com/feature/120867
http://risujin.org/cellwriter/
2. The Freehand Formula Entry System (math only):
http://www.cs.queensu.ca/drl/ffes/
3. Xmerlin (outdated?)
http://www.hellkvist.org/software/#XMerlin
December 23rd, 2007 at 19:48
Since software installation of Medion digipad I cant switch off PC into sleeping condition: remark “WT service is running” . How to switch that off?
December 28th, 2007 at 11:47
I have been using the Aiptek Mynote Which is identical to the Aldi Medion tablet.
My main OS in XP (due to my company) and I have used the Myscript software to interpret the top-files. Works pretty OK, as long as you don’t use a doctors handwriting. It has saved me a lot of time of re-tying pages full of notes. Recognition level about 80%.
I would like to use the same sort of functionality under Linux (OpenSuse 10.3).
The first thing is to use the proper driver for the tablet functionality. I tried the acecad flair driver, but the “absolute setting” does not work as absolute: it will be difficult to reach the corners of the screen. Anyone a suggestion which driver to use?
I will try the various tips on using the python scripts to convert the top-files. Can anyone recommend a OCR program?
December 29th, 2007 at 18:42
Is anybody using this tablet for his Apple machine also, or is it impossible to do so? I us een macbook with leopard.
can someone help me?
December 29th, 2007 at 21:19
I got this notepad for X-mas,so I don’t know how to use it very well yet,but I have some problems with it,I use it for drawing but the lines I draw are different from the lines who appear on my computer,and I don’t know where I can change the speed and pressure,could someone help me?
January 1st, 2008 at 12:52
I also received this notepad as a Christmas present. I have to confess that, although I have managed to set it up correctly ….(?), I am having problems.
I think the “manual” is poor. As a Silver surfer I need instructions in a clear format and I have no one to ask. I am hoping, therefore, that a kind person here will help me out.
My Notepad refuses to switch off and, although it states that it does this automatically after a while, mine doesn’t.
Older Son bought this for me but isn’t a computer buff. He knows I like computers and computer “toys”!! I think this notepad is aimed more towards a student but I could use it when I make notes, or draw images for an online magazine I edit.
Please, would someone be willing to contact me “personally”,possibly, to explain in simple terms how I start to make use of this nice-looking “toy”?
My thanks!
January 1st, 2008 at 12:54
Correction: The Notepad does switch off automatically but it takes a while to do so!
January 2nd, 2008 at 20:09
Hi maryemm, i have noticed that if you press and hold the silver power button it does switch off! i got on efor crimbo too hehe i think its cool, i do a lot of doodling, iam a graphic designer and this is such a time saver. oooo i love gadets (that work)
cya
January 3rd, 2008 at 17:16
Oh, Mark! Then you are the person for whom I am seeking! :O)
Once you have dreawn (doodled) on the A4 paper what do you do next, please?
My silver power button is erratic!
January 6th, 2008 at 22:18
Hi,
I wrote some tools (in C) for the tablet (top2ps, top2svg and topviewer). If you are interested please check out the following link
https://sourceforge.net/projects/toptools
best regards,
Alex
January 9th, 2008 at 12:40
Anyone found a folder/portfolio that fits the Notepad, but doesn’t cost upwards of £30?
Best wishes
Peter.
January 9th, 2008 at 14:41
PS – I also get the “WT Service is running” message when I shut the lid of my laptop (see Calama, 23rd Dec 2007), so it doesn’t hibernate as it should do. This is a pain when wanting to rush off home at the end of the day. Any solution would be appreciated.
Best wishes,
Peter.
January 13th, 2008 at 16:45
Thank you Alexandergeorg for your post which I have just seen. (I have been away).
Unfortunately, my IT knowledge is not up to your standard!!
I really need to know once one has drawn (doodled) on the A4 paper what does one do next, please?
I have installed the software on the notepad’s accompanying disc.
I would so appreciate help here.
My thanks in advance
Maryemm
January 16th, 2008 at 11:25
Great info on Linux .top stuff. I had been hoping for some Linux tools.
I have used pad for several months, bought ‘Adesso’ version which comes with folio and battery charger. Aldi here (Australia) has recently sold the Medion version. They are identical except Medion does not have folio/charger but comes with MyScript. They are all made by Waltop.
For Windows, MyScript gives great conversion to text. Better still, try Evernote v2.2 that will handle the .top file directly but indexes the text if you get the full version. There is a 30day trial available.
The pen refills are standard pen refills, just try any pen retailer.
Stephen
January 16th, 2008 at 23:34
Once I have written on the A4 paper what do I do next?
Helpful hints, please :O)
January 22nd, 2008 at 14:48
I want also to buy the medion or aiptek tablet.
Does some know where I can buy it in europe.
January 24th, 2008 at 17:58
Alas, I see you are all experts here at using this tablet.
PLEASE, won’t you share that knowledge? Once I’m shown how to do something I am OK but, for some reason, I can’t get past a certain stage with this new toy.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:57
Maryemm:
Use the cable they provide to connect it to your computer. (The connector is at the top of the tablet, the other end goes into a USB port). The storage on the tablet will be detected in a similar fashion to usb keys. Use the software you installed off the cds to copy the files from the tablet to your computer and run the handwriting recognition etc.
January 26th, 2008 at 15:30
Open source tools for this digital notepad, awesome
Anyway, I think it *should* be possible to make nice drawings with this one: in the windows tools you can configure the sensitivity (e.g. how hard you have to press to make it recognize as a “click”), which means that the pressure level has to be sent over the USB cable. So, with specific tools or drivers, it should be possible to link that pressure with pen thickness or color
Will have a look after my exams, definitely sounds interesting!
January 26th, 2008 at 15:49
Bingo, analysing some raw USB data, the notepad seems to support 6 pressure levels (practically: 3 pressure levels). Guess this will make it a better Wacom alternative!
January 27th, 2008 at 21:44
I’m not happy with the MD 85276. The pen is too thick, so I quickly get the cramp in my fingers. The software is bad, except “MyScript Notes”. But it’s just a very limited edition.
The worst ist the support at Medion. I downloaded the drivers and software from the Medion website. It’s older than the software delivered on CD! And the download includes “Pensoft” (I name it “Painsoft”), a 16bit application! Never install this on your PC unless you got Windows98 or earlier!
January 27th, 2008 at 22:37
The software sucks, it really does. Which is (together with the fact I’m using Linux) the reason I’m making my own stuff (script is located at http://besard.no-ip.org:8080/applications/SVN/inkpad/trunk/scripts/inkpad_import.pl ). Not as full-featured as the included stuff, but together with some UDEV rules and a bit of creativity, this could turn out as an worthy alternative for the Medion tools.
About the pen, I don’t have any problems with it (I admit it isn’t a very thin model), but I will have a closer look how it’s designed (so I can make my own when this one starts failing). Still have to find out how it gets detected (doesn’t seem to be based on magnetic inductance), maybe somebody else has an idea?
January 27th, 2008 at 23:24
Thank you, Nigel; your advice is much appreciated.
QUOTE: Use the software you installed off the cds to copy the files from the tablet to your computer and run the handwriting recognition etc.
UNQUOTE
Now here’s where I show my ignorance!
I click on COPY, right? And the handwriting recognition follows automatically?
January 30th, 2008 at 16:46
hi,
i bought the notepad a year ago and i’m glad to have it – but – i lost the pen in an plane and can’t find a dealer for a new one.
medion has no pens at all! and even no idea where to get on!
please help!
February 1st, 2008 at 12:17
Anyone know where i can get a spare pen and nibs form? a portfolion would be great too..
thanks
srk
February 4th, 2008 at 12:15
I all,
I bought the MD 85276 at Aldi Woudenberg (NL) for only €30,- (yes, they still have some left!) and I like the pad but I HATE the software included! I’m having a hard time finding software that will recognise my handwriting. I’m currently trying to teach ABBYY what to look for, but it’s painstaking and time consuming work.
Anybody know of a better OCR package that will smoothly translate my handwriting into text?
I managed to find a nice leather portfolio for it! It’s made by a Dutch firm called Henzo. It closes magnetically and holds the pad very snugly! You can find an example here: http://buroartikelen.com/details.asp?code=34.250.08&origin=products
On this site it’s quite expensive. I managed to find this protfolio at the Bijenkorf department stores here in NL for €29,95.
About the pens, they can be bought seperately here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2456629&CatId=140
Best regards!
Stefan
February 6th, 2008 at 15:35
I haven’t tried to convert handwriting to text yet, and with my scrawl I don’t hold out high hopes. I have managed for it to recognise that I am drawing/writing on the pad when it is not connected via the usb and then to connect the usb and transfer from notepad to computer (via convert) but am absolutely stuck on how to get drawings and writing to show on the monitor as I am doing it, which is precisely why I bought it (It is a larger tablet and cheaper for its size than others). Having read the comments I get the impression that this is possible and I have not made an error in buying a notepad instead of a graphics pad,(Is there a difference?) Can anyone help with this. Please note I do not read computer speak or write programs but feel I am missing something simple that the manual has glossed over.
February 6th, 2008 at 20:35
Iain, this is my problem also.
February 8th, 2008 at 16:35
I believe these are compatible refills, and this is the cheapest web price I’ve found for the UK:
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails-Parker+Profile+3in1+Refill-30129269.html
February 10th, 2008 at 12:00
@Iain
When connected to a PC the notepad is recognized as a USB mouse, so when you draw something on your notepad, the mouse moves accordingly, doesn’t it? (you can configure whether movements are interpreted absolutely or relatively.)
I have bought this notepad too for computer drawing, and now I know I’d better bought a real graphics tabled (like a Wacom).
February 10th, 2008 at 22:45
Hi all, I have downloaded top2svg from freshmeat. I have opened the archive etc. I do not understand what I do with the script now that I have it. I am running Ubuntu Gutsy and would like to simply convert the top files downloaded from my digital pad to svg. Any detailed instructions would be appreciated.
February 11th, 2008 at 14:29
You have to run the script on your ‘top’ file, but without the file extension.
For example:
$! Untar the archive
$ tar xvfj top2svg-v0.2.tar.bz2
$! Move to the archive directory
$ cd top2svg-v0.2/
$! Copy your file to convert into this directory (or add it to your PATH)
$ cp ~/Documents/notepad/a01.top .
$! Run the converter on the file (without .top extension)
$ top2svg a01
a01.svg: 90.9% — replaced with a01.svg.gz
$! By default the converter gzips the resulting svg file – unzip it here
$ gzip -d a01.svg.gz
$! View the resulting svg file (in the kde web/file viewer)
$ konqueror a01.svg
Any more problems, ask me direct: mark [at] wickensonline [dot] co [dot] uk
February 11th, 2008 at 23:57
Thanks very much, I will give it a try
February 12th, 2008 at 20:03
Hi technicalminded bods, I have a burning question. Can the board be converted to a realtime function ? That is to say can it pass the info directly to a laptop or do so via a bluetooth device ? Im a semi pro magician/mindreader and this application would save me £££££’s
Can be mailed at markthorold@hotmail.com . Would really appreciate some advice on this .
Sincere Regards Mark
February 12th, 2008 at 23:19
Bought it at Aldi. Very good but instructions poor.
February 16th, 2008 at 22:48
Maleadt,
The pen is not recognised on the notepad when connected to the computer either in My Script or My Ink. The notepad does seem to work independently of the computer and I can transfer data from it to the computer. I want to have the notepad connected to the computer, draw on it and for that information to appear on my monitor in real time. It sounds like Maryemm has the same problem. The light on my pen does not come on at all, but it seems to work fine if the notepad is not connected to the computer. Has anyone got a simple answer?
Cheers, Iain
February 21st, 2008 at 17:52
I’ve got the AIPTEK MyNote version.
Jorik: Thanks for the python code! I’ve rewritten in Delphi if anyone would find that useful.
Terry: I’ve asked twice for the Waltop SDK – no reply.
maleadt: can you share any information about how the pressure levels are encoded, or how to find them?
OCR etc: OCR software doesn’t work well with handwritten script even if it is carefully written block capitals. The handwriting recognition built-in to Vista works well.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:46
hi, the pen is no more available at “tigersdirect”. Does anybody know ohter places to buy one?
thanks!
February 29th, 2008 at 6:42
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could assist me. I just purchased a DigiMemo L2 from Acecad, but it looks like I have made an error. It turns out this product saves as a file with the extension .dhw. Does anyone have any experience with this file format on Linux? The only program I can find on the net is from VectorPen, but it doesn’t look like this program is complete (they state a version will be available for purchase at the end of January, but nothing yet).
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated,
Rodney
March 3rd, 2008 at 16:27
CAN anyone tell me how to write more than one page : at the moment I have each page , after conversion to type, in a separate file. I need to be able
to write several pages. I have mastered converting to TOPs file, then to type but obviosly do something wrong when I get to the Word Pad stage.
Apart from that I am delighted with the device!
March 8th, 2008 at 3:57
It’s a very useful application!
March 11th, 2008 at 17:19
FYI, I have answered my own question. If anyone else is interested there is a perl script located here http://www.kevlindev.com/blog/?p=58 that will convert a .dhw file to .svg.
March 17th, 2008 at 22:45
it’s only £20 in aldi runcorn!!!!!!!
obviously they aren’t selling, i’ll get one next week if there’s any left!
March 28th, 2008 at 10:14
I bought one of these at Aldi and it works perfectly. However can someone explain to me why I would bother to use this when I can get the same result by writing or drawing on plain paper and scanning to my PC?
March 28th, 2008 at 10:21
You can use this device as an input device for your computer. When you always have a scanner in reach than there is not really any use for this gadget.
March 28th, 2008 at 21:54
@rob:
I would be really interested in the Delphi-Version of that converter!
Please contact me at: Lemar.DeSalis@gmx.de
Thanks in advance!
March 31st, 2008 at 7:24
>> However can someone explain to me why I would bother to use this when I can get the
>> same result by writing or drawing on plain paper and scanning to my PC?
I use the pad with Evernote software. I find that searching for text in a digital ink document from the pad is much better than searching for text in a scanned document.
Regards,
Stephen
April 17th, 2008 at 14:05
@RAY: “However can someone explain to me why I would bother to use this when I can get the same result by writing or drawing on plain paper and scanning to my PC?”
I bougth the TEVION (Aldi Süd, Germany) Version of this digital notepad at ebay for 29€. The major advantage (for me) of using this is: I take notes the whole day. At the end of the day I have about 5 up to 30 or more pages, and scanning them in the evening would take a lot of time.
@all
I try to get rid of Windows, and have ubuntu 7.10 installed. I was searching for a Linux-Tool that converts my handwritten scripts to editable text (e.g to use it in openoffice).
There are 2 interesting options
http://www.heatonresearch.com/articles/42/page1.html
and the open source GOOLGE OCR tesseract…
http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/
Did someone experiment with one of these already?
May 10th, 2008 at 14:59
@ yehl
I’m from germany too and I’m looking for a device like this. I need it for the university and since I will probably use it the next 3 years I want one that is working properly. Is yours ok so far and what is the specific artikle description so I can find it on ebay?
I’m not quite sure if that thing really works that good to be honest. Why can’t you find these things in proper onlinestores any more? So if theres a device that is really working and good quality please give me a link so I can convince myself
May 17th, 2008 at 5:34
I’ve made 2 improvements to Alex’s Toptools (the one written in C). I’ve posted them as patches on his project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/toptools
1st fixes a segfault in top2ps and correct the width/height properties in top2svg
2nd adds the possibility to use SVG paths instead of simple lines (make editing of resulting files easier as contiguous lines are now a single entity)
Cheers!
Garth
May 19th, 2008 at 9:43
@Garth:
Great job! Thanks for your effort to do so and mentioning it here.
May 19th, 2008 at 23:21
I bought one of the Tevion ones at Ebay now and I am quite happy with my new toy so far. Unfortunatly I am working with Windows and the software MyScript comes in the basic version only and I haven’t found any other prog for windows to handly the .top files yet. I would like to print the “scans” from the device as pdf or something like that without any OCR. I know that the MyScript 2.2 Full supports something like that, but if theres a freeware for that I would prefer that.
May 23rd, 2008 at 0:55
I’ve just got the medion one and I’ve noticed some bits of my writing missing when I view the TOP files, I’ve tried drawing a grid to check it and I seem have dead area in the lower right side that misses vertical lines
Anyone else have this? should I take it back?
May 26th, 2008 at 18:25
This is a quick note for anyone trying to access the SD card reader on the tablet under Linux (at least this is how I got it to work on my Adesso branded one): Each of the different storage (internal/SD) are on a different scsi LUN. Internal memory is on LUN0, while the SD card is on LUN1. So to be able to access the SD card, you have to set the kernel to scan for all LUNs. On a kernel 2.6, you need to enable: CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN
It is located at:
Device Drivers -> SCSI device support -> Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device
Edips:
I just ran a grid pattern on mine to see if I could reproduce your result, everything came up perfectly, so I’d suggest you return your tablet.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:46
I just bought this thing on ebay. It really seems like a cool gadget to have. I am on Mac OS X Leopard and it works out of the box when I plug it in via USB. But unfortunately every couple of minutes OS X seems to lose the connection and tells me about an unsafe drive removal. The TOP 2 SVG program (link above) immediately crashes when I try to convert a .top file. Any help would be appreciated. For now I have to settle with running the converter and handwriting recognition software in VirtualBox on XP. For all of you on Linux and Mac OS: it works ok and sure beats rebooting to Windows but a native application would be nicer, of course. By the way, that handwriting recognition software seems to work pretty good. I tested only a few sentences but I have a really nasty handwriting and the program did pretty good. At least with words it did know. My name and address came out somewhat crippled.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:55
I am still looking for a freeware programm that is just converting the top into some usable file like top2svg does it unter linux. Unfortunatly I have Windows so I hope there is something similar. The official way would be to buy MyScript Notes Full, but I don’t really accept to buy another software just to use the data that is coming out of the gadget…
June 24th, 2008 at 13:44
The digital notepad normally ships with a CD that contains ‘MyInk Suite’ among other programs. This Windows software will convert a .top file to JPEG, BMP or PDF.
July 5th, 2008 at 22:06
Hi, here’s our long story:
Well, we are dirt poor, and already carefully crafted our finances over several months to get my wife a Lenovo 3000N200-model, the cheapest ‘Thinkpad’ from the original manufacturers. Not a dual-core, just a Celeron M. Think single-core version of the modern dual-core puppies. Anyway, great machine which was about 500 euro from HD-Computer.de. I thought that would do it for her University needs. Of course not!
My wife went on and on about getting a Tablet PC. I said no, as these are with a very old CPU and hardware setup, within anything we could afford (Think of the executive laptop models, WITH a touch-screen).
She came up with this “Digitaler Notizblock”. Aldi, one pervasive grocery store chain, their electronics brand is Medion, and has kind of a mixed reputation, as Medion is more or less a marketing front-end for diverse electronic products of all sorts of quality levels, many poor quality, in my opinion.
As one previous poster pointed out, the exact same tablet as the Medion is available on eBay for 29€ plus 8€ shipping (in DE). Just do a search on ebay.de for “Digitaler Notizblock”. The only other product which comes up is some kind of clip-on to a normal paper notebook, which tracks the pen’s movements. I can’t imagine it would be as good as the item reviewed here.
I wanted to find some alternatives, to look at reviews, etc, be an ‘Informed Consumer’, and since English is my native language, I looked at Amazon.com for Digital Notebook and immediately found the http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C42MLE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top “Cyberpad”, which sells currently for 147USD. I couldn’t imagine with the price it was anything like the one offered she was looking at: one missing a pen going currently for 17€. After reading several reviews, and seeing photos where all the digital notebook tablets all look identical, except for maybe the software, the hardware is all the same, minus some branding.
So she ordered the Buy Now 29€ tablet and are waiting for delivery. We have already purchased a Canon MX310, sans cartridges (Please honey, READ the entire auction before buying), for about 55€, solely to use the ADF 30-sheet feeder with some OCR software to take in all her university documents and get rid of boxes of paper (the Germans LOVE paperwork). The MX310 is so-far working great and is really fast. Coupled with hacking XP to enable Mirroring and installing two inexpensive Seagate SATA drives, we are well on the way to the ‘digital age’, on an extremely tight allowance.
In all cases, I recommend reading reviews, and looking at past similar auctions. Looking now at a completed auction search on ebay.de, shows some ridiculous patterns: The notepad has been offered for as much as 149€ (not sold); the prices people have paid have been between 29€ and almost 60€. With the 60€ instance, there were 9 bids, although about 9 hours earlier, the same digital notepad, with different branding, was passed over and not sold, for a Buy It Now price of 29€.
I am only left wondering how much the pen is simply a pen, with a plastic stylus option, or if it has some other function or feature, for the pad to track the pen. This because the pen is large. It would be probably be handy to replace it with a thinner model.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:21
Hi,
I have a question, how to use right click and left click with the pen, while we have connected to PC.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:24
Hi,
I am just wondering if anyone has found any other pens yet?
Cheers
Kelli
August 19th, 2008 at 13:02
I am trying to convert top file to SVG so I can use it in Illustrator or Photoshop. I have checked the script links that above, but I know nothing about the software, does anyone know if there is a software that I can buy to do that? or is anyone willing to write one up for my company.
September 1st, 2008 at 23:06
@Henry
Plenty of TOP converting tools have been posted in this blog which all support conversion to SVG
- mine: http://besard.no-ip.org:8080/WebSVN/listing.php?repname=inkpad&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fscripts%2F&rev=0&sc=0
- Garth’s: https://sourceforge.net/projects/toptools
- Rodney’s: http://www.kevlindev.com/blog/?p=58
…
November 3rd, 2008 at 23:09
If anybody would want my script: I’ve moved hosts to http://maleadt.no-ip.org:8080
Script located at: http://maleadt.no-ip.org:8080/WebSVN/listing.php?repname=inkpad&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fscripts%2F&rev=0&sc=0
GTK2+ part not finished at all, but the console part works well and has quite some nice features (SVG export plus multipath detection, etc etc). Written in perl.
November 13th, 2008 at 21:36
Hey guys
I am also thinking buying one of these digital pads
I didnot read all the comments
By question is
What is the power source for this pad? Does this one has batteries or has an power input or a chager or something?
Coz earlier I thought I am buying a digital pad with a power source but actually the device shold be connected to a computer
so donot wanna do the same mistake again
Just ask from the experts!!!
thx guys this is so helpful
November 15th, 2008 at 22:09
Hi,
I get the Aldi things emailed to me each week and i think that the MEDION DIGITAL NOTEPAD looks great but i can’t figure out if you need papper for it nor if you have to have the computer on to use and write things on it with the pen?
Nathan
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:34
They are on sales again in ALDI on Thur 27th 08 in the UK for £49.99p. It comes with 32MB (100 pages) memory on board and also has a SD/MMC card slot.
Last time they had these they ran for 100 hours on 4xAAA’s.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_7966.htm
November 23rd, 2008 at 21:42
I am thinking of getting one of these. They are in our local Mold store this week. Can anyone answer the question that has been asked in this blog but not answered – how long do the pens last and where can you get the refils and how much are they? Come on Robins!
November 24th, 2008 at 11:51
Pens should last a few years and refills from WH Smiths.
Red Passion
November 24th, 2008 at 14:21
Is the MD 85276 the same with Aiptek’s MyNote Premium II? Or is it just the MyNote simpliciter? And what would be the difference b/w these two anyway?
Please help!
Here are the relevant websites:
http://www.aiptek.eu/index.php?option=com_product&task=view&productid=172&Itemid=344
http://www.aiptek.eu/index.php?option=com_product&task=view&productid=88&Itemid=342
http://www.aldi-sued.de/de/html/offers/2827_9243.htm#
Many thanks.
November 25th, 2008 at 15:58
The Tevion MD 85276 looks to be the same as the Aiptek MyNote. The Aiptek site has 3 models of MyNote that do look to be the same. If you go to the Aiptek shop they only sell MyNote Premium II and not the other two.
MyNote Technical Data:
Digital Pad
Dimension: 331.9 x 252.8 x 13.5 mm
Active Area: 8.5” x 11”
Weight: 704.0 g (672.8 g w/o batteries)
Writing height: Max. 13.5 mm (ca. 135 pages)
Built-In Memory: 32 MB NAND flash
Expandable Storage: Secure Digital Memory card (2GB)
Batteries: 4 x AAA
Batteries-Live Writing: 20 hours.; Standby: 50 hours.
Power consuption: Writing time 120-130 mA (360-390 mW); Standby: 35-45 mA (105-135 mW)
Power Supply: 1.5 V AAA Batteries x 4; USB port when connecting to computers
Power Saving: 3 sec Auto-Standby (During inking mode)
Connection Interface: USB 1.1 (12Mbps Full Speed USB 2.0)
LED-Indicator: Tablet connection indicator
Resolution: 1000 Lpi
Features: Digital inking, Tablet, Mass storage, SD Card reader
Operating Systems Win2000/XP/Vista
Digital ink pen
Diameter: 3.6 mm
Length: 147.0 mm
Weight: 28.4 g (20.4 g w/o batteries)
Battery: 1 x AAA
Battery-Live: 15 Month (writing hours)
LED: Yes (blinking if low power)
Rubber hold: Ergonomic design
November 25th, 2008 at 16:08
The MyNote was added to the AIPTEK catalog on Monday 26 February, 2007.
The MyNote Premium II was added on Thursday 20 March, 2008.
So it looks like this may be just a hardware upgrade as the spec is the same???
November 27th, 2008 at 13:11
Okay, so here’s my conundrum:
I bought this morn’ a Tevion/Medion device from Aldi for 70 Euros. Its ID is MD85925(!). What is that? MyNote or MyNote II? The thing with Aiptek’s MyNote is that, as opposed to MyNote II, MyNote simpliciter cannot function as a tablet (or can it?). At least it’s not advertised as such.
Alright, so what we have so far is:
Tevion/Medion MD85925 (70 Euros in store (Aldi Sued Germany))
Tevion/Medion MD85276
Aiptek’s MyNote
Aiptek’s MyNote II (90 Euros on the web(!))
Waltop’s Digital Ink Pad T01s
Some of these seem to not have PC tablet capabilities; don’t know which ones though. So far, Aiptek hasn’t answered my queries, nor do I think it will.
The driver disk that came w/my Tevion device is titled: “MyNote T01s”. Go figure!
Otherwise, MyNote II seems to come with a watch battery, so it may be that the pen is smaller and lighter, and does not use AAA batteries. That might be the main difference.
November 27th, 2008 at 18:35
I got one today, nice device.
Page 21 of the manual covers how to use it as a digitizer tablet.
November 28th, 2008 at 7:09
Bought one yesterday from Aldi and everything is working great. Had a trial run transferring notes across and gave it a handwriting sample so that a profile could be created so that my hurried scrawl can be translated to text. Impressed by the easy way that it worked even for a non-geek like me. Install the software, do some trial notes, plug into computer and let it do its business. Worked first time. I agree that the manual could be better but no do doubt before the end of term it will be used without thinking about it.
November 28th, 2008 at 17:29
Bought one too from Aldi today (an MD 85925), works great in Windows, but I can’t access the files in Linux…
Any ideas what /dev file I have to mount or how to access the data otherwise?
I have absolutely no experience with this, but I couldn’t find anything useful on Google either…
November 28th, 2008 at 17:43
Okay, Just reseted it and it works now, guess the device doesn’t react too well if it gets disconnected and reconnected too often…
November 28th, 2008 at 23:02
Hi, did anybody know, how its possible to change from highformat to qformat. Because Freenotes is in Highformat but its not possible to rotate. Anybody have a solution? (Windows XP) i tried every driver i found, but without luck. (Sorry for my bad english)
November 29th, 2008 at 0:36
Hi, I’ve just purchased the Medion Digital Notepad from Aldi today. The model number is P82001 – MD85925 and it comes with two CDs. The Digotal Notepad Software is on one disk and the MyScript Notes 2.2 software on the other which from reading previous posts, should be a benefit over the previously supplied software. I’ll fire it up shortly and post my findings over the weekend.
November 30th, 2008 at 13:59
Ted,
Don’t use freenotes, but MyScript.
November 30th, 2008 at 19:28
@Wrex, OK but i dont want use a ocr. i only want use highformat (hochformat in german)
November 30th, 2008 at 21:27
Ted,
Not sure what you want to do?
For handwriting.
By default MY INK sets up TOP files to be opened by FREENOTES. One of the first thinks to do is change this, by opening MY INK and changing the Application Settings. Use Browse, you need to point to “Program Files/Vision Objects/MyScript Notes/MYSCRIPTNOTES.EXE”. Click OK to save.
You can rotate documents 90 degrees in My Script. OCR is not used, this is the reason why you cannot use a scanned document. OCR is a totally different process.
For tablet.
Remove any paper and put the plastic sheet in it’s place. Replace the ink refill in the pen with plastic one. Plug the tablet into the PC with the USB cable. With the “Medion Clip” on the right and the F1, F2, F3 at the top the courser should now move when the pen moves and the tablet should be the sames as the screen.
Hope this helps you?
December 1st, 2008 at 0:18
Wrex
Yes this help. I was only confused because i want to use if i plug the md 85276 with usb, with “medion clip” on the top!!! if i do so, the pen go like i put i on with “medion clip” on the right. so i was searching to change the move ofthe pen (revers) but if this could not pssible, i do like you write with Myscript (Basic Edition) because i only have this version, but thank you for help!!
December 1st, 2008 at 10:28
Finally, some answer from Aiptek–though not from Germany’s Aiptek, but from Taiwan’s Aiptek, which I emailed yesterday.
> 1. What is the main difference between MyNote and MyNote Premium II?
> Basically it’s the same , only the pen is different.
> 2. Will either of them work in Vista x64? Do you have Vista x64 drivers
> for them?
> Yes , it work in Vista x64.
> 3. Is the MyNote Premium II a rebadged WALTOP Digital Ink Pad T01s?
> Yes.
I still don’t see why it is that MyNote is only advertised as a digital notepad and not as a graphics tablet … unless the new pen gives it pressure sensing features–though, to my mind, pressure sensors should belong to the part that’s connected to the computer. Whatever.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:30
FOR THE MAC USERS, here is some stuff I found for the Medion MD-85276 branded tablet, tried on a Leopard (Mac OS 10.5.5).
NO DRIVER INSTALLED
- Access to the memory and a SD card works. They are mounted and you have the usual access, e.g. for copying/deleting the .TOP files.
- Trying to use the pen when USB connected will jump the cursor to the lower right screen corner and do nothing else.
DRIVERS
- Only one driver seems to exist for the Mac, in various versions. The latest is called “Pen Pad Tablet Driver V1.68-USB”
- It’s available at
http://www.genius-europe.com/en/service_treiber.php , select the Genius G-Pen M712 oder M609 (identical drivers, only products with Mac drivers).
- Older versions (if you run on an older system, maybe you need one of these): at the sites for
- – Adesso Cyberpad => Pen Pad Tablet Driver v1.55, v1.66 (depending on product)
- – Waltop => Pen Pad Tablet Driver v1.66
- No Mac drivers could I find on sites for the following brands:
- – Medion, for MD-85276 or 85925
- – Aiptek MyNote
- – Genius, G-Note 7000 (same driver as M712)
- – Digital Ink Pad (too generic to find, if existent at all)
- – Aclass EZPad
(I did not search more than 1 language/homepage each, there may be some downloads left obsolete.)
INSTALLATION
- The installer has an option for uninstall, but I’m not sure if it removes everything completely, if need be.
- The driver installs an application called “FKeyHandlerX” that will always be running. It has no user-servicable functions, and if it gets on your nerves squatting in the dock and the application switcher it is safe to remove it from there using tools like “Dock Dodger” or “Dockless”. (It lives not in the Applications folder, and the quickest way to find it for drag’n drop is from the Dock’s context menu.) It will still be running, just not visibly so (cf the documentation for Dock Dodger and Dockless).
TABLET USE
- Using the ink pad as a rudimentary graphics tables works, but only in landscape mode (the function keys on the upper and the paper clip on the right side).
- The writable area of the tablet is mapped to the full screen area.
- A gentle touch on the surface or even moving the pen slightly above it moves the cursor.
- More pressure makes dragging, similar to a mouse with main key pressed.
- Tapping the surface acts like a mouse click, also double/triple clicks work.
- The blinkenlights are silly and destracting.
HANDWRITING RECOGNITION
- Ink is supported, see its documentation (and the “Missing Manual” book is always recommended), and google for what it does and what not.
- DOES ANYONE KNOW SOMETHING TO AUTOMATICALLY RECOGNIZE AND FILE AWAY THE NOTES? I wonder if some PDFing and OCRing would go together with apps like DevonThink.
CONVERTING .TOP FILES
VectorPen
- The demo lets you view the .TOPs and save them in several formats, but none of them is vector graphic.
- Did not try the full version — if you have, is it automatable?
Maleadt’s perl script
- It appears that this script copies the .TOP files from tablet to harddisk and converts them.
- http://maleadt.no-ip.org:8080/WebSVN/filedetails.php?repname=inkpad&path=%2Ftrunk%2Fscripts%2Finkpad_import.pl&rev=0&sc=0
- Save the script as perl script (.pl), set execution permissios (BatchMod, see above).
- It looked very interesting, but all I got was an error: “Can’t locate GD.pm in @INC [ ... ] at [ ... ] inkpad_import.pl line 92″. It seems that only people having GD.pm installed can use it. I REALLY WOULD LOVE SUCH AN AUTOMATIC COPY AND CONVERT TOOL, but I lack the skills to write it.
- To run automatically every time the tablet is connected, this script must be invoked. Several methods are available on the Mac:
- – UDEV Rule — I have clue how to do that, especially in Leopard.
- – Install “Do something when” (very simple and convenient)
- – Install “Proxi” (Folder Monitor on “/volumes”* where the tablet is mounted; set Filter for the volume name you gave your tablet, in CAPITALS)
- – Invoke it through an AppleScript that is a “Folder Action” on “/volumes”* (“on adding folder items to this_folder … after receiving added_items … if the name of added_items is …”)
(- – QuicKeys doesn’t react to mounting the tablet)
top2svg v0.2
- Run from Terminal
- After download you must give it the permissions to be executed (sounds awful….): Easiest done using BatchMod, just set a checkmark for every “X”.
- The .TOPs must be without the suffix.
top2svg.py
(
- After download you must give it the permissions to be executed (sounds awful….): Easiest done using BatchMod, just set a checkmark for every “X”.
- I got only errors from this script.
toptools
(( Every help (or pointer to a tutorial/manual/howto) is GREATLY appreciated.
- I have not tried them, don’t know how to compile them.
My Applescript
)
- It copies all files to the desktop, then deletes them (except the config file) on the tablet, then converts them to .SVG (I would prefer .PDF but there seems no cheap and easy-to-use converter available…)
- Use “Do something when” or any of the other methods mentioned under “Maleadt’s perl script” to have it run whenever the tablet is plugged in (may take a few seconds).
- Copy the following into Skripteditor, make the necessary changes (the things in “”), then save as Program (NO startup dialog!) where you like.
=================
on run
try
do shell script “cp -n -R -X /Volumes/ /Users//Desktop; find /Volumes// -not -name ‘mynote.cfg’ -depth -delete; rm /Users//Desktop//mynote.cfg”
on error the_error
if the_error is not “find: -delete: /Volumes//: relative path potentially not safe” then display dialog ” files were not copied properly. Sorry!”
end try
try
do shell script “find $HOME/Desktop/ -not -path *.fseventsd* | grep -o .*[A-Z][0-9][0-9] | sed -e ‘s/.*/ &/’ | sh”
if the the result is not “” then error
on error
display dialog “.TOP files were not converted properly. Sorry!”
end try
end run
=================
*Note*: Here some special characters must be escaped for the sed command, and that is really hard if you don’t know how and why.
For example, when I had top2svg in the location “/Users/xxxxx/Desktop/Ink_Pad/2. Import, Convert/TOP/top2svg-v0.2/top2svg” the sed path looked like “$HOME\\/Desktop\\/Ink_Pad\\/2.\\\\ Import,\\\\ Convert\\/TOP\\/top2svg-v0.2\\/top2svg”.
Basic rule: a space or a slash in the path must be “escaped” once for Terminal by putting a backslash before it, then for sed, each backslash again by another backslash, and to use these in applescript, each backslash again by another backslash. This is how ” ” becomes “\\\\ “, and “/”, “\\/”, etc. Got it? Then drag your top2svg to its final location (because you don’t want to go through the next step again!), then drag it into a new Skripteditor window, replace away, and copy the result to the skript. And don’t moan, it took me several hours for that “$%Oç/P§!!!” skript to work.
December 2nd, 2008 at 21:43
Heh, it’s funny to see this discussion is still alive. Anyway, I’ve removed the dust from this little gadget and started on a C++-rewrite of my Perl script. I’m think of giving it a Gthumb-alike Gtk2 interface, with user-friendly import, adjust and export options. Don’t expect fast development though, it remains a fun-project and I’m having some exams soon.
@macky: my old script indeed needs some extra libraries, which includes the GD library, and some Gtk2 libraries. The Gtk2 part is (and will remain to be) disfunctional though, so you could safely edit the script and remove that part. And lastly, the udev rules are made to call the script on insertion of the inkpad, which ultimately is the goal (fully atomised import and conversion on insertion).
maleadt
December 3rd, 2008 at 23:07
Hello i really need some help with my notepad.
My comp. can see my notepad:S?
When i look in my computer there is only my c drive.
but the symbol on my display is oke and the led change when i come close/push to the notepad.
I really need some help from you guys…
Greets,
Dave
December 6th, 2008 at 1:28
Hey guys,
I’m about to go pick this item up at the store but the only question remaining is…
Is it detected by Windows Vista as a handwriting tablet when plugged in?
I also have a tablet to work with (which has pressure sensitivity but its not very mobile so cant take it around with me). I really like Windows’ support on tablets and all advantages it gives in other programs like Photoshop. So do the drivers tell Windows its a tablet and not just another HID ?
Thanks a ton
December 6th, 2008 at 2:41
I get this tablet end my computer(vista) dint recognized it:S
I make contact with the company but i still got no response!
Greets,
Dave
December 6th, 2008 at 10:41
@Dave: Hi Dave. My computer also did not recognize the tablet. The tablet display showed the USB connection but my laptop did not. Then I noticed that the small USB connector in the tablet was not inserted far enough. You may have to fumble a little with it.
Greets Erik
December 6th, 2008 at 11:02
Oh yes it works now thank you dude !!!!!
Its works perfect now
Greets,
Dave
December 6th, 2008 at 11:44
Can someone help me and send me the drivers for Medion 85925 digital notepad? or send me a link. Just bought one, realised it needs to install driversand I dont use/have cd/dvd drives at home to install the drivers. thx a lot.
December 10th, 2008 at 22:39
Hi, kewl gadged!!! Was just wondering. can one also write on it without paper and some pen which doesnt write ink? and can one view the pages one has written on that pad?
December 12th, 2008 at 12:10
@ Nick:
Google the websites for the different brand names of this device that have been mentioned in the comments above. Then go to that sites and dig around until you find a driver to download. Asking for drivers without even mentioning your operating system — what do you expect?
@Shreed:
No, no use with *some* pen. The pen works with a magnetic field (hence the battery that makes it somewhat clumsy to use).
December 12th, 2008 at 13:13
@Schreed: yes you can, as long as you use the accompanying pen which has a specific kind of plastic filling which you use if you do not want to actually write but just draw on the panel.
BTW:
Basic functionality finished (import TOP, export SVG, rotate, crop and simplify), and works pretty well too. Still left: fixing bugs, adding more supported import and output formats, and add an “all-in-one” import dialog.
December 12th, 2008 at 13:15
Ugh, this blog is configured not to allow img tags. Well, here is the raw URL: http://maleadt.no-ip.org:8080/files/Inkpad.jpg
December 15th, 2008 at 23:59
Hi, does anybody know a alternative for vectorpen? (preferred freeware, windows xp) Thanks, and Merry Christmas…
December 16th, 2008 at 12:07
@uwe:
Right now? No, can’t name a user-friendly piece of software capable of converting multiple formats, except for the software which you received with the hardware. But that’s what I’m aiming at with my inkpad application, currently only for TOP but more to come.
December 25th, 2008 at 14:24
Did someone get to know which xorg.conf entries are necessary to use the digital notepad as graphic tablet?
it is recognized as
[ 705.975567] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
[ 705.977910] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[ 706.000298] input: Digital Ink Pad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb5/5-2/5-2:1.1/input/input13
[ 706.041212] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver…
[ 706.084929] input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [ Digital Ink Pad] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
[ 706.085357] scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 706.085651] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 706.085815] usbhid: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[ 706.086306] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
…
At the moment the x-y axis is inverted and the resolution is wrong, is there a way to calibrate it?
Thanks
@maleadt, do you have a beta-version of your software to test?
Thanks
January 3rd, 2009 at 19:33
I have enjoyed all your comments very much so. A lot of what you say is over my head, but I am learning a lot as I go. My question is two part. 1) Has anyone used any other product besides the Medion? I am looking at the Adesso Cyberpad 2) Do you know any web sites that I can purchase the Medion. I am US based for 50% of my business so I also need it compatible. I will be using my pad mostly for taking notes at meetings, and writing free hand for a novel that is in the works. Again, thanks for this site. Is has already helped me heaps.
January 3rd, 2009 at 23:12
Wow. This is wonderful gadget! I would like to get my hands on one of these… Very useful and could help me a lot. Thanks for sharing!
January 6th, 2009 at 22:16
Hey peeps,
I bought the pad aswell, but for some reason my computer doesn’t recognize the tab.
I’ve installed all of the software but still nothing happens… anyone else had the same problem? or knows what to do?
January 7th, 2009 at 12:00
Lando:
OS, windows I guess? Does the screen of the notepad light up or display something upon connection? Using official cable? Read all the comments (or: has the cable been plugged in thoroughly, as somebody else also got this proble)?
Billy:
Can’t say I have experience with other notepads, but for extensive use I’d advise buying something else. I wouldn’t dare it to call any more than a “gadget”. Some issue’s: the pen doesn’t work flawlessly, depending how you write the pad doesn’t register everything you write(you have to hold your pen quite straight, or its point doesn’t get pushed in far enough), the pen is too thick to write comfortably, the pen isn’t very strong and mine has already some fractures, paper doesn’t stick to the pad very well, …
And most of all, I got the impression this Medion product is a damaged batch from another company, now sold rebranded, and at half the price. Some things which make me think this: the pen’s led doesn’t work, although there actually is one which should work, and on the pad there is a “activity led” too which should indicate when you’re writing. It does however only lit when writing at a specific portion of the pad…
Conclusively: I’d call this inkpad more of a gadget, and wouldn’t advise for extensive use at all. I’d get frustrated with it
January 7th, 2009 at 15:31
Hi everybody
I ve bought a Digital Ink Pad, it works fine for me, I ve installed the bundle software (inksuite , myscrpt notes) and also works fine.
But I need a software to recognize forms and to export directly to access, excel or whatever base. Do you know if is it possible? Can anyone advise me someone?
Thank you very much
January 7th, 2009 at 19:29
I wrote a little nautilus-script, based on Jorik’s python script:
you can put it in /usr/share/nautilus-scripts and enable it with nautilus-script-manager enable filename
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
zenity –error –title=”warning” –text=”no file selected!”
exit 1
fi
is_top()
{
file -b “$1″ | grep ‘data’ || echo $1 | grep -i ‘\.TOP$’
}
if !(is_top “$1″)
then
zenity –error –title=”warning” –text=”this file is not supported!”
exit 1
fi
pfad=`pwd`
output_folder=`zenity –file-selection –directory –filename=/your/prefered/path/`
while [ "$1" ]
do
output_prop=`basename $1 .TOP`
datei=$pfad/$1
output=”$output_folder/${output_prop}.svg”
if [ -f $output ]
then
output=`zenity –entry –title=”warning” –text=”file $output exists already, please select new output path:” –entry-text=”$output”`
fi
/usr/local/bin/top2svg.py $datei > $output
shift
done
January 7th, 2009 at 19:30
hum, the “” and ‘ ‘ got weird, you can find it here
http://pastebin.com/f389e999c
January 10th, 2009 at 8:35
Has anyone tried both the Aiptek My Notes Premium II and the Medion MD 85276?
I wish to know which one is the better product. I have come across the Medion MD 85276 for half the price of the Aiptek, but do not wish to buy it if it’s an inferior and more complicated to use product.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:18
http://groundstate.ca/ocr mentioned a few linux OCRs..
the only one that said it could do handwriting was:
http://code.google.com/p/ocropus/
I’ll keep plodding on with ocropus but initial efforts = naught.
My efforts were:
I downloaded their latest tar
unpacked it (tar -xvf [filename])
tried ./configure and it failed on
http://code.google.com/p/iulib
got that downloaded and unpacked
this failed on libjpg when using ./configure
so I installed via the synpatic package manager
libtiff4-dev
libpng12-dev
libjpeg62-dev
and then ./configure
make
sudo make install
worked fine for the iulib
back to ocropus
I had actually previously installed tesseract but it failed to find it when ./configuring ocropus so I used
./configure –without-tesseract –without-fst –without-leptonica
to configure instead, which worked.
make then FAILED on tesserach.h ?? wtf?
In file included from ./ocr.cc:36:
./ocr-util.h:38:23: error: tesseract.h: No such file or directory
./ocr.cc:43:29: error: recognized-page.h: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [ocr.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/me/ocropus-0.3/ocroscript’
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
so I went back to synpatic package manager and installed tesseract-ocr-dev just to be sure.
then ran a make clean
rm config.status
and configured with
./configure –without-fst –without-leptonica
more errors on make – this time to do with not being able to find .h files.
./configure –without-fst –without-leptonica –with-tesseract=/usr/share/tesseract-ocr
note: –with-tesseract=/usr/share/tesseract-ocr may be different for you. the install of ocropus says it should be what the –prefix= was used when compiling tesseract. and if you used a package manager you will need to use that to find out the path it installed tesseract too.
this still failed but was worthy to do cos now I have tesseract in the build instead of not.
it turns out the /usr/include/tesseract .h files needed to be copied into the ocropus folder I was making in, under its own ocr-tesseract folder.
cp /usr/include/tesseract/* ocr-tesseract/
this time make finished with:
“all checks completed
Use ‘make check’ to run tests!”
woot.
sudo make install worked as well.
testing: ocroscript recognize data/pages/alice_1.png
did not work.
I ended up finding
ocroscript ocroscript/scripts/rec-ltess.lua data/pages/alice01.png
as a command to run which worked.
however my handwriting was not recognised by default.
I have used the python script to convert to svg a page I had previously written.
then I used gimp to save out as a jpg.
and it the ocr conversion – well it was rubbish.
so I did another test trying to print as well as I could on the notepad on a fresh page the line
“A big brown bear ran over the road”
and it translated it too:
04 big 40/DwW mmr mw over www WWE
two words! – not the brownie point I was after.
I guess the only OCR for handwriting is the one in windows which has to be trained. (good thing I have windows in vmware for work too).
I’ll keep plodding on with ocropus but initial efforts = naught.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:38
@Zenrium
Free OCR (especially for handwriting) software is difficult to find, as it isn’t an easy subject and requires quite a lot of research and advanced algorithms to get working decently, which explains why it is mostly found in commercial packages.
I did however stumble across a promising piece library: the Lipi toolkit (http://lipitk.sourceforge.net). This developer-oriented, HP sponsored library is quite up-to-date and supports most features needed to integrate handwriting ORC in any application. I’m having a look at it later on to see if I can integrate it in my inkpad application.
February 8th, 2009 at 17:46
I am considering getting one of these – although I have a perfectly decent A4 scanner, it seems a hassle to scan everything, and in any case that will only create bitmap images, rather than nice vector files.
It looks like there are several devices on the market, all badged and housed slightly differently. I thought I’d throw this into the pot, and perhaps WZab you could offer us some info here? It seems that the Genius G-Note 7100 is the only device to offer two pens of different colours, which seems like a useful function. Does that mean the SVG/top files are rendered in different colours?
I am considering buying a G-Note on eBay, but opinions on the web vary as to whether the pens are of sufficient quality construction. As with any mail order stuff, perhaps the only way is to buy and hope
February 9th, 2009 at 17:15
Hi all, this is an extremely useful thread!
To add my bit, I’ve just done some TabletPC presentations to health staff but the Tablet I had was DOA. I used the CyberPad version attached direct to my Dell M1710 running Vista Ultimate and was able to use all of the pen facilities of Vista. Not as easy to use as a proper tablet but still very useful.
In particular, the handwriting recognition built in to Vista is even better than that built in to XP. You can also train the Vista version to improve recognition.
If you don’t have Vista or the tablet additions to XP, I think that you can get the tablet additions via MS Office.
Regards, J.
February 12th, 2009 at 21:21
Just thought I’d add this review for the DigiMemo equivalent – it’s a good read.
February 12th, 2009 at 21:29
By the way – does anyone know of the cheap availability of these things in the UK? I checked an Aldi in Birmingham, Midlands, UK and they’ve none. The Ebay approx price is around £65-75 including postage but that seems a bit steep, considering Aldi are selling them for £48.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:47
I second Jon’s request but for Ireland.
Found this site about the last time they had these on special in Aldi but ended up not getting one. Figured they’d always be cheap on eBay. Now I could really do with one for work but they all seem to be up around the €80-100 mark. Guess the eBay one’s were probably from the same batch as Aldi’s
February 13th, 2009 at 16:09
Just thought I’d give an update.
I ended up ordering an AIPTEK My Note Premium 2 from this auction: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270339621546
Cost more than I’d planned but it does come with a portfolio carrying case and the full version of MyScript so I guess it balances out.
If anyone’s interested I can post a bit of a review when it arrives
February 15th, 2009 at 20:07
hey guys i’m from the netherlands and bought this thing yesterday.
well not much good to say about it. first of all the driver installs but doesn’t recognize the device.
i’ve got a brand new medion laptop, so clinching drivers can’t be the problem.
second the indicator light on my pen doesn’t work.
third the indicator light on the tablet only works when the pen is in the bottom 3 cm of the tablet. so if i write at the top of a page the device does not indicate im writing with a blue led.
fourth the tekst editors and handwriting recognision does not support “dutch” therefore i need to buy the full-program for €20.
fifth on the installation cd with 4 programs. you get a cheap menu where you can select the programs to install. i could only select 2 out of 4 the buttonlinks to the other 2 programs didn’t work and didn’t got highlighted.
if you browse the cd you can install these programs but for a lot of people this could be kinda hard to find out.
for all these things i want to return it and get my money back.
i’m sure that this does not happen often, but i like to read my notes without a computer so i really have a digital notpad. in which i can write, read and adjust.
i guess i should have known that for €80 this would not be much of a device.
my review says “bad” on all bases. lights don’t work properly. the installation cd does not work properly. the driver (which let’s your computer recognize the device) does not work on a brand new computer. you need a computer to read your notes. the “dutch” language isn’t recognized.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:52
Thank you Zenrium for your detailed account! I was able to get ocropus to build and run on my iMac (24″ Intel) running Intrepid
now to see if it will work on PDF files ….
March 12th, 2009 at 12:47
Hi,
I’m using the Jorik python source code to start a set of tool for the tablet.
You will find the project at http://code.google.com/p/aipteknotetools/
The current features:
Simply use the Jorik code to batch processing a set of TOP files or a set of paths
Planned features:
Add the option to remove the TOP files after the import
Merge PDF document with the notes. This allows to print a document, write on the document
with the tablet, import the TOP files and then obtain a new PDF with the notes on an overlay
April 24th, 2009 at 12:17
Dear All,
I would know if MyNote Premium II can be used on actual paper (using the pen with real ink) when connected to a PC (using the included USB cable).
In my company, some people find difficult to write on a notepad and, in parallel, to watch at the screen of a PC, and then they would like to see on the notepad what they are writing on a blank power point presentation (used as a blackboard).
It seems that the product can be used as a digital notepad or, alternatively, as a tablet, but not both.
Thanks,
Mario
April 28th, 2009 at 13:51
OMG!!!
I’m either quite slow on computers or every one on this site is a super geek when it comes to converting files and blabbering on???
I have bought the medion DN P82001, i use mac osx, I don’t have a clue what all that techno babble is about ?? at all…. im obviously quite stupid…:(
Does any one know of a SIMPLE step by step guide of how to convert the .top files so i can recognise them on my mac??? vectors of tiffs? just in english please??? – or should i take it back to the store???
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:56
This is on the Medion MD 85925.
For OS X Users, those asking about printed forms (and Gaz_mac user wanting a simple step-by-step guide), and those wondering about the practical uses of such a device…
Here’s some of my workflow as a business coach:
1) I have created multiple two-page A4 form templates in Pages (you can use Word etc.) for different scenarios (business essentials, general actions, web and online work, etc.) these are colour, on good paper, and ‘minutecoach limited’ branded.
I THEN GIVE THE FORMS TO THE CLIENT for their filing, and toddle off back to the office.
2) I print a few of them relevant to a particular meeting on single sheets of paper, double-sided.
3) I go to the client with just the pad and the sheets attached, and take notes through the session,writing down responses and action points as we talk on the top sheet on the pad.
4) I have a general note area (i.e. different layout) on the reverse side of the sheets, for any longer non-form notes, so if need be I flip the sheet, press the button for a new page, and keep writing.
6) If I need to flip the sheet back to side one, I turn it over and use the buttons to go back a page and continue writing). I also press for a new page if I switch forms.
7) The client signs the bottoms of the form.
9) I then connect the tablet via USB to my Powerbook, it shows up as an ‘Untitled’ storage device.
10) I open up VectorPen, go find the A0.TOP, A1.TOP, A2.TOP etc. page files on that device, and convert and save them as transparent PNGs at 300ppi, which I can open in Preview.
11) I open up Pages, create a new file from those templates I made (i.e. all the form backgrounds), and cut and paste the relevant PNGs on top, with a little drag / resize to fit.
12) I then Print to PDF and tag the pdf (I actually print the PDF to ‘YEP’ and tag it in YEP).
13) I then might annotate the PDF (Preview or PDFPen) with stuff relevant but arriving in mind after the meeting (i.e. example URLs I couldn’t remember at the time, etc.)
*I annotate the PDF because the client has signed off on the form, so I want a clear separation*
14) I then post the PDFs to the client’s minutecoach project site, all done.
Buy VectorPen, it is worth the €15 Euros, it is cross-platform, it works well.
I’ve outlined a mac-based workflow here and it should be clear which bits would benefit from using Automator or AppleScript, but the manual process is quite easy and quick, and tools for PDF printing and tagging are available very cheaply on Windows and Linux.
AS an aside, when your tablet is connected to the mac in OS X you will see a new control panel ‘Ink’. This will give you the ability to use handwriting recognition – do some Google searching to find out advantages and limitations.
Now, If you are looking for a less clunky pen, and a case that fits, you can get them from Aiptek in Germany.
1 x Softbag for MyNote (84-300W01010) = 9.95EUR
1 x Pen for My Note Premium II (99-065W10010) = 14.95EUR
Hope this helps,
Philip Stanley
Minutecoach Limited
May 4th, 2009 at 10:49
Hi,
I’ve bought this tablet, but have a small problem. The instructions are all in French or Dutch. Not really a surprise as I bought it in the Netherlands.
I’ve tried finding the handbook/instructions online from the Medion website, but got no joy.
Does anyone have a link to a website for the instructions? I’m at a bit of a loss as to where to start. I have this thing out of it’s box, ready and waiting.
I’d appreciate any help from anyone.
Also, I’m gratefult o the guy who wrote the leading thread here. Very useful information. Thanks for that.
Cheers
John
May 10th, 2009 at 12:04
Hi there, new to this forum, but looks populated by helpful and courteous people. So here goes my request for help.
Aim: to use Medion notepad + video capture software to create a series of “annotated” notes. Put simply: you would see on the screen what I write on the notepad and you would hear my voice explaining what I am writing.
Question: can it be done?
Any help/suggestions/comments would be very welcome.
I should add that I am forced to use Vista (which I hate!).
Many thanks in advance.
Manfredi
May 15th, 2009 at 8:46
John boy, here is a link to the instruction manual in English:
http://download1.medion.de/downloads/anleitungen/bda85276aus.pdf
Cheers
kenoath, Alice Springs, Australia
May 17th, 2009 at 22:58
Does anyone know of a way to replace the USB cable with a wireless link?
August 22nd, 2009 at 17:11
NEW Feature request for the aiptek tools please
Hi all, this page is the best place to gather info on these notepad! great resource and congrats to the page owner !
New feature request: Ability to rotate the .TOP file maintaining the .TOP file format !
Now why would anybody need this ? here’s why !
1. I use notepad for daily work notes and planning, meeting notes, etc
2. At the desk, I place the notepad in landscape mode, just before the notebook, whereby I have clear writing space (the digital notepad) and after it I have the notebook – I much prefer this placement than having notebook and notepad to the side… so when I don’t need the notepad, my forearms are placed on top of the notepad and writing on the notebook keyboard.
3. .TOP file is directly supported by Evernote (with some OCR capability), so what I usually do, is to import the TOP file directly to the Evernote desktop client, and sync to the web service – with this I can have access anywhere anytime.
4. Evernote does not support landscape writing or ink files
5. Hence -> I need something to rotate the top file maintaining the same file format for upload to evernote.
What do others think of this request ? hoping to hear your ideas!
August 22nd, 2009 at 17:12
I have placed the feature request here: http://code.google.com/p/aipteknotetools/issues/detail?id=4
August 25th, 2009 at 13:15
Shafik,
in this week end i will try to implement you feature request. However I prefer to separate the elaboration process from the developed tools. My proposal is:
- exploit the existing tool to convert a top file to svg
- use an external tool (i can write a naive python script) to rotate the svg
- use a new tool to convert the resulting svn into a top file.
This will permit to use any external tool to manipulate the file (e.g. Inkscape)
Any comment will be welcomed
September 4th, 2009 at 11:27
Hello all
I’m new here. I would like to buy this item but I was just wondering how it cooperates with programs like Photoshop or Corel. Of course I’m not a professional, so i do not need many of features of normal tablet, but would it be usefull for so-called drwaing
in abovementioned programs? Are they compatibile? Is this lack of difference in writing/drawing pressure a real problem?
Excuse me my english and thanks for all help in advance.
October 15th, 2009 at 15:13
Yes,the Medion notepad will work with Photoshop & Corel. It’s a great tablet!
Drivers?
Another question: I want to install the Medion digital notepad on my new Vista laptop. Can’t find the CD that came with the notepad. Anyone know where I can download the drivers?
On the Medion website the driver page shows a download button, but the next page doesn’t have any drivers, just an empty space.
Thanks in advance!
Loes
October 16th, 2009 at 18:12
[...] I found many useful info regarding the tablet and its usage on Linux on the blog http://eddie.niese.net/20071129/new-digital-notepad-gadget/ [...]
October 25th, 2009 at 22:45
I bought the Aiptek MyNote a while back, but I’ve lost the CD. I found the EverNote service and software over at http://www.evernote.com will read the .TOP files, and auto-synchronize them online so you can access them anywhere, and I see there are plenty of TOP to SVG converters available, but I’d also like to have the original software so I can convert to other graphics formats; does anybody know where to find the original software for these things? (I think it came with MyInk Suite, Free Notes, Office Ink, and MyScript Notes Basic.) If anybody knows, I would be forever grateful. Please e-mail me at ddd_blogs@hplx.net if you can help!
November 13th, 2009 at 22:10
Hi well I have just spent the last Hour + reading all the comments and have one question?
I am a writer and prefer to free hand everything and then type up, this is a long and arduous task so thought I will buy one of these pads.
Hard part is which one is best for hand writing to typed script, does any one have any idea but cant break the bank as not rich yet LOL
Also where could I test one of these,
Thanks for looking appreciate.
Sandie
November 17th, 2009 at 16:21
Help! I’m a 68 yrs old grandma and I saw the Medion graphic/drawing pad in Aldi’s yesterday. My 10 yr old grandson loves to draw. Is this a good purchase for him? Will he be able to work with it without constant supervision by dad–who is away on business 4 days out of 7. Thanks for your help.
November 25th, 2009 at 22:49
You can download the G-Note drivers for Windows Vista in
http://www.geniustablet.com/
If you lost your Genius CD, you can get the software in
http://download.geniusnet.com/2007/Tablet/FreeNoteV260(TOP).zip
http://download.geniusnet.com/2007/Tablet/G-Note7100-DigiOrganizer.zip
The new versions of Myscript Notes hand recognition (excellent product) can be obtained in
http://www.visionobjects.com/
November 29th, 2009 at 8:22
i have had this gadget for ages but its been in my cupboard the whole time because i want to use it as a drawing tablet like a wacom but when i connect to my pc it doesnt move my mouse plz respond i need help!
December 5th, 2009 at 13:04
I thought about buying it, but I make manga drawings and they need to have pressure levels. So my question was wich one do you guys recommend for me besides the MD 85276 ? Or do you think it doesnt matter that much?
kind regards, Kate
December 7th, 2009 at 23:39
[...] by Waltop International Corp. When searching on the Internet for more information I found this blogpost together with some perl and python scripts to convert a Top file to SVG. I will use the logic of [...]
January 31st, 2010 at 12:15
Hi there, I got a similar device, the Medion MD 85925, and would like to use it as a graphics tablet in Kubuntu 9.10.
Downloading and converting the top files works, and when it is connected via USB, the mouse moves over the screen according to how I move the pen over the tablet. But left and right click doesn’t work here, which makes it almost useless. Any idea how to solve this?
February 14th, 2010 at 19:56
[...] of input started looking for something more direct, based on pen-to-paper concepts. Looking for the digital notepad by Medion I found the Dane-elect zPen and instead. After purchasing the zPen I learned about the [...]
February 20th, 2010 at 22:55
I figured it out for Ubuntu 9.10:
1) Install the WizardPen driver as shown at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TabletSetupWizardpen
I used the non-official repository mentioned there.
2) Create the fdi file as mentioned at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TabletSetupWizardpen#Downloading%20and%20installing%20the%20driver
Filename: /etc/hal/fdi/policy/99-x11-wizardpen.fdi
Content:
wizardpen
true
There may be other interesting option, but with this it works.
February 20th, 2010 at 22:58
Sorry, the XML got killed. Another try:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″ ?>
<deviceinfo version=”0.2″>
<device>
<match key=”info.product” contains=”Digital Ink Pad”>
<merge key=”input.x11_driver” type=”string”>wizardpen</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents” type=”string”>true</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>
June 28th, 2010 at 14:55
Hi there, I got a similar device, the Medion MD 85925, and would like to use it as a graphics tablet in Kubuntu 9.10.
Downloading and converting the top files works, and when it is connected via USB, the mouse moves over the screen according to how I move the pen over the tablet. But left and right click doesn’t work here, which makes it almost useless. Any idea how to solve this?
September 9th, 2010 at 12:49
I also got MD 85925 ( Except mine is branded “Tevion”. ) Under Ubuntu 10.4 LTS it more or less works after I’ve installed drivers “WizardPen”. The only problem is that after I “click” ( touch surface with pen ) it stops reading movement. Solution is to lift pen beyond detection range ( ~5cm ) and lower it again.
November 27th, 2010 at 16:53
Hello dudes, I bought too a medion MD 85276 notepad, it’ fantastic!
PLease update your bookmark: for the top to svg conversion, there is a new software written in Java, it’s called VectorPen and it’s opensource:
http://vectorpen.com/index.html
It can re-scales the document to the principal paper formats, A4,A5,letter, etc.. and it convert TOP files to pdf, svg, jpg,png,bmp in a convenient GUI.
Thanks also to Eddie for these blog post: it helped me to evaluate and decide to buy the medion notepad!
by you all!
November 28th, 2010 at 9:56
Thank you corrado for pointing this out. I’ve included your VectorPen link in the article as “update 5″. Thanks for your contribution and have fun with your MD 85276.
December 5th, 2010 at 0:43
hi,can anyone tell me does this work on windows 7 os
December 14th, 2010 at 18:33
Hi Interesting page I just bought one of these devices in Aldi (€69.99) ireland
the software includes mynotes 2.2 full edition and on ubuntu 10.04 the mynotes software works in wine!
The internal memory and sd card are just mass storage devices so there is no problem transferring the files.
Incidentally there is a silvercrest device which has a pen and a base which you clip to paper this also works in ubuntu and pegtool will make the transfer. The silver crest device only has mynotes lite but is obviously a lot more portable.
Which is better I don’t know yet, but will be trying both. The medion device obviously has €60 worth of myscript notes which seems to make it far better value the silvercrest device is very awkward to use while connected to my pc since the usb cable is stiff enough to move the base relative to the paper.
December 29th, 2010 at 23:24
Hello Guys,
is there any chance that you could share your installation cd with me? Maybe make an image of the cd and upload to for example rapidshare.com or something?
I have this tablet, have used it a lot, really works well, but since i moved to the UK I managed to loose the installation cd somewhere. I have tried emailing medion, but they havent responded back.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Lukas
December 31st, 2010 at 13:35
I bought also the Aldi writer, but i can’t find out how I can convert my handwritings to a digitaal text. I get warnings all the times that HWemail is not working, that Paint an Adobe don;t recognize this and so on. I worh with window 7 and i’ve installed all the software wich was with in the packett Can someone help me please?
Iny
January 5th, 2011 at 21:52
You need to download the latest driver. I did it and my device works perfectly fine.
Just go to the medion website:
http://www.medion.com/gb/
In the top right corner hover with your mouse over ‘Service’ and select ‘Downloads’ from the drop down menu.
Then select ‘Driver’ and into the ‘full text search’ type in: 85273
Download it, install it and you’re good to go
Lu-Kaida
January 8th, 2011 at 19:03
Hi I have bought this for my son and have worked out how to get handwriting converted to text. However, what I can’t work out is how to save a drawing to a jpg or png. The software I have with the programme is:
Myscript notes
free notes
office ink
power presenter
my ink
Or do I use some other programme such as photoshop/paint/paintshop pro….. can’t find anything which tells me how to do what has been done as shown in the photos above for graphics i.e. drawing and then saving in a graphics format.
January 12th, 2011 at 19:23
Liz, you have a couple of options.
either your son will draw on the tablet and save it onto the internal memory (or storage card if you put one in) and then when you connect the tablet via the USB cable to your pc, you can browse the folders (and drawings) you have in there
Or, you connect it to a pc and use programs like photoshop to draw in real time. I wouldnt recommend using paint shop pro though as I found that it wasnt as responsive as photoshop.
Either way you can save the files as jpg. Or in the case of photoshop you have a list of file formats you can use.
Hope this helps.
Lukas
January 19th, 2011 at 13:00
Saw this in Aldi yesterday and it looks great, as an architecture student I get through reams of paper creating rough sketches and end up losing them when I need them the most so a digital collection of sketches in vector format sounds too good to be true! And it was, because when I went back in to get it today they didn’t have it. Is there anywhere I can get this for 50 quid online? I have seen Aiptek models that look identical to this but they are around 70 to 80 quid which I aint willing to pay.
January 23rd, 2011 at 22:27
Greg,
you might want to give this a go:
http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics/prod/MEDION®+2+in+1+Graphic+Tablet+(MD86302)/50035563A1?category=peripherals_29&recId=&wt_mc=gb.intern.m-shop.pro-pla.on-ma&wt_cc1=m-shop_topseller_peripherals-1.333-mitte&wt_cc2=50035563A1&wt_cw=30.2.8&utm_source=Internetseite-intern&utm_medium=Kachel&utm_content=peripherals_1.333-mitte&utm_campaign=Kategoriekachel-Hotspots&utm_term=50035563A1
its about half the size of the original tablet, however has the same resolution, so i’d say ideal for your sketches.
If it isnt what you want, i’d recommend trying different aldi’s and seeing of they still have it somewhere. I know its not ideal travelling to a different city just on the off chance, but it would definitely be an ideal tablet for you.
January 23rd, 2011 at 22:30
Actually, not sure how you trust ebay, but found a boxed one for £30
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Medion-DigiMemo-Digital-Notepad-32MB-memory-BOXED-/250759085193?pt=UK_Collectables_InputDevices_RL&hash=item3a6267fc89
it seems ok, since its all boxed and doesnt seem to be used.
February 17th, 2011 at 22:00
Hi there, i just bought the medion 85925, because im doing a degree, just left y husband, work 2 days a week and got a 2 year old son …… so i need time saving devices before i go crazy, i just need some simple step by step instructions on how to change my handwriting into times new roman….. please someone help as i cant really afford to have this device not to work. thanks in advance
March 1st, 2011 at 3:55
I just posted a thread about everything you need to use one of these notepads with Microsoft OneNote 2007. It makes use of the free Top2OneNote converter add-in and some free downloads from Microsoft (which may only be needed for non-ink-enabled OSes such as XP Professional).
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25903.0
April 22nd, 2011 at 17:14
I bought yesterday! Works ok, but MYINK program not working properly! I have windows 7. When I try to open program MYINK, it says “My ink already existed! Please close My Ink first!”
April 23rd, 2011 at 7:32
Would anyone have the driver for the Medion P82001 MD85925? I can’t find it anywhere on the internet including the Medion site. Be nice to have the rest of the software as well.
September 18th, 2011 at 21:33
hello, try this drivers for winxp: http://www.box.net/shared/s80jdlc8nf
Unfortunately medion has removed the drivers from the website, I’m very disappointed for this.
After only 10 months, the product is removed from the support: enbelievable..
bye
October 9th, 2011 at 14:04
Just a little fix to my last comment: the product is still available on the medion website, but only for download the manual, no drivers. You can find the product searchig with “MD 85925″ into text search box of this webpage: http://www.medion.com/de/service/download/handbuch.php
Does enyone wrote to medion to ask why the drivers are no longer available?
January 7th, 2012 at 8:34
I am 12 years old and I don’t know how to use it again. I found it installed on the computer and I tried it.I changed my computer and what can I do to use it again?