Tuesday, May 22, 2012

5 Tips That *Will* Fix Your Adonit Jot's Skipping Problem

I recently purchased the Adonit Jot Mini capacitive stylus for use with my iPad. While it is a fantastic accessory that is deservingly reviewed highly everywhere, I started noticing some problems with my stylus after a week or two of heavy use. It was not very responsive and when writing fast in cursive, it would skip quite frequently, to the point where I got super-annoyed. I thought for a while that either the one I had purchased was flawed or everyone who has reviewed it was wrong.


Actually, some researching gave me some ways to fix the stylus. I was successful. In this post I share with you some things you can try if your Jot product (standard, Pro, Mini etc.) doesn’t give you the desired results.

A capacitive screen requires a large electrical conductor (usually of a certain diameter) to touch it in order for it to register a tap. Usually, this is your finger. Most styluses replicate tour finger by having a thick conductive rubber or foam tip that touches the screen to register a touch. But Adonit’s styluses have a clear disc at the end of a pointed tip so that you feel like you’re using a real pen. The result is a stylus that works great for technical drawings, notes etc. but has a fragile and somewhat delicate design.

If the Jot’s disc does not connect well to the rest of the body, there is skipping observed. If your Jot product does not work as expected, you can try the following methods to fix it.

1. Check The Basics

Jot styluses don’t work past a certain angle of tilt. While the stylus suits most peoples’ writing angles, it may give bad performance near the maximum supported angle. Try changing your hand posture.

Check if there is something wrong with the app or device you’re using. The Jot works with any capacitive screen (like any other capacitive stylus). First make sure that the application or screen you are using doesn’t have problems of its own. Try your finger, or if possible, try out another stylus.

2. Clean Disc With Microfiber Cloth

This is what you should try first. In my case, this method fixed my problem. Someone on Adonit’s forums suggested this and it seemed to work for many.

Since I was cautious about dust sticking to the tip disc due to static electricity and scratching my screen (which is how Adonit explains Jot’s screen scratching problems), I was constantly wiping the tip with my fingertip (or other cloth), thus probably depositing some residue from my fingers on it.

I simply pressed the tip hard against my iPad’s Smart Cover and rubbed it clean. I noticed some alleviation of the skipping problems immediately. This may or may not work for you.

3. Clean Disc With Soap and Water

Some users on the Adonit forums reported better performance after cleaning the disc with soap. This one might go hand in hand with the previous tip. I have yet to try it for myself. I am guessing I can use a tiny bit of regular hand-wash soap with water to soak a cloth and wipe the disc clean. If your disc skipping sort of goes away after wiping the disc, try cleaning it with soap. It may give some better results.

4. Clean The Contact Between Disc And Pen

For the Jot to work properly there should also be good contact between the clear disc and the metal body of the pen. If there is dust trapped in the little hole where the ball at the end of the pen connects to the disc, you may notice skipping issues.

One forum user reported that removing the disc (tilt it to one side and snap it off) and forcefully blowing into it fixed the bad performance. The disc is meant to be removable, since Adonit also sells replacement discs for damaged styluses through their website.
5. Use Thermal or Conductive Paste

As a last resort, try this trick that many people on the Internet seemingly vouch for. Apparently, this tends to work the best, but requires something most people might not have lying around necessarily.

If you have thermal paste or some sort of conductive fluid, snap off the disc, dab a teeny-tiny amount of paste on the metal ball of the pen (take care to not smudge the disc or it will block the clear view through it) and reattach. This should fix any contact problems that the disc seems to have with the pen.

Conclusion






If you continue to have problems, you may need to contact Adonit’s support. I haven’t used it, but they seem to be really responsive and quick. I’ve seen their quick replies on forums to people having problems. They tend to fix all the problems.


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