SmartBoard Alignment Issue

Hey folks,

Seems I started praising SmartBoard a bit too early last week, as we have a board now having some issues. I'll calibrate the board using the standard tool, and everything is perfectly aligned except the left hand of the board (talking maybe 6 inches down the left). Down the left side it's nearly impossible to click menu items, or start a PowerPoint show etc because the mouse actually responds anywhere up to 3 inches away from where the board is touched.

I've checked the projector (won't move a muscle with force, never mind on its own). I've reset the board (blue reset button on side). And I've calibrated about 300 times!

I'm about to try and update the software (currently 9.7) but does anyone have any other suggestions? It's baffling me because the right & middle thirds of the board are working fine.

I saw an new Activboard do this with an old set of drivers.

The drivers were a major version out of date, new drivers fixed the issue.

they newer grey smartboard often come with firmware version 0 installing the drivers from smart 10 gives you the option of updating the flash to a newer version that CAN help

I have attached an Edge diagnostic test that you can use to test your board if it still won't work correctly after firmware upgrade attempts. You just run the exe and send the report file it outputs to support@smarttech.com and they'll tell you what's wrong with it. :)

I've attached an image from the SmartBoard in question. I drew the black lines in MSPaint using the mouse, which is why they are perfectly straight. I then calibrated the board (using the 20 point calibration) and began to try and trace the black lines in red ink. As you can see the red tracing lines are nowhere near the black lines.

Anybody got an idea as to what this could possibly be. Apparantly the board has been in for 3 years and it's been like this (unusable) since day one, but nobody bothered to tell me. Duh!

It sounds to me the surface of the board is damaged. I'd also look for any holes or bumps caused by pens or other sharp objects.

Are you connecting via serial or USB out of curiosity?

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Originally Posted by Michael

It sounds to me the surface of the board is damaged. I'd also look for any holes or bumps caused by pens or other sharp objects.

Are you connecting via serial or USB out of curiosity?

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It's USB. I've got a replacement USB cable on the way just to rule that one out.

I've tried updating the software too which didn't help. I also read on the forums that someone had some similar kind of problems and earthing the VGA cable seemed to sort them. So I've asked our DT Technician to bring in a length of earth cable and a couple of eye hooks so I can try that one out too.

I'd be getting on to the manufacturer now.

The reason I ask about Serial or USB is I've seen too many installations where USB is used over 5 metres. It just doesn't work properly. If you need to go over that distance, either use USB > Serial | Serial > USB or alternatively, USB > Ethernet | Ethernet > USB.

I've got a few like this, they cant all be faulty. Im thinking something like the wall is not straight so when the board is screwed to the wall at the bottom or you press on it with the pen it knocks the alignment out slightly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael

The reason I ask about Serial or USB is I've seen too many installations where USB is used over 5 metres. It just doesn't work properly. If you need to go over that distance, either use USB > Serial | Serial > USB or alternatively, USB > Ethernet | Ethernet > USB.

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That could sound possible - the board is on the wall and the teachers desk is in front of the board by about 2 metres. So if you account for the cable going up the wall, 2 metres through the ceiling and back down to the teachers desk it could well be over 5 metres.

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Originally Posted by Hightower

That could sound possible - the board is on the wall and the teachers desk is in front of the board by about 2 metres. So if you account for the cable going up the wall, 2 metres through the ceiling and back down to the teachers desk it could well be over 5 metres.

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assuming its one of teh newer smartboards with std usb b connector might be worth connectring a laptop up directly to the board with a std 1.8m usb lead and temporarily extending the vga see if that reduces/removed the problem

You can run the edge trace test from the SMART software control panel (if you don't use the zip). If you've updated to version 10 now and still have problems, find the SMARTboard control panel icon in the system tray and use it to open the control panel. Choose Software & Product Support, then either Tools or Disgnostics then Tools. In the Tools menu, choose Advanced Board settings then Edge Trace Test. This will give you a code (four letters separated by brackets).

We have the same problem with one board. There is surface damage. I did the test and phoned our supplier. It indicates a fault with the membrane, apparently. This isn't covered by the warranty (only the internal card and surface are). To get anything further on this, we have to send the board to the manufacturer ourselves and pay for them to check it out. Only if it is found to be a manufacturing fault will any costs be refunded and a repair offered free of charge. In the meantime, the teacher would be without any board at all. Currently having a think about this one!!

Cheers for your help guys, but in this instance Michael's solution seems to be the answer.

Me and a colleague have just had the board down off the wall, and have re-run a Cat5 cable in place of the USB cable. We then stuck a USB-2-Cat5 converter on either end. After a 20-point calibration the board is in sync.

Will get the teacher to test it the rest of the week, but it looks good so far!

USB has been the bain of many an IWB installation being over 2 metres as this is usually the norm for unpowered USB.

All our boards are mainly serial and just work. Only problems we get is with static build up on just a couple of boards something to do with the electric circuit to which they are attached but we have some devices on test at the moment to alleviate this problem.