Can with switch off the ink layer on SMART board?

[zx2012]

We were donated a SMART board a while back but everywhere else we use Promethean's boards and ActivInspire.

We upgraded all our PCs to Windows 7 last year. I installed the latest SMART board drivers(as of Aug 2011)

The pens work fine in Windows 7 but when we run other software such as ActivInspire the pens just draw ink all over the board rather then sending it as a mouse signal to ActivInspire.

Any ideas?

[wpjon]

We only have a couple of SMART boards but my understanding is that if you want to use the board as a mouse you put all the pens and eraser back in their holders below the board and use your finger. The SMART board drivers will detect when you are using a pen and will annotate the screen rather than pass the input to ActiveInspire.

[zx2012]

That's interesting.

We were only given 3 pens. One has always been missing.

Could that explain what is happening?

[petectid]

Yes the pens must be in their trays for your finger to act as mouse, fill the empty tray and your board will work.

[beany1]

Yes - it senses which pen is missing with a light sensor below each pen in the tray, put something in the missing gap and it will recognise touches as mouse. If a pen is removed it switches to ink mode and the colour for that tray.

[zx2012]

>>If a pen is removed it switches to ink mode and the colour for that tray.
Is there a way to switch that off?

Remember we only have Promethean's boards(apart from this SMART one) so therefore we only use a pen...

The pen works fine when on the desktop it's just that it starts drawing ink all over the screen when we use the pen with ActivInspire!

We could use touch but we use the pen in maths and literacy. At the moment it's mainly being used with Y6 booster groups.

[Galway]

>>If a pen is removed it switches to ink mode and the colour for that tray.
Is there a way to switch that off?.

Bluetak the sensor

[Achandler]

If you want to use the "ink layer" ever, then just put something in the empty tray slot. If you don't want to use it ever then simply bluetack the sensor or you should be able to unplug the tray.

[zx2012]

bluetak didn't make any difference. Did try MSPaint and that works fine. Very confused now. Probably going to install the Notebook software now.

[3s-gtech]

Put Blutak on all the sensors, there are two for the board rubber on some I think.

[6288]

I may be a little late with this, BUT... blue tack wont work on the sensors, try putting a pen in the tray? The bottom right of the screen you should have a SMART icon, right click this and open up the control panel or 'Smart Settings' then SMART Hardware settings, have a look at the pen options and see if there is anything there that may be worth changing?