Smartboard thinks every touch is on the far left edge

[AngryTechnician]

Hey all.

 

Just installed a new Smartboard 685 today and I can't get it to orient correctly. Have gone through even the Fine orient and while the orient completes OK, any press with finger or pen afterwards registers as being at the correct vertical position, but always on the far left edge of the screen - it ignores the horizontal position completely.

 

Haven't done a huge amount of diagnostic yet as I only found the problem at the end of the day, but wondering if anyone has seen this before and knows what it is?

Edited July 27, 2011 by AngryTechnician

[pritchardavid]

What do you mean fine?

 

Is that the 20 point of something one?

[FN-GM]

This could be caused by static. Unplug the board and leave it for an hour or so come back and try again.

[AngryTechnician]

What do you mean fine?

 

Is that the 20 point of something one?

 

Yes, the Fine orient is the 20-point one (at least in the newer versions of the driver). There is also an 80-point one tucked away in the tools section, but I normally only do that for small adjustments where a teacher is after very high accuracy.

[pritchardavid]

How is the projector projecting?

 

duplicated, extended?

[Little-Miss]

daft question...is it flush/level?

[jamesreedersmith]

Sounds like a faulty board - contact steljes

[AngryTechnician]

It's duplicated, and I spent a distressingly long time making sure it was flush & level given that at the end of the process it seems to be up the spout.

 

My gut also tells me the board is DOA, and I have already resigned myself to a sorry call to Steljes tomorrow, but was desperately hoping there might be a quick fix for this one.

[FN-GM]

Have you tried another PC? The smartboards draw power from USB. In the past i have had various issues with smartboards and it turned out that the PC wasnt providing enough power to the USB ports.

[AngryTechnician]

Not yet, but the same PC was successfully driving an older SMARTBoard 600 series immediately before it was replaced with this one.

[laserblazer]

Have you got another 685 that you could swap the control board with?

[AngryTechnician]

OK, update this morning: came in and tried it after it being off all night, and it worked first time. However, 10 minutes later, the symptom mysteriously started to creep back.

 

I updated the driver software from 10.7.82.0 to 10.7.182.1 and performed a firmware update. Since then, it seems to be running fine. I had to unscrew the bottom of the board temporarily to reroute a USB cable for the update (the USB cable was going through the ECP of the Unifi projector, which you have to disconnect to do a firmware update). The cable is now running back through the ECP again and its still working... but I haven't rescrewed the board yet. Will update once I;ve done that - hopefully there won't be any change.

Edited July 28, 2011 by AngryTechnician

[AngryTechnician]

Screwed back on, and so far so good. Still not sure whether it was the firmware upgrade that solved it or whether it was a case of static as @FN-GM suggested that has now dissipated. Still, problem solved, at least for now.

[hullpete]

this may help you, we found out a few years ago that if the wall it is fixed to is not flat ( bowed ) and you fasten the bottom screws to tight it bends the board making the membrane tight , also it could be down to an earthing issue also dependant on what kind of wall the board is fixed to, ie it may be fixed to a plasterboard wall where the board has the metal coating, hence the screws that are fixing the board at the bottom are making an earthing contact. we tend to use small rubber grommets on the screw holes at the bottom before fixing the board down so the screws are not touching the bottom brackets. just a thought but check your wall to see if there is a bulge in it anywhere.