New Promethean Stuff

[StuartC]

Just an FYI really, promethean are releasing some new gadgets soon. I've put some pics on my blog and hope to have some more info to release soon. Basically new voting/multiple pens on one Activboard.

 

http://www.innerllama.com/blog/?p=33

[plexer]

There was me thinking there was a redesign of the pens.

 

I think the current pens are awful.

 

Ben

[StuartC]

I would like the pens to be a bit more, erm, "grippy". But apart from that I've no complaints.

[plexer]

I would like them to have nibs that don't fall so easily and to have a decent quality micro switch under the knib or even a no contact optical sensor.

 

Most of ours go duff from the micro switch failing.

 

Ok the teachers may click a bit too hard with them to cause this but I think it's a design fault.

 

Ben

[6Foot2]

More than half of our pens fail by cracking on the barrel behind the button and then flying into two halves as there is no longer enough integrity to hold them in one piece.

[webman]

More than half of our pens fail by cracking on the barrel behind the button and then flying into two halves as there is no longer enough integrity to hold them in one piece.

 

Foregive the pun, but 'snap'! :?

[plexer]

We've had that as well and also cracking and breaking around the front.

 

Ben

[StuartC]

I'll run through the procedure

 

*cough*

 

All Activpens are covered by a 12 month warranty, if any have developed cracks or faults in that period they can be replaced after confirmation with tech support.

 

*sigh*

 

Anyway, the Activpen 3's (the ones with the shorter nib and no click) were redesigned to try and eliminate cracks, but most of the time it's caused by teachers dropping them on the floor. If you think you have it bad think about the poor guys we have in the middle east with tiled floors in every classroom.

 

If you have an Activpen 3, look at the end (without the nib) and there should be a number. From my memory I think that its month/year of manufacture. not sure but it's 5pm so I'm thinking about getting home, and the fact that it's peeing down outside.

[steve]

I would like the pens to be a bit more, erm, "grippy". But apart from that I've no complaints.

 

Me too, they would be great with the grippy coating the voting pods have on them. Would make the pens a bit more robust if dropped on a hard floor too.

 

I think the coating is Neoprene??

[john]

I would like the V1 black pens back as I hate the current ones, I have my own V1 pen I keep for teaching IWB to staff and assisting as the current ones are naff, especially the no click, I've had more broken V3 no click pens than the V2 and 1's combined

[6Foot2]

...but most of the time it's caused by teachers dropping them on the floor...

 

But our Staff NEVER drop them.

[becktonboy]

I never understood why Promethean moved away from the original slim black design: I've been using the same one for about 5 years, trouble free and yes it has been dropped, thrown, heavily used.

The orange/grey and purple/yellow ones are nasty and fragile.

[6Foot2]

I never understood why Promethean moved away from the original slim black design: I've been using the same one for about 5 years, trouble free and yes it has been dropped, thrown, heavily used.

The orange/grey and purple/yellow ones are nasty and fragile.

 

Can we still get these? I would like to try them if possible. The less loss we have the better!

[becktonboy]

Fraid not, more's the pity and no, you can't borrow mine!

[john]

I once found a supplier that had some in a box, and i bought his last 10 But then staff lost them I think i've got 2 used ones, one with a missing click button and my own personal one which I won't sell for less than £30,000.

[plexer]

V3 pens hmmm, don't think I've come across one yet.

 

How does the no click work then?

 

The activwands ain't much better in our experience.

 

2 year 7 girls pulled one apart fightinh over who was going to use it and we've just had to have another one replaced that just stopped working.

 

Ben

[StuartC]

just noticed my link in the first post ain't working. My web host lovingly decided to roll to a backup from yesterday morning for no reason without telling me. idiots. so I'm relocating to another host later.

[StuartC]

*rewrote the article and it's back online*

 

in other news, Activdriver 4.1.10 was release yesterday. No real reason for anyone to upgrade, however 1 thing I noticed is that it now supports left handed users, so if you have your mouse buttons switched around it won't affect the pen.