Wacom tablet surgery
April 16, 2005 6:48 PM Subscribe
My beloved Wacom Intuos 4x5 is starting to flake out a bit, owing to my cat mistaking the tablets's USB cable for a chew toy a few years ago. It's only a matter of time now, and the Wacom Intuos 3 beacons. However, I'd love to be able to pass it on to my son so he can fool around with Painter Classic. Since the damage is all on the cable itself, can I splice together a new cable like I could with a table lamp's electrical cord?
What electrical tape is for -- not splicing, but marking. If you need to change what a conductor is carrying, you wrap the insulation with the correct color tape, so the next person working on the circuit knows that (forex), this box has two hot leads, because it is running a switch, or that a given ground (normally bare or green) is actually isolated from the normal ground (and thus, needs to be orange.)
Note, b1tr0t, that using it to mark rigging is much closer to intended use than splicing.
As to heat shrink tubing: "Heat shrink is God's proof that he loves us and wants us to hack." -- Benjamin Franklin (mostly)
posted by eriko at 1:16 PM on April 17, 2005
Note, b1tr0t, that using it to mark rigging is much closer to intended use than splicing.
As to heat shrink tubing: "Heat shrink is God's proof that he loves us and wants us to hack." -- Benjamin Franklin (mostly)
posted by eriko at 1:16 PM on April 17, 2005
If you're shrinking small amounts of heat-shrink tubing, you can get really good results with a cigarette lighter. Don't use the flame itself, just the stream of hot gas rising above the flame. Start with the tubing-covered joint about two lighter-heights above the tip of the flame, slowly move it downward toward the flame until you see the tubing start to shrink, then keep it at that height and wave the lighter gently back and forth so you get hot gas over everything you're trying to shrink.
Shrink the inner tubes (the ones around the individual wires), then let the joint cool again before slipping on and shrinking the outer tube (over the joint as a whole).
posted by flabdablet at 10:09 PM on April 17, 2005
Shrink the inner tubes (the ones around the individual wires), then let the joint cool again before slipping on and shrinking the outer tube (over the joint as a whole).
posted by flabdablet at 10:09 PM on April 17, 2005
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posted by Scoo at 7:13 AM on April 17, 2005