Introduction: Diy Capacitor Stylus
This is my first instructable so be gentle. Basically it is very simple, you use a capacitor some hot glue, a hollowed out sharpie and some black electrical tape.
Now I don't use a stylus much, I use my finger on my iphone, but went to buy one and I didn't want to pay $10 and up for something I can just use my finger for free, so I searched for diy stylus, being the diy person I am, found the sponge one that needed water, that didn't sound too appealing so I have been thinking and trying for 2 days, made one out of an extacto knife but concered with scratching up the screen, so I thought to use a capacitor. It is so simple and works! Just getting use to using it is a bit of a learning curve, it has to be flat completely for it to work but other than that, it does work and without further ramblings here are the steps.
Step 1: Take the tip and guts from an old used up sharpie, or new, doesn't matter and cut the very tip off, the little part that the tip went through. Don't cut too much. After you have cut off the little tip part you want to take some scissors and hollow out the end hole so the capacitor will fit, I used a 10uf I think, the black round one, not green. be sure that the capacitor fits with a portion of the metal inside the hole because the metal will reside on the outside but a small portion will fit inside the hole. Note: you will be touching the metal with your thumb or finger otherwise it won't work.
Step 2: After you have prepared your sharpie from step 1. get some hot glue, oh forgot to mention you can have the hot glue gun heating up while doing step 1, so it will be ready to go, put a little bit in the hole, and bend the capacitors metal upwards and shove the capacitor in the tip. Bend down the wires and put some electrical tape around them leaving just a little bit of metal out as shown in the photo. and that's basically it, glue a capacitor into a sharpie, note, you MUST touch the metal for it to be conductive, no sponge needed lol.
Now I don't use a stylus much, I use my finger on my iphone, but went to buy one and I didn't want to pay $10 and up for something I can just use my finger for free, so I searched for diy stylus, being the diy person I am, found the sponge one that needed water, that didn't sound too appealing so I have been thinking and trying for 2 days, made one out of an extacto knife but concered with scratching up the screen, so I thought to use a capacitor. It is so simple and works! Just getting use to using it is a bit of a learning curve, it has to be flat completely for it to work but other than that, it does work and without further ramblings here are the steps.
Step 1: Take the tip and guts from an old used up sharpie, or new, doesn't matter and cut the very tip off, the little part that the tip went through. Don't cut too much. After you have cut off the little tip part you want to take some scissors and hollow out the end hole so the capacitor will fit, I used a 10uf I think, the black round one, not green. be sure that the capacitor fits with a portion of the metal inside the hole because the metal will reside on the outside but a small portion will fit inside the hole. Note: you will be touching the metal with your thumb or finger otherwise it won't work.
Step 2: After you have prepared your sharpie from step 1. get some hot glue, oh forgot to mention you can have the hot glue gun heating up while doing step 1, so it will be ready to go, put a little bit in the hole, and bend the capacitors metal upwards and shove the capacitor in the tip. Bend down the wires and put some electrical tape around them leaving just a little bit of metal out as shown in the photo. and that's basically it, glue a capacitor into a sharpie, note, you MUST touch the metal for it to be conductive, no sponge needed lol.
