[Q] Calibration fixes for S-Pen on 4.4.2 KitKat?

shardsx · Jun 5, 2014

Hi all,

Since my Note 8 has been upgraded to 4.4.2, I've noticed the S-Pen's accuracy is now off by a few millimeters. This makes taking neat notes very difficult, and note-taking is my primary purpose for this tablet.

Does anyone know of a way to adjust the calibration of the S-Pen? My tablet is rooted so I can try any number of solutions.

Thanks.

gooberdude · Jun 5, 2014

shardsx said:
Hi all,

Since my Note 8 has been upgraded to 4.4.2, I've noticed the S-Pen's accuracy is now off by a few millimeters. This makes taking neat notes very difficult, and note-taking is my primary purpose for this tablet.

Does anyone know of a way to adjust the calibration of the S-Pen? My tablet is rooted so I can try any number of solutions.

Thanks.

Just search... I have posted one too many times on calibrating, so finding it should be easy.

mstrswrd06 · Jun 5, 2014

shardsx said:
Hi all,

Since my Note 8 has been upgraded to 4.4.2, I've noticed the S-Pen's accuracy is now off by a few millimeters. This makes taking neat notes very difficult, and note-taking is my primary purpose for this tablet.

Does anyone know of a way to adjust the calibration of the S-Pen? My tablet is rooted so I can try any number of solutions.

Thanks.

A few things you can try.

It'll sound silly, but hit the tip of the pen with some force against a hard surface; desk, table, etc. For some reason, that can realign the tip back into place (or out of place, so play with it a little bit).

Another thing is to run the S Pen over each edge multiple times to auto-calibrate it. This resets the boundaries of the screen and can help out a little bit.

One thing I haven't tried that I read about is actually adjusting the sensitivity of the S Pen. Underneath the click button there should be a small adjustment knob that you can play with. Use a thin razor to get underneath the button and pop it off, just being careful not to break it. If I were you I'd look up a little more about this trick.

I had success with the first two methods, so I never tried taking the button off.

Good luck.

Spidey01 · Jun 5, 2014

When I updated I was tempted to pop the button and adjust but I've found after using my tablet for a few hours it went away on it's own. I'm now 2 to 3 days after updating and my S-Pen is back to normal; it was a good nib's worth off to the right when I first updated.

Note well that I use my S-Pen enough that battery powered styli would often need their batteries rotated daily; some folk barely use their S-Pens. Not having to change batteries (rather than charge my tablet) is one of the reasons I love the S-Pen

.

shardsx · Jun 5, 2014

Spidey01 said:
When I updated I was tempted to pop the button and adjust but I've found after using my tablet for a few hours it went away on it's own. I'm now 2 to 3 days after updating and my S-Pen is back to normal; it was a good nib's worth off to the right when I first updated.

Note well that I use my S-Pen enough that battery powered styli would often need their batteries rotated daily; some folk barely use their S-Pens. Not having to change batteries (rather than charge my tablet) is one of the reasons I love the S-Pen .

So far...

I've found an old post from Gooberdude that suggests drawing in the corners and on the borders. I've spent an hour this morning drawing in the corners and borders, but it doesn't seem to help (unless I'm doing it wrong, or maybe not enough strokes?)

I've found references to an S-Pen app that no longer works on the Note 8 since 4.2.2 because Samsung removed some files for swapping between left and right hand in the OS. That's a no go right there.

I've got mstrswrd06's suggestion to bang the S-Pen against something hard. I've also got a brand new Note Pro 12.2, and the S-Pen from both the Note 8 and the Note 12.2 is accurate on that device's screen. When I bring both the S-Pens over to the Note 8, both are inaccurate about the same amount. Not likely that my Note 8 pen is the culprit.

Spidey, since you got the detection of your S-Pen to somehow become accurate, maybe you can elaborate some more on what you have done?

Any help is appreciated. I use this device to write notes during meetings, and with the small screen, precision is a must because I have to write very small.

Spidey01 · Jun 6, 2014

shardsx said:
Spidey, since you got the detection of your S-Pen to somehow become accurate, maybe you can elaborate some more on what you have done?

Using it normally. Which for me is inputing text via Google Keyboard's "Flow" (swype) input method with the S-Pen and cursive handwriting in MyStylus Beta (or printing where necessary). Using the S-Pen for most interactions with the device (buttons, app UI, selecting text and moving the cursor, etc), and inserting/removing the pen between needs. Watching videos and using the S-Pen to preview / sync. Surfing the web, G+, etc, etc. After about two hours of life it seemed OK, I think text input helped a fair bit. By a day or two after, perfectly normal here.

That's a large part of why I went with this device rather than a Nexus 7 2013 or G Pad GPE. I find the pen desirable for things like the vertical '...' dot menus, handwriting recognition, and doodling.

shardsx · Jun 6, 2014

Spidey01 said:
Using it normally. Which for me is inputing text via Google Keyboard's "Flow" (swype) input method with the S-Pen and cursive handwriting in MyStylus Beta (or printing where necessary). Using the S-Pen for most interactions with the device (buttons, app UI, selecting text and moving the cursor, etc), and inserting/removing the pen between needs. Watching videos and using the S-Pen to preview / sync. Surfing the web, G+, etc, etc. After about two hours of life it seemed OK, I think text input helped a fair bit. By a day or two after, perfectly normal here.

That's a large part of why I went with this device rather than a Nexus 7 2013 or G Pad GPE. I find the pen desirable for things like the vertical '...' dot menus, handwriting recognition, and doodling.

Thanks Spidey. I'm going to spend the weekend just scribbling with the tablet. It's been brutal. I even tried a security wipe from the tablet, which didn't help, and also a forced update/initialization through Kies, which also didn't help.

Hopefully whatever triggered the fix for you will work for me.

Thanks again!

Spidey01 · Jun 7, 2014

Good luck shardsx, hope it sorts out. I was afraid when mine suddenly had the offset after updating...thankful it went away.

CCallahan · Jun 9, 2014

Assuming you are rooted? If so, try flashing civato's new kernel. It has integrated fix for S-Pen alignment.

glockman4519 · Jun 10, 2014

CCallahan said:
Assuming you are rooted? If so, try flashing civato's new kernel. It has integrated fix for S-Pen alignment.

I can confirm that the kernel just released by Civ fixes the inaccuracies in the S-pen. I am running it and am having no issues now. There was an issue of not being able to sync my Google account and could not get on the play store but after a data factor wipe it is all good now. This may have been none related to the kernel, but I figured that I would at least mention it.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium HD app

xdaah80 · Jun 10, 2014

Mine is off too

Same problem here ... since the upgrade the stylus is off by a few millimeters ... drawing in corners didn't solve the problem ...

tooandrew · Jun 10, 2014

shardsx said:
So far...

I've found an old post from Gooberdude that suggests drawing in the corners and on the borders. I've spent an hour this morning drawing in the corners and borders, but it doesn't seem to help (unless I'm doing it wrong, or maybe not enough strokes?)

I've found references to an S-Pen app that no longer works on the Note 8 since 4.2.2 because Samsung removed some files for swapping between left and right hand in the OS. That's a no go right there.

I've got mstrswrd06's suggestion to bang the S-Pen against something hard. I've also got a brand new Note Pro 12.2, and the S-Pen from both the Note 8 and the Note 12.2 is accurate on that device's screen. When I bring both the S-Pens over to the Note 8, both are inaccurate about the same amount. Not likely that my Note 8 pen is the culprit.

Spidey, since you got the detection of your S-Pen to somehow become accurate, maybe you can elaborate some more on what you have done?

Any help is appreciated. I use this device to write notes during meetings, and with the small screen, precision is a must because I have to write very small.

i'd say just upgrade to civato's custom rom and spherekat kernel - 100 percent accurate for me. my pen isnt broken or anything but it was waaayyy off using stock, or even civato's flexnote without spherekat (most of the offset is because of code in the kernel, apparently).

take the plunge - you're already rooted, it's time to get on the rom train. (CHOO CHOO)

sefrcoko · Jun 11, 2014

tooandrew said:
i'd say just upgrade to civato's custom rom and spherekat kernel - 100 percent accurate for me. my pen isnt broken or anything but it was waaayyy off using stock, or even civato's flexnote without spherekat (most of the offset is because of code in the kernel, apparently).

take the plunge - you're already rooted, it's time to get on the rom train. (CHOO CHOO)

Agreed. The only known fix for 4.4.2 s-pen at the moment is to use Civ's latest rom and kernel. You actually need both installed to have 100% accurate s-pen, since some of the fixes are in the kernel and the other fixes are in the rom framework.

rtiangha · Jun 11, 2014

I actually managed to get my S-Pen recalibrated. I opened up S-Note and scribbled all around the edges until there was a solid 0.5 cm border. But the trick is that I did it all in a single stroke (or in other words, I never lifted the pen until I had filled in all the edges, which took a long while). After that, the dot now appears right under the pen. And it stays across applications. It worked for me; maybe it'll work for you.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

tooandrew · Jun 12, 2014

rtiangha said:
I actually managed to get my S-Pen recalibrated. I opened up S-Note and scribbled all around the edges until there was a solid 0.5 cm border. But the trick is that I did it all in a single stroke (or in other words, I never lifted the pen until I had filled in all the edges, which took a long while). After that, the dot now appears right under the pen. And it stays across applications. It worked for me; maybe it'll work for you.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

ive not heard of such a thing before, but i'm glad you managed to fix it. there are still reasons to upgrade to civato's rom and kernel despite this, but if you're happy with your user experience, that's all that matters.

shardsx · Jun 12, 2014

I've considered going down the path of custom ROM. I'm definitely not opposed to this approach since I've got an old Asus Transformer tablet that's using CM10.2 (waiting for 11 stable).

What I did to resolve my inaccurate S-Pen issues was to Odin flash 4.1.2 back on. Now, I've read that I might be prevented from flashing back to 4.4.2 Kit Kat, but I don't know why that would be the case since the bootloader is still 4.4.2 after the downgrade. I've also read that people can't charge the tablet after a downgrade while it's off? I haven't actually turned off my tablet to charge, but I guess that would be a scary scenario if I ever ran completely out of power and can't charge the device.

I'll do more digging around over the next few days. The power-off charge issue is the biggest concern, so I'll drain my battery down to 50%, turn it off, and let it charge overnight to see what happens. Worst case scenario is I'll Odin back to 4.4.2 and custom ROM.

rtiangha · Jun 12, 2014

tooandrew said:
ive not heard of such a thing before, but i'm glad you managed to fix it. there are still reasons to upgrade to civato's rom and kernel despite this, but if you're happy with your user experience, that's all that matters.

It was a variant of this method:

http://richardjang.typepad.com/techstuffs/2012/03/how-to-calibrate-the-galaxy-note-s-pen.html

I had to go with Method 1 because I've got the wifi model and so don't have access to a dialer.

tooandrew · Jun 12, 2014

shardsx said:
I've considered going down the path of custom ROM. I'm definitely not opposed to this approach since I've got an old Asus Transformer tablet that's using CM10.2 (waiting for 11 stable).

What I did to resolve my inaccurate S-Pen issues was to Odin flash 4.1.2 back on. Now, I've read that I might be prevented from flashing back to 4.4.2 Kit Kat, but I don't know why that would be the case since the bootloader is still 4.4.2 after the downgrade. I've also read that people can't charge the tablet after a downgrade while it's off? I haven't actually turned off my tablet to charge, but I guess that would be a scary scenario if I ever ran completely out of power and can't charge the device.

I'll do more digging around over the next few days. The power-off charge issue is the biggest concern, so I'll drain my battery down to 50%, turn it off, and let it charge overnight to see what happens. Worst case scenario is I'll Odin back to 4.4.2 and custom ROM.

i was under the impression that once a knox bootloader was installed, trying to downgrade to a touchwiz-based rom of an earlier version would brick it. you just odin'd the original 4.1.2?

shardsx · Jun 12, 2014

tooandrew said:
i was under the impression that once a knox bootloader was installed, trying to downgrade to a touchwiz-based rom of an earlier version would brick it. you just odin'd the original 4.1.2?

I also read that in the "about KNOX" thread, but I've also read other people have flashed back to 4.1.2 (and experienced the power-off charging problem that I talked about above).

I took the plunge and yeah, just Odin'd the original 4.1.2 back on. I used the Canadian 4.1.2 wifi image from Sammobile.com. The bootloader stays at 4.4.2 (so I have the KNOX Warranty flag tripped), but everything seems to be working well. I turned off the tablet last night and let it charge to test the claims that there were issues, and there was no problems doing that.

So far, I haven't noticed anything game breaking about going back to 4.1.2. I think maybe I experienced a sleep of death? However, that's hardly unusual.

SlimJimmyZ · Jun 18, 2014

I had the same offset issues, so I went zero to sixty from no rooting experience at all to flashing Civato's latest Rom. I use the S pen extensively for handwriting recognition and sketching so a slight offset made the tablet practically unusable. Offset issue is perfectly fixed now.

It took a bit of research to learn how to root and flash but very worth it.

[Q] Calibration fixes for S-Pen on 4.4.2 KitKat?

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