S-Pen Anatomy- What's Inside It

Ravindra9 · Jan 3, 2012

I just took a "scalpel and tweezers" to open the S-Pen and have prepared this image for you.

Check it out to see whats inside your great Galaxy notes' S-Pen!! All the parts are arranged in the picture in the right order as they are actually placed in the S-Pen.

Just to complete the label legends:

1: The Nib (The front end of the nib is what we see pointing out and use for writing/drawing etc. The other end of this nib has a "protrusion" that fits in the hole of the "cap" )

2: The Cap (as mentioned, one end of this cap has a small hole that fits in the nib, while the other end has a "protrusion" that fits in the "rubber ring"). I checked with a magnet and found its made of "iron".

3: The Ring (it is made of rubber and sits between the "cap" and the "coil" part of the electronic circuit.

4a: Coil: Its wounded on a little iron rod and connected with the "electronic circuit".

4b: Electronic circuit: It has a little button (thats where I have marked the arrow and labeled as 4b). This little button is what actually gets pressed when we press the "external button" of S-Pen.

5: The tail/terminal end of the S-Pen: This is what is needs to be pulled out to take out the entire circuitry and the little parts out of the S-Pen!!

6: The External Button: This is whats needs to be TWIZZED out, so that the entire circuitry and the little parts can slide out from the terminal end of the S-Pen!!

7: The main body: You can see this body and make out now how everything is fit-in properly!

I did not find any direct source of electricity in the S-Pen, and thus based on principles of electronics, its apparent that the small little movement (kinetic energy) produced by the "NIB" due to action of writing/drawing etc.must be exciting the electrons (electric energy) in the wounded COIL (magnetic influx), which is used by the circuit for appropriate action!! (Well, this is my own guess and I am welcoming appropriate suggestions.

So that's it!! I opened my S-Pen as it was not functioning properly after it fell down due to which I was required to "press the pen" a lot to write / draw. So I just opened and just "RE-PLACED" respective parts properly and my S-Pen is working fine now!!!

I guess this info can be useful if you have similar troubles!! Nevertheless, this ANATOMY is still helpful to SEE into this beautiful tool of this Superb Device!!!

And yesss... if you found this useful... a click at the THANKS BUTTON shall well be appreciated!!!

Jade Eyed Wolf · Jan 3, 2012

Ravindra9 said:
I did not find any direct source of electricity in the S-Pen, and thus based on principles of electronics, its apparent that the small little movement (kinetic energy) produced by the "NIB" due to action of writing/drawing etc.must be exciting the electrons (electric energy) in the wounded COIL (magnetic influx), which is used by the circuit for appropriate action!! (Well, this is my own guess and I am welcoming appropriate suggestions.

I'm pretty sure it's magnetic resonance not kinetic motion used to generate the power for the s-pen. That's what the coil is for. When the pen get's close enough to the screen's surface, the small magnetic field that is emitted by the screen is picked up by the coil and hence power is transferred wirelessly. Normally AMOLED displays do not generate any significant magnetic fields, so this is something that specifically needs to be done on the Note with Faraday grid either behind the screen or integrated into the screen itself. Basically it's a way of very accurately and actively tracking the s-pen's location.

I think this is also the reason that the Note specifically has warnings about keeping it away from any other strong magnetic fields; it could interfere or permanently damage the magnetic nature of the s-pen's functionality.

Ravindra9 · Jan 3, 2012

Jade Eyed Wolf said:
I'm pretty sure it's magnetic resonance not kinetic motion used to generate the power for the s-pen. That's what the coil is for. When the pen get's close enough to the screen's surface, the small magnetic field that is emitted by the screen is picked up by the coil and hence power is transferred wirelessly. Normally AMOLED displays do not generate any significant magnetic fields, so this is something that specifically needs to be done on the Note with Faraday grid either behind the screen or integrated into the screen itself. Basically it's a way of very accurately and actively tracking the s-pen's location.

I think this is also the reason that the Note specifically has warnings about keeping it away from any other strong magnetic fields; it could interfere or permanently damage the magnetic nature of the s-pen's functionality.

Thanks. I get your point.

sportedwood · Jan 3, 2012

I would love to try this with my pen and see if it fixes it, I have to press VERY hard to get anything to happen with it but being in the US its not worth dealing with a warranty for how little I use the pen.

Can you give some more details on how you actually got the pen open? I cant seem to figure out where to start.

bigmout · Jan 3, 2012

Jade Eyed Wolf said:
I think this is also the reason that the Note specifically has warnings about keeping it away from any other strong magnetic fields; it could interfere or permanently damage the magnetic nature of the s-pen's functionality.

I just had a thought, could this explain the offset problems some users have reported? Since all of the Notes are imports, perhaps some subset of s-pens were subject to enhanced scanning/x-raying that exposed them to damaging magnetic fields.

roxxy · Jan 3, 2012

Thank you, this was really interesting. I was wondering whats inside the S-pen everytime I take it out

naimmkassim · Jan 3, 2012

Is it really work due to detection or interference of magnetic field on screen surface? Its sound more like ordinary reaction same like when we use our finger on the capacitive touch screen.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

But why when i try the S pen on other capacitive touch screen and its did not work and cant be use except only on my SGN? I heard our S pen is actually are inductive pen! Not capacitive pen!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

Elusivo · Jan 3, 2012

Are the 2 metallic components, to the right of the button, potentiometers?

If they are then we probly can adjust them to fine tune the offset of the pen on the screen and maybe the pressure sensitivity

cpt_shawky · Jan 3, 2012

Thxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

manhattan212 · Jan 4, 2012

It's a Wacom digitizer

The pen works on my tablet PC, just as my laptop's pen works with my Note. In fact, the eraser on my tablet's pen works on my Galaxy Note.

eug · Jan 4, 2012

Jade Eyed Wolf said:
I'm pretty sure it's magnetic resonance not kinetic motion used to generate the power for the s-pen.

Yup, as manhattan212 mentions, it's a Wacom digitizer. Almost any Wacom digitizer pen will work with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacom#Technology

Wacom tablets use a patented electromagnetic resonance technology.[22] Since the tablet provides power to the pen through resonant coupling, no battery or cord is required for the pointing device. As a result, there are no batteries inside the pen (or the accompanying puck), which makes them slimmer.

Under the tablet's surface (or LCD in the case of the Cintiq) is a printed circuit board with a grid of multiple send/receive coils and a magnetic reflector attached behind the grid array. In send mode, the tablet generates a close-coupled electromagnetic field (also known as a B-field) at a frequency of 531 kHz. This close-coupled field stimulates oscillation in the pen's coil/capacitor (LC) circuit when brought into range of the B-field. Any excess resonant electromagnetic energy is reflected back to the tablet. In receive mode, the energy of the resonant circuit’s oscillations in the pen is detected by the tablet's grid. This information is analyzed by the computer to determine the pen's position, by interpolation and Fourier analysis of the signal intensity. In addition, the pen communicates other vital information, such as pen tip pressure, side-switch status, tip vs. eraser orientation, and the ID number of the tool (to differentiate between different pens. mice, etc.). For example, applying more or less pressure to the tip of the pen changes the value of the pen's timing circuit capacitor. This signal change can be communicated in an analog or digital method. An analog implementation would modulate the phase angle of the resonant frequency, and a digital method is communicated to a modulator which distributes the information digitally to the tablet. The tablet forwards this and other relevant tool information in packets, up to 200 times per second, to the computer.

Ravindra9 · Jan 4, 2012

eug said:
Yup, as manhattan212 mentions, it's a Wacom digitizer. Almost any Wacom digitizer pen will work with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacom#Technology

Thanks. Well explained. This is exactly how tablet pens like Thinkpad X220t work...

Ravindra9 · Jan 4, 2012

sportedwood said:
I would love to try this with my pen and see if it fixes it, I have to press VERY hard to get anything to happen with it but being in the US its not worth dealing with a warranty for how little I use the pen.

Can you give some more details on how you actually got the pen open? I cant seem to figure out where to start.

To open your S-Pen you may follow these steps (Ok, let me assure you, its really easy!!):

1: Procure these: a Tray or a container to operate/open your S-Pen

, A scalpel or a knife to tweez out the external button, a pair of Forceps to collect/handle the fine parts.

2: Take the scalpel and tweez out the external button.

3: Pull out the "The tail/terminal end of the S-Pen" that is the part labeled as 5 in the attachment of Post 1. ( IMPORTANT: Please remember, you MUST NOT TWIST, just PULL OUT STRAIGHT the "tail/terminal end of the S-Pen", because there is a groove/slot that fits in the electronic circuit and if you TWIST the "The tail/terminal end of the S-Pen", it might BREAK the groove/slot.)

4: Now turn your S-Pen upside down into the tray and all the respective parts will slide down.

5: To fix the things back, just follow the order as explained in the original post. I found it easy to use the forceps to place the "rubber ring" on the top of the "Coil", then on this I placed the "CAP" in appropriate direction such that the protrusion of the cap sits in the ring, and then on this cap I placed the "Nib"in appropriate direction such that the protrusion on the rear side of the Nib sits in the groove of the Cap. Now carefully, take the Main Body (labeled as 7 in post 1) and slide it DOWN slowly on the "arrangement" and when it reaches the end, take the "Tail/terminal end of the S-Pen" and match the groove/slot carefully and push it UP properly. Now just place the "external button" by matching the correct ends such that the little protrusion sits EXACTLY on the "electronic button".

That's it and you are DONE!!

Enjoy the surgery...

Astrum · Jan 5, 2012

Wireless Energy in Galaxy Note

Amazing just how much technology is surrounding the Note. Even in places where you don't immediately expect.

I was wondering how S Pen functioned from first sight, considering that it had button that send signal to Note, but no mention about the battery anywhere and no opening for it in the pen. It's superb to use Tesla's wireless energy transmission methods to power S Pen!

Samsung could have earned extra credit if they spoke about this technology in the marketing, but I guess they did not want to make it sound too sophisticated. Which is probably right strategy for majority of users.

Braxos · Jan 5, 2012

Astrum said:
Amazing just how much technology is surrounding the Note. Even in places where you don't immediately expect.

I was wondering how S Pen functioned from first sight, considering that it had button that send signal to Note, but no mention about the battery anywhere and no opening for it in the pen. It's superb to use Tesla's wireless energy transmission methods to power S Pen!

Samsung could have earned extra credit if they spoke about this technology in the marketing, but I guess they did not want to make it sound too sophisticated. Which is probably right strategy for majority of users.

If you know how tesla wanted to make tesla coils as weapons so they disintegrate soldiers and vehicles that was in the path/range of it. You would don't want to advertise it too.

Welcome to C&C Timberian Sun.
Long live KAIN

Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

bubblesmoney · Jan 5, 2012

linking a few videos about the spen having a wacom digitiser and about other pens with erasers working on the note. see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2fzC3JVSUs and also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKeb3j2K4WM&list=FL_ScoWWHNIr3zWwO7CPPapg&feature=mh_lolz

edit: looks like samsung is readying larger tablets with pen input also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jj6zHpFmYg

Ravindra9 · Jan 11, 2012

Wow, here is a nice explanation by @steveblue on how this beautiful tool works...

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1439369

(thanks @steveblue yet again

AquaeAtrae · Mar 10, 2012

Samsung S-Pen water resistance

Thanks for the teardown. I was very happy to find this article.

Does anyone have a sense of how water resistant the S-Pen is? I managed to squeeze a Galaxy Note into the DC-13 Dry Case for use in and around . The pen works great through the case but I'm left wondering how likely the circuitry might corrode if dropped in accidentally.

Does the little rubber ring seem to seal out water somewhat? How tight did the cap feel? Also, did the electronics appear to have a slight glaze over it as if dipped or sprayed with a thin barrier? Most modern electronics have a basic coating to prevent corrosion from humidity, etc. I have to wonder if they have a water indication sticker in there to void the warrantee.

My guess is anyone getting in one wet might get lucky just as a often do with mobile phones. It'd be a but I imagine one could open the cap, blow air through it, and use a desiccant like rice in the freezer. Any have any success or horror stories to share?

Regardless, they don't look too expensive. Probably won't be long until Liquipel will accept these popular devices.

Ravindra9 · Mar 11, 2012

AquaeAtrae said:
Thanks for the teardown. I was very happy to find this article.

Does anyone have a sense of how water resistant the S-Pen is? I managed to squeeze a Galaxy Note into the DC-13 Dry Case for use in and around . The pen works great through the case but I'm left wondering how likely the circuitry might corrode if dropped in accidentally.

Does the little rubber ring seem to seal out water somewhat? How tight did the cap feel? Also, did the electronics appear to have a slight glaze over it as if dipped or sprayed with a thin barrier? Most modern electronics have a basic coating to prevent corrosion from humidity, etc. I have to wonder if they have a water indication sticker in there to void the warrantee.

My guess is anyone getting in one wet might get lucky just as a often do with mobile phones. It'd be a but I imagine one could open the cap, blow air through it, and use a desiccant like rice in the freezer. Any have any success or horror stories to share?

Regardless, they don't look too expensive. Probably won't be long until Liquipel will accept these popular devices.

Thanks AquaeAtrae. I am glad that you liked the article!

Although not sure how water resistive the S-Pen (or its circuit) is, however to answer your few queries I can opine that if dropped accidentally in water, the circuit should not necessarily "corrode" as noticeably there does not seem any corrosive elements used in the circuitry (or the S-Pen's "outer shell"). I also believe that if dropped accidentally in water, the S-Pen should still work fine if dried properly. And it is so, primarily because there is no battery/power source and thus any water-accident would not adversly impact the electrical conductance, as is the case with similar accidents in case of usual pen-drives.

In my opinion, the little rubber ring would not seal out water, as it is rather loosely fit. The plastic cap is indeed tightly fit, which may help seal out water. I did not find any noticeable "glaze" or enamel or lacquer coat over the circuit.

As you must be already aware, the S-Pen is similar to any Wacom digitizer, with similar properties. Water-proofing the same may not be a bad idea though as it would enhance the perceived value without any significant impact on the cost!!

knightnz · Mar 12, 2012

Interesting article, thanks! I never would've thought there was so much "stuff" in that little pen.

S-Pen Anatomy- What's Inside It

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