Setting up Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 tablet on A1200

[AmigaBruno]

I recently watched the video on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5ixZhIxMus

This is about buying old PC graphics tablets and using them with an Amiga by adding adapters and a special driver.

I ended up buying an Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 tablet which was new old stock, complete with some old AAA batteries still in shrink wrapped plastic packaging, especially because this model has been described as definitely Amiga compatible.



I bought this tablet from eBay, because I wasn't able to find any other tablet mentioned in the video. There were lots of old Wacom tablets available, but it wasn't clear which ones would work. I didn't like the advice that MOST Wacom Serial tablets would work, apart from Intuos models.

I plan to use this tablet with Deluxe Paint, although the video doesn't recommend this, due to lack of pressure sensitivity. I have only ever used Deluxe Paint with a mouse before, so this doesn't matter to me.

So far, I've bought a 9 pin serial to 25 pin serial adapter, as well as a PS/2 to USB adapter. I inserted a recently bought AAA battery into the pen, I booted up my Amiga with the Aiptek tablet plugged in to the Serial port, then I connected it to the mains and a light on the tablet next to where it says F1 lit up. This was all I was expecting to happen at this stage. I need to install the FormAldiHyd driver from Aminet to get it to work. Unfortunately, when I was testing the pen that came with it, which has no wired connection to the tablet, the tip which makes contact with the tablet got depressed and pushed in, but now won't return to its previous extended position. I hope I haven't broken it. There is no light on the pen. I don't understand why it requires a battery. I can't see how it would transmit any data wirelessly. It also comes with a battery powered 3 button mouse, but I don't see any point in using this, because the whole point is to get away from drawing with a mouse. 

As for installing the driver, I have downloaded it from Aminet onto my MacBook and copied it onto a FAT32 formatted CF card. I recently installed FS-UAE, but I haven't used it recently. I found that it couldn't detect either of my AmigaOS CF cards, which are in SFS and PFS formats. I set these cards up using Linux.

Can anyone give me any advice about completing this setup and what might go wrong? Unfortunately, the artist Mixel who made the video hasn't replied to a question of mine from a few weeks ago.

[BozzerBigD]

Mixel is your man as you already know! He's on Discord if you want to ask him yourself!

[AmigaBruno]

Unfortunately, I can’t install the Amiga driver now! Here’s what’s happened.

At the moment I’ve got two AmigaOS CF cards which I’m using. One of these was formatted by Amigakit in SFS format. The other one is by a well known eBay seller Amiga One Haven in PFS format. Neither of these cards is currently being recognised by FS-UAE on my MacBook. I actually installed all the software on the Amigakit SFS formatted CF card, but I didn’t install anything on the PFS formatted CF card. However, I installed the software onto the SFS format CF card using Linux, NOT macOS. I did this in 2015, but I don’t remember all the details now.

After this problem came up, I decided to use the FAT32 formatted CF card which I’d been using with my Linux computers and this Amiga A1200 in the past. I transferred the driver file and some other files from Aminet onto it. Unfortunately, I then found that whatever I tried, the Amiga was unable to read this card! The error message was “No disk present in device CC0”. However, a mysterious new floppy disk called cf1: appeared, but it only contained files that I didn’t recognise.

After watching a video of how to set up an SFS disk in UAE, I remember that the user has to tell it what type of disk it is first of all. I don’t remember doing anything like that in 2015, though.

I found some old posts I made on here about a similar subject, but I’m not sure this will help me in the current situation. It does mention cf1 though. https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=75053.15

I think the FAT32 CF card may have become slightly corrupted so that it works on my MacBook, but doesn’t work on my Amiga, but I don’t know if this is possible. Things I’ve heard about CF cards becoming more expensive and only 1 in 3 of them working with Amigas don’t encourage me to just buy another one, though.

I hope someone can give me some advice on how I can install the Amiga driver for this tablet onto one of my CF cards.



 

[AmigaBruno]

Mixel is your man as you already know! He's on Discord if you want to ask him yourself!

Whereabouts on Discord is Mixel? Do you mean the Amiga Addict Discord? Anyway, my problem now is with the CF cards, as I explained in my last post.

[BozzerBigD]

@AmigaBruno

It's called Mixel's Lab on Discord. Good luck with the CF card stuff.

[AmigaBruno]

@AmigaBruno

It's called Mixel's Lab on Discord. Good luck with the CF card stuff.

OK, I'll try paying Mixel's Lab a visit. The main problem is the CF cards, though. The latest news is that the FAT32 CF card has become undetectable on my MacBook!

[AmigaBruno]

@AmigaBruno

It's called Mixel's Lab on Discord. Good luck with the CF card stuff.

Unfortunately, although I'm now back on Discord, there's no sign of Mixel's Lab! I've also searched for just Mixel, Myxel, as well as just Amiga and just artwork. No trace of him! I wonder where he's hiding?

[AmigaBruno]

Great news! I finally managed to get my Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 graphics tablet working with my Amiga A1200 on the evening of Sunday, April 09.

After the FormaldiHyd driver detected my tablet, I wondered if I needed to adjust the settings which I think was mentioned in the video. Rather than watch it again first, I started up Deluxe Paint V and found that I could move the cursor and draw with it straight away.

Here's my third attempt at drawing something with it, but I'm sure I'll soon get better.

[F0LLETT]

Great news! I finally managed to get my Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 graphics tablet working with my Amiga A1200 on the evening of Sunday, April 09.

After the FormaldiHyd driver detected my tablet, I wondered if I needed to adjust the settings which I think was mentioned in the video. Rather than watch it again first, I started up Deluxe Paint V and found that I could move the cursor and draw with it straight away.

Here's my third attempt at drawing something with it, but I'm sure I'll soon get better.

Thats pretty cool.

p.s. you sure the pic is big enough, lol.

[AmigaBruno]

Thats pretty cool.

p.s. you sure the pic is big enough, lol.

I took that pic on an iPhone XR with the default settings. I didn't know how big it would look after uploading here if people clicked on the thumbnail.

While on the subject of photo resolutions, I'm interested in trying to get some photos or videos from any devices I own onto my Amiga, but I wonder which devices might be low enough resolution depending on the settings. I've got an HP digital camera bought in 2006, which I think is 6MP, but I remember that if I use zoom then the resolution decreases. I think that an old Video 8 camcorder which I didn't buy new, but is probably a 1990s model would be more suitable, but I'd need a compatible video digitiser. I used to own one by Newtek, but it broke down and had to be replaced once or twice. I think that the Amiga high resolution of 1,280 X 525 pixels might be 0.65 Megapixels. This is a topic for another thread, though!

[Boing-ball]

Great news! I finally managed to get my Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 graphics tablet working with my Amiga A1200 on the evening of Sunday, April 09.

After the FormaldiHyd driver detected my tablet, I wondered if I needed to adjust the settings which I think was mentioned in the video. Rather than watch it again first, I started up Deluxe Paint V and found that I could move the cursor and draw with it straight away.

Here's my third attempt at drawing something with it, but I'm sure I'll soon get better.

Looking good. 👍🏻