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3.04 TactileView Digital Pen Dock

Towards the back, behind the furthest two nocks you’ll find the TactileView Digital Pen Dock. It is about two centimetres in height, eight centimetres wide and has rounded corners. On the back of the dock is a small indentation. This is where you can place the receiver for the TactileView Digital Pen. Simply place the receiver’s magnets inside the indentation and the magnets will click in place. Make sure the wire of the receiver does not obstruct the arm during movement.is not in the way of the arm.

4.01 Positioning

The TactiPad can be placed on the MDA in two different orientations. The first is landscape mode. In this orientation. The TactiPad’s hinge should be placed towards the backside of the MDA. The front side of the TactiPad should be flush with the front of the MDA, and there should be no room between the TactiPad and the bed of the MDA.

The second position is portrait mode. In this orientation the TactiPad’s hinge should be facing left. The shorter side of the TactiPad should be flush with the front side of the MDA, and there should be no room between the TactiPad and the bed of the MDA.

4.02 Automatic Design Orientation

Inside the MDA are four sensors that are used to determine the orientation of the TactiPad on the MDA. After the orientation of the TactiPad is determined the design is automatically rotated if necessary. A right up marker will be placed in the original top right corner of the design. To the TactiPad’s hinge should be facing off the MDA, rotate it until the right up marker is in the top right corner.

Because the MDA automatically rotates designs depending on the orientation of the TactiPad, it is sometimes needed to rotate the TactiPad after taking it off the MDA.  To help with this, the MDA automatically adds a right up marker. This right up marker is a small diagonal line in one of the corners. To ensure that the sketch is positioned correctly after it is removed from the MDA, rotate the sketch until the right up marker is located in the top right corner.

5.01 Accessing the Interface

The interface can be accessed by using an internet browser on any PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone.

The easiest way to connect to the interface is to have a wired Ethernet connection from your router to the MDA. When the MDA is switched on, it will automatically configure itself for your network and you can then access the MDA’s interface by entering the following link into your browser: http://mda/

The MDA also acts as a WIFI-hotspot, with default network name (network SSID) mda-hotspot. With a WIFI capable PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone, you can search for this WIFI network and connect to it, using the default WIFI password 12345678. When the connection is established you can again access the MDA-interface from a browser on the link: http://mda/ . If you have modified the name of the MDA, and have forgotten this new name, you can always establish the connection using the MDA’s hotspot IP-address, and use http://192.168.50.5

(Note on WIFI hotspot use, if your device is connected to a different WIFI network, this connection will be terminated, as your device is only able to connect to one WIFI-network at the time, meaning you will lose your internet connection as well).

Through the interface, you can also setup the MDA to connect to your own WIFI-network. When this connection is established, on the interface is once again accessible at: http://mda/

Note that the default name of the MDA is “mda”, however, in the interface you can change this name. If you change the name, you have to access the MDA under the new name http://newname/

Potential problems and the associated solutions:

If you have connected to the MDA earlier through another connection, like for instance through a wired connection with a router before using the MDA-hotspot, there is a possibility that your computer/smart device remembers the MDA on the previous old connection (technical term for this is that the DNS records are cached).

In that case, the connection to http://mda will not be established (although the connection to http://192.168.50.5 always will result in a connection).

In order to clear the cache of your computer of smart device and to connect using the name again, the following action should be taken:

  • On an Android device, iPad or iPhone, before establishing the WIFI connection, switch “Airplane mode” on (in the Settings app), keep “Airplane mode” on for approx. 10 seconds and then switch “Airplane mode” off. Thereafter, establish the WIFI connection.
  • On a Windows PC: open a command prompt window, by pressing the Windows Key or the search symbol, type “Command Prompt”, right-click the Command Prompt application and select “Run as Administrator”. Type the following command in the command line and hit enter: ipconfig /flushdns
  • On a Mac, open a terminal window. Type the following command and hit enter: sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; sleep 2; . You might be prompted to enter your administrator password.

Another problem can occur when there are too many WIFI networks in the direct surroundings (and potentially transmitting on the same WIFI channel). The connection might then drop or might be unstable. Only remedy is to try to rearrange the MDA and PC or smart device setup, trying to find a place with less disturbance. When the MDA has dropped its hotspot connection, due to whatever reason, your PC or smart device will most likely automatically reconnect to another known network if in range, like your home or school network. When the MDA hotspot is back again, you need to manually reconnect to the MDA hotspot again. For a Mac, alternatively you can setup the order for automatic reconnects, and if so preferred, you can put the MDA-hotspot on top of the list (System Preferences-Network-WIFI-Advanced settings).

Alternative method for network connections:

In case you cannot find the MDA on your network using the MDA name (in technical terms, your router does not support local DNS services), you can either connect to the MDA using the IP address of the MDA, which for the hotspot is 192.168.50.5. However, for the MDA connected through the wired connection or through your own WIFI network, you need to obtain the IP address from the router (if you login to your router, you normally will find an overview with all connected devices with their IP-addresses).

Instead of using IP-addresses, a much easier way is to connect to the MDA with the so-called Bonjour service, in that case, enter http://mda.local in your browser, and the connection to the MDA will be established. This Bonjour service is standard on iPad, iPhone and Mac, but needs to be installed (once) on a Windows PC. Installation can be done by using Edge as a browser (not IE), goto https://support.apple.com/kb/DL999?locale=en_US and download and install the application. The name is a bit confusing, called Bonjour Print Service, but this is the application working with the MDA to find the name mda.local (not mda) on the network.

5.02 Internet Functionality

When the MDA is connected to the internet through either a wired or a WIFI connection to your own network, there is additional functionality available for the MDA:

  • You can fully register your MDA, so that you will be kept informed on the latest updates and developments with respect to the MDA
  • The MDA will automatically download and install the latest software updates when switched on
  • The MDA will automatically download and install the latest example images when switched on
  • You can use the MyImages functionality (see chapter 6.04)
  • Some (future) Interactive options require internet access

6.01 Home

The home page of the MDA interface gives a brief explanation and links to the main pages of the MDA. Followed by an instruction on how to position the TactiPad on the MDA. At the top is a link to the MDA manual on the help page.

Thereafter, a brief explanation is given on the various sketch options, with links to the Example gallery, the Uploads page, the USB drive pages and the MyImages page.

It continues with a link to the Owner/Administrator registration page, or if a full registration has been made, information on how the Administrator can be contacted is shown instead.

At the bottom all relevant network information is shown, such as if the MDA is connected to the internet, if a wired connection or WIFI connection is established or whether the MDA is operating in WIFI hotspot mode. For all connections relevant information like IP-addresses are shown. Here you can also find a link to the network setup page.

On the last line, the version number of the MDA interface is shown.

6.02 Uploads

The “Uploads” page shows images uploaded to the MDA and gives the possibility to upload new images or delete earlier uploaded images.

At the top of the page you’ll see the last image that was sketched by the MDA. If you click on this image the MDA will start sketching the image again.

Below this you’ll find the images that have been uploaded to the MDA. You can start a sketch of an image by clicking on it.

The lower part of the page shows an upload box. By clicking on Select File a file browser pops upwhich gives you the possibility to select and upload an SVG formatted image from your PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone to the upload page. Note that only files with the extension .svg or .SVG can be uploaded.

At the bottom of the page a Delete Images link is given. Clicking on this link shows a page with all images, clicking on an image will delete the image from the upload page.

Besides uploading new images with the upload procedure as described above, it is also possible to copy images directly onto the Uploads page. For this, you need to mount the MDA upload directory to your PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone, as described in chapter 7.04 of this manual. When the directory is mounted (which is a one-time action), you can directly copy images onto the Uploads page.

6.03 USB-Stick

The “USB-stick” page shows the SVG images on an USB stick/drive when it is inserted into the MDA.

At the top of the page you’ll see the last image that was sketched by the MDA. If you click on this image the MDA will start sketching the image again.

Below this the images on the inserted USB device are shown. By clicking on an image the selected image will be sketched.

If no USB stick is present, or when there are no SVG images on the USB device, a message notifying you of this will be shown instead.

6.04 MyImages

The “MyImages” page shows images downloaded to the MDA based on image requests, and gives the possibility to request new images or to delete earlier downloaded images.

At the top of the page you’ll see the last image that was sketched by the MDA. If you click on this image the MDA will start sketching the image again.

Below this, the images downloaded because of image requests are shown. By clicking on a image, the selected image will be sketched.

The lower part of the page shows a link to the “MyImages overview” pageof the Thinkable website. First enter an email address, which can be either the email address of the Owner/Administrator, or can be the email address of any user of the MDA, and continue by clicking on the MyImages overview button.

You’ll now enter the MyImages overview page of the Thinkable website. The New Request part of the page allows you to start a new image design request by clicking “Start a new design request”. Enter a short and a long description of your requested image, and either Submit the request to the Designer Community (all designers who are registered on the Thinkable website and volunteer to make SVG images), or, alternatively, you can Submit the request to selected designers. Do this by selecting registered designers or adding the email addresses of potential new designers along with your request.

The Design requests (new-open) part of the MyImages overview page shows your submitted request which still need to be accepted by designers, you have the possibility to modify the descriptions, or to delete the request.

The Design requests (accepted) shows an overview of accepted design requests, and the email address of the designer processing your request. Upon completion by the designer of an image request, the image is automatically downloaded to the MyImages page on your MDA. This automatic download is triggered by either a refresh of the MyImages page, or by entering the MyImages page from another page of the MDA interface.

On the bottom of the page, a Delete images link is given Clicking on this link shows a page with all images. Clicking on an image will delete the image from the MyImages page.

6.06 Examples

The Examples page shows various categories of example images.

At the top of the page you’ll see the last image that was sketched by the MDA. If you click on this image the MDA will start sketching the image again.

Below this the page shows the various categories of example images. By clicking on a category, you can see all the images that belong to that category. By clicking on an image, the selected image will be sketched.

At the bottom of the page, you have the possibility to return to the category overview page.