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Unpacking and setting up a GTCO Rollup Digitizer

Today we will be unpacking and setting up a GTCO Rollup III digitizer. These Rollup III digitizers are my favorite. They're reliable, have a small footprint, are low-power, portable and relatively inexpensive.

*UNPACKING THE GTCO Rollup III DIGITIZER*

The GTCO Rollup digitizer ships in a heavy cardboard tube.

To open the digitizer tube, cut the tape and remove the lid. Inside you'll see the accessory box, a padded cardboard spacer, and the digitizer itself wrapped around the inside wall of the tube.

To unpack the digitizer:

1. Lift the accessories box out using the hole in the end of the box.

2. Lift the padded cardboard spacer straight up.

3. Once the spacer is removed, grasp the end of the electronics bar and rotate it a quarter turn to loosen the digitizer from a wall of the tube.

4. Then grasping the electronics bar as well as the other two layers of the board, carefully lift the digitizer straight up and roll it out on a flat surface making sure that the entire digitizer is supported.

It is important that the entire digitizer is supported. Although these digitizers are quite rugged they are are susceptible to damage from sharp bends in the surface of the board. So make sure that the work surface they are on is at least as large as the entire digitizer. Also the work surface should be made entirely of a non-metallic material. Metal surfaces under the board can interfere with the operation of the digitizer. So if you're putting a large metal drafting board, then it's best to lay a sheet of plywood under the board to separate it from the metal.

*Orienting the GTCO Rollup digitizer*

It's best to place the digitizer so the electronic bars on the right. Although these digitizers are reversible, with electronics on the right, the wires for the stylus and USB cable will come out of the top of electronics bar far away from you and be protected from accidental damage. If you want to put the digitizer electronics on the left, make sure to click the right-angle button in the Superset menu once the digitizer is powered on. Also, you will need to be careful of the delicate stylus and USB cabling as it will be at the lower edge of your work surface.

*Unpacking the accessories box*

Next we will , unpack the accessories box. To do that will open the lid, and then remove the installation CD, the manual, the digitizer stylus or cursor, and finally the USB cable.

Now the accessory box is empty, place it back in the padded cardboard spacer and put the spacer back into the digitizer storage tube. Don't lose the shipping container. If you ever need to return the digitizer to the manufacturer for repair, you'll need this to in order to ship it safely.

*Plugging the cables into the digitizer*

Now let's plug in the digitizer USB cable and stylus or cursor. At the end of electronics bar you'll see four ports. The first two ports are only used if you're using a serial connection to the computer and this type of connections is not normally used these days. The third port is for the digitizer stylus or cursor.

Pick up the end of the stylus or cursor cable and you'll notice that it's keyed like a telephone cable. With the key side down, plug it into the third port.

Then plug the square end of the USB cable into the fourth port.

Your GTCO digitizer is now set up. You are now ready to install the digitizer driver from the installation CD or from a download from the GTCO website.

To learn how to install the digitizer driver, name tablet works, please see the article entitled "Installing the Tabletworks driver for GTCO Digitizers".

About the Author

I'm Dr. Digitizer.

I've spent 19 years setting up, installing, and troubleshooting GTCO digitizers.

I've learned everything about GTCO digitizers and especially GTCO Rollup digitizers and I'm sharing all that information with you, the befuddled user. For while I have years of experience and can answer digitizer question, in detail, while wide awake, half asleep or heavily concussed... you, as the user, are facing many of these problems for the first time...and well, you have better things to do.

So read on! And TRIUMPH over your digitizer!

And look for more digitizer answers at
www.DrDigitizer.com

All information is copyright, 2009-2010, DrDigitizer, LLC.