Thinkpads Forum

Hello Everyone ! (from france)

I typed "thinkpad forum" just to see and, miracle there is one !

I'll try to explain very fast my prob, i bought an X61 4 years ago and i would like to use it as a cintiq from wacom, i would like to draw on photoshop or gimp or another drawing soft. BUT, my x61 is too weak this is too much pain to see him trying to laucnch photoshop, i put him down every time.

My question is, how can i use it as a cintiq, (even a cheap one), do i have to go full linux or android ? or boost it with some hardware ?

thank you for your time guys.

I'm assuming you have a X61T tablet.

On arch linux with gnome 3 i ran Gimp, Inkscape[Drawing] & Scribus [DTP] fine. Wacom drivers worked out of the box & you will need cellwriter to do text input if you want to keep it in screen mode all the time.

Only issue is setting up the buttons that flip screen orientation which gets complex but there are plenty of links out there covering the various methods.

On something like an X61T, the only parts you can upgrade are the RAM and the hard drive.
Drawing programs eat up RAM, so if you only have 2GB, you need to upgrade to at least 4GB.
Loading times can be reduced by upgrading to an SSD.

However, neither of these will help much if it's the CPU that's being maxed out. Keep task manager open to keep track of RAM and CPU usage while you're using the drawing program.

Okay, i'll add some ram i think. And try the linux you told me.

Thank you !!!

PS: Crazy idea, is there a way to plug the screen on another pc with an adaptator ? If it's possible i could dissasemble the screen and put it on a custom frame.

maybe a too crazy idea ? :p

tyssoon wrote: PS: Crazy idea, is there a way to plug the screen on another pc with an adaptator ? If it's possible i could dissasemble the screen and put it on a custom frame.

That's certainly possible in theory, and I might even have come across someone doing that on the Internet, but I can't find it right now.

First, you have to somehow take a video signal and feed it to the LCD panel. The LCD takes LVDS signals, and there are kits on eBay for VGA/DVI/whatever-display-connection-you-have to LVDS conversion boards. You will have to tell the seller the exact model of the LCD panel, so that they can use the correct firmware for the board, and make an appropriate LCD cable for you.

Then, you have to take the signal from the digitizer and feed it to your PC. The digitizer uses a serial connection (UART) to the motherboard, so you'll need a serial port plus level shifting hardware, or perhaps a USB-to-serial adapter with the appropriate voltage levels. Then you'll have to persuade Wacom drivers to actually talk to the hardware, which is difficult since in the X61 tablet the serial port has a special name that the driver would recognize automatically, but the serial port on the other PC would not.

If you feel like some challenge, go for it.

Okay XD

I like challenge and i may try it in the future depending on the budget i can put in it. Be sure i'll come back here if i try this

Thanks guys, keep going !

The digitizer uses a serial connection (UART) to the motherboard, so you'll need a serial port plus level shifting hardware, or perhaps a USB-to-serial adapter with the appropriate voltage levels. Then you'll have to persuade Wacom drivers to actually talk to the hardware, which is difficult since in the X61 tablet the serial port has a special name that the driver would recognize automatically, but the serial port on the other PC would not.

If it works with a normal serial port, then getting it to work under Linux might be easier, as the I/O port and IRQ can be specified in the config files. Dunno if it can be done in Windows though.