ExpressKey Remote with old wacom drivers

[JaseBristol]

Hi,

I created a build a few years ago which is working well, with Intuos 2 A3 ( XD-1218U-D)  using WacomTablet_6.1.7-3 drivers.
I use the mapping section in the driver panel to calibrate the pen and the portion of screen / tablet area.

I have a Wacom ExpressKey remote which i would like to try and get to work with this.
the new drivers WacomTablet_6.3.24-5a don't recognize my tablet or have a mapping section to calibrate the pen.

Has anyone got any suggestions i could try?
Can i take a file from the new drivers and mix it with the old driver ?

[DaBotz]

As far as I know, the last Wacom driver that works with the Intuos 2 is the 6.2.0_w5, however I do not think that it supports the ExpressKey remote, which is a shame because it is really a nice piece of hardware and I know it does not work with my Intuos 4 (errata corrige, I meant intuos 2).

You can try and look if they released a newer driver for the Intuos 2, in which case, let me know.

Personally, to "emulate" the ExpressKey, I use a wireless numeric pad with "function stickers" on the keys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DSNOz1PxNE&t=452s
in conjunction with a "daemon" that changes its configuration files depending onn the active windows executable.

Pretty crude, no display and you must find a work to get it to keep position once the rubber pads at its back fall off (the grease from the hand palm "sneaked up" and dissolved the glue, in a couople of months - I am using a counterweighted parallelogram, reminiscent of some old technical drafting machines ), but it works...


P.S. would you mind publish a photo of your finished build? When I made my first Intuos 2 XL build, I didn't realize that your machine was a functional one until after I bought a first screen... you managed to get it working, and never posted a shot of the completed thing.

[jedikalimero]

I have a ExpressKeys remote that I have been using for long with my Intuos Pro L with the same drivers. I have also tested it with the Cintiq 21UX DTK I'm trying to revive and that is from the same period of the Intuos 4. It should also work with an Intuos 4. I have not tested it yet but I can try tomorrow.
About the Intuos 2, I'm afraid it is too old so the drivers for modern tablets don't cover it (or the Intuos 3). You could try and install both drivers but I'm not sure if this would work since Windows will probably believe they are two versions of the same driver and not allow both drivers running at the same time.
I have also tried both the drivers of intuos 4 and a Bamboo and they both can coexist in the same computer but they are two different drivers so there is no conflict for Windows.
I think one thing worth trying would be to hack the intuos 2 driver so Windows identifies it as a different driver so you can install and use both. The driver for the intuos 4 appears in my computer as the service "wacom professional tablet driver" while the Bamboo driver appears under a similar but different name. If you manage to hack the intuos 2 driver so it is identified as a different driver/service/whatever, maybe you will be able to open both Wacom control panels to configure both devices separately but working at the same time.

[jedikalimero]

I see your mention of the Intuos 4 was an errata, but anyway, just in case this information is useful to anybody else, Here they are the Intuos4 and the ExpressKey Remote in perfect harmony.

My guess is the remote would also work with the Bamboo since they use different drivers (not different versions of the same driver)

It is a pity Wacom removed support for Intuos tablets below Intuos4 from their newest versions of the drivers. A pity and a nonsense, because the Intuos 2 and 3 still work perfectly well in Windows 10 but since those drivers are not being developed anymore, the compatibility of Windows with those tablets will end soon, I'm afraid. (and also the  Cintiq 21UX DTZ and Cintiq 12)

Only option I see is a bootleg driver or hacking the original old driver to fool Windows into thinking it is a different service.

[DaBotz]

The service for Intuos 2 & 3 is "TabletServiceWacom" (executable, "Wacom_Tablet.exe").

The service for the Intuos 4 and beyond, as far as I know, is "Wacom Professional Service"(executable, WTabletServicePro).

Alas, it is not just a matter of these, there are also all the "kernel drivers" (some wacomxxxx.sys programs that are in %winsows%\system32\drivers

wachidrouter
wacmoumonitor,
wacmousefilter,
wacomrouterfilter,
wacomvhid,

), which are supposedly what communicates with the components of the tablet just above the USB level.

It is probable that the Expresskey remote has its own ".sys" kernel driver and user level service, so maybe it is possible to get it to run with the Intuos 2.

Wacom drivers are also more than a bit finicky... for example, the 6.2.0_w5 driver should manage the Intuos 4 and 5,  this latter also in the versions with the touch interface (that has its own service, something with "touch" in its name), but in none of my computers it accepted to work with the Intuos 4!

It sees it, "installs" it, lights up the OLED and sees the tablet in mouse mode, then ask for a reboot.

After the reboot, it doesn't see the stupid thing, until I unplug and replug it... at which point it"re-installs" the I 4 and I am back to square 1. Annoying.

Whereas, the 6.1.7.3 does not support any touch interface, but it can manage the Intuos 4 (as long as I do not unplug it... if I do, the "kernel driver"sometimes crashes, and I have to restart the pc).

[DaBotz]

Note: I checked and what happens was that a "WacomTablet_User.exe" process keeps hanging while the kernel service "WacomTablet.exe" dies.

If I kill the surviving, "spurious" process, I can use a call to "services.exe" to restart the Wacom driver service, without having to restart the whole system.