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thoughtcast magic
ThoughtCast App V1.0 Instructions for iOS
Welcome to ThoughtCast!
If this is your first time here, or if you are having some difficulty with your ThoughtCast Hardware, we have a dedicated page of information just for Hardware functionality. Links to them are below, be sure to choose the one that is for the specific type of ThoughtCast hardware you are using:
Installation and Activation:
Installing ThoughtCast is as simple as visiting the App Store of your iOS device and searching for ThoughtCast. If you can't find it there, you can also download it here for iOS devices.
Once installed and activated, the ThoughtCast app can only be active on one device at a time! If you want to use ThoughtCast on another device, you must log out of the device you are currently using it with, and that device must have internet access/be able to reach our server to log you out and permit a new device to login. ThoughtCast will not automatically log you out if you delete the app from your device!
To use ThoughtCast on a new device, you must first Deactivate the previous device. The button to Deactivate Device is located at the bottom of the home screen. To deactivate, make sure your phone is connected to the internet, and press "Deactivate Device". Now, you will be able to log into a new device and activate it for ThoughtCast.
If your device gets lost, broken, stolen, or whatever, and you can't activate ThoughtCast on your new device, you can reactivate your device by contacting us.
Drawing Mode:
This is the main mode of ThoughtCast, and the mode you will use most often when you perform. Even if you are using Zone Mode, the controls of Zone Mode are very similar to that of Drawing Mode.
When you enter Drawing Mode for the first time, you will notice the screen is blank. This is normal, it is set up this way so, during performance, if you hold your phone it will appear to be off/locked. When the spectator draws, the vibration motor in your phone will buzz for about 1/2 second every time the pen tip touches the pad. If you are in performance and the spectator should be drawing, but you don't feel the buzz, it means something has gone wrong and you need to resort to another method (if this happens repeatedly, see the section on Troubleshooting on the Hardware page for your ThoughtCast model).
You will also notice a small dot in the bottom left corner of the screen. This is a status indicator dot, and when your Sensor Board disconnects, it will change to Red. When the Sensor Board connects, it changes to green and displays the current battery power of your Sensor Board.
On that same note, there is an emergency buzz pattern that occurs when your phone and the Sensor Board become disconnected while in Drawing Mode. This is a quick series of pulses that does not stop until the Sensor Board reconnects to the phone. If this happens, check the distance of the phone from the Sensor Board. The best distance is less than 50 feet line of sight, but because it is a bluetooth connection, this will potentially work around corners and through walls, so be sure to test before performing.
When you touch to get your peek, there is a touch and drag up/down feature where the brightness will increase as you drag up and decrease as you drag down. When you let go, it will remember the brightness and keep it at that brightness until you go back home (when it then resets to 50% default).
Also, Drawing Mode has three buttons: Home, Save and Clear, and Clear. These are pretty self explanatory, but know when you touch the clear button, it will vibrate once to confirm the drawing is clear. The Save and Clear button will vibrate twice to confirm the same.
Settings of ThoughtCast App:
Invert Colors: The default color scheme of ThoughtCast is a white drawing on a black background. Turning this setting on will switch the colors, so the drawing will be black lines on a white background.
Disable Vibrations: Disables all vibration alerts app-wide, except Zone Vibrations in Zone Mode.
Auto Save On Home: This (unlike Auto Save Below), will save whatever drawing is on the screen when you press the home button, so in case you hit the home button and didn't get your peek, you can still get it from the saved drawings page.
Button Lock: In normal Drawing and Zone Modes, the buttons at the top are always active, if you can see them or not. However, you might notice (due to how you perform and hide your phone), that ThoughtCast might accidentally take you back home. This is what Button Lock fixes.
When Button Lock is enabled, the buttons at the top are only visible when the drawing is visible. So, if Button Lock is enabled, use one finger to see the buttons (or drawing if the buttons are hidden), and a second finger to touch the button at the top to save the drawing, save and clear, or go back to the home screen.
Rotate Sensor Board: This setting will allow you to hide your Sensor Board inside a folio or notepad upside down, yet still see the impression right side up on your screen. If you purchased a ThoughtCast Folio with Hidden Pocket, it is highly recommended you set this to -180 and hide your Sensor Board upside down, so if you need to you can have easy access of the buttons.
Hide Button Overlays: This setting turns off button overlays, so the buttons will function, but you will not see the outlines of where they are on your app.
Drawing Always Visible: This setting disables the “tap to show” feature of drawing mode, so the drawing is always visible without having to touch the screen.
Line Width: This simply changes the width of the line. It also changes the width of the line on your watch, as well as the width of the line in the saved drawing (if you save or auto-save).
Auto Save: This is a option that will automatically save and clear your drawing after a certain amount of time has gone past. When the spectator goes to draw, ThoughtCast times the amount of time between pen touches. When the time exceeds your set "Delay", ThoughtCast will automatically save and clear.
To use, enable this mode in settings, and set the timer delay (a good setting is 5 seconds). Now, you can have multiple spectators draw on multiple sheets of paper, and ThoughtCast will automatically save each drawing to the saved drawings archive and your camera roll.
Incognito Mode: In the normal drawing mode, the screen appears off/locked until you get a peek. In incognito mode, you can take any photo or (preferably) screen shot from your phone and make this into the image you see in draw or zone mode. To use it, go to the home screen (or lock screen, or whatever thing you want to seem to be doing on your phone when you perform) and take a screenshot (here is how, in case you don't already know). Then, in ThoughtCast, tap "Set Image", then select your screenshot. Now, when the "Incognito Mode On" switch is on, you will see your screenshot instead of the black screen when Drawing Mode/Zone Mode is active.
Zone Mode: See the Zone Mode section below on Zone Mode for all the information!
Apple Watch Mode: See the Apple Watch Mode section below for all the information!
Report a Problem/General Feedback: This will allow you to get support for the app, submit bug reports, send feature requests, and more. You can also contact support for help.
Saved Drawings:
In here you can access drawings that have been saved while using ThoughtCast. In this mode, it works almost identically to the way the Photos app in the iOS software works, so if you know how to use an iOS device, this should be relatively easy to figure out.
Saved drawings are also saved to the iOS camera roll, in a folder called "ThoughtCast Drawings". These are a mirror of the drawings you see when you press the "Saved Drawings" button in the ThoughtCast app. If you delete a drawing from you camera roll, it will be deleted from ThoughtCast and vice versa.
Zone Mode:
In regular drawing mode, the magician is able to know what someone is drawing, but has to peek (either at his device or his watch) to see what is being drawn. In zone mode, the magician does not know WHAT is being drawn, but he knows WHERE on the tablet the spectator is currently drawing, using a system of coded vibrations that get sent to the phone and watch.
Here’s how it works:
Before the show, the magician enters "Zone Setup" mode by tapping on the button on the home screen. The first screen the magician sees is this:
So (this is still before the show), on the magicians tablet, he starts to draw the template where the spectators will eventually write or draw. This drawing appears on the iOS device in white, the same as in Drawing mode:
Now (this is all still before the show), the magician has to label each area on the drawing to see what code will be vibrated to him when the spectator draws in that part of the page (that zone). So, he uses his finger, on the iOS device, to paint each of the areas a different color. The magician touches the red #1 circle/ink well, and then draws with his finger to color in all of the area that someone would potentially write into when they write on the tablet of paper.
This is repeated for each area of the pad the spectator could potentially write in. If you make a mistake, the paint colors overwrite each other, so just color over another area. The X button also acts as an eraser of just the zone colors (the Sensor Board drawings used to set up the template cannot be erased during setup).
What the buttons do in Zone Setup Mode:
Back: Returns to the Home Screen, all unsaved drawings are discarded.
Save: Allows you to save just the zone color markings.
Load: Allows you to load the saved zone color markings. In the load screen, you can rename your zone by double tapping it, and you can delete a zone by pressing hand holding, then tapping the dialogue to confirm.
Clear: Clears the zone color markings.
Go: Enters Zone Performance Mode.
The magician presses "GO" and enters "Zone Performance" mode. This mode is exactly like the Drawing mode above, except when the spectator writes in any one of the colored areas, it will buzz/thump that color number in their pocket. You can remember the code easily by remembering ROY G BIV as 1-7 and pink as #8 (so ROY G BIVP).
To delete a saved zone color drawing, press "Load", then press and hold the zone you would like to delete.
To rename a saved zone color drawing, press "Load", then double tap the zone to rename.
There are several settings in the settings specifically for Zone Mode:
Repeat Zone Vibrations: This will specify how many times the zone vibration repeats after it is triggered.
Show Template: By default, when you enter Zone Performance mode, the template you draw on the Sensor Board during setup will not be shown when you peek. If you'd like to see it when you peek (and save it), simply turn the switch on in settings. Keep in mind, when you hit just clear (or save and clear), it will only clear your spectators drawings then show template mode is on.
There are several caveats for zone mode when using it paired with an Apple Watch. Please read the section below to learn about the issues that involve the Apple Watch when used with zone mode.
Watch Mode:
Watch Mode will allow you to see everything written on the pad on your Apple Watch. It's pretty simple to set up, just go to the Apple Watch app, find ThoughtCast in the list of Apple Watch apps, and tap "Install".
You can confirm Watch Mode is enabled in ThoughtCast by going to the Watch Mode section of Settings, and looking for "Watch Mode Enabled". If you see that, now when your watch is on and the ThoughtCast app is open, anything you draw will be sent to your watch!
Your watch app has several other features as well:
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The watch app should refresh the screen automatically. If it doesn't (usually due to the screen going dark unexpectedly), simply tap the watch face once (when the app is open on your watch) to force a refresh.
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To magnet reset, tap the watch face once. Make sure to read about magnet reset in "Pen Calibration" section of the ThoughtCast hardware page for the model you own.
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To save the image and clear the display, tap the screen twice. This will also save and clear on your phone.
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To just clear the image, touch and hold the screen for 1 second.
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You can turn the digital crown to adjust the brightness of the screen.
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All of the functions of the watch app can also be accessed by pressing hard on the app and activating the menu via force touch.
On the watch face itself, besides the drawing, you will also see a dot. This dot is the same connection dot you see in the other drawing modes, that tells you if your Sensor Board is connected and, if it is, what the battery life is of the Sensor Board.
In Zone Mode, because of the limitations of the watch, it will not thump like the phone vibration motor. Instead, it will show (in the lower right hand corner of your watch face) the number of the last zone that was drawn in.
Important things to know about Watch Mode:
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The watch will not show what is being drawn, or vibrations, immediately after they are drawn. Due to a limitation with all Apple Watch apps, there will be a 1 or 2 second delay, so if you know they are drawing, wait a second to allow the phone to send the drawing to your watch.
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Again, due to a watch limitation, the vibration notifications will not happen if the watch is dark, or in "Sleep Mode". If this happens, tap the screen while the app is running. This will show the app display for 15 seconds every time you touch.
Apple Watches, to preserve battery, tend to do everything in their power to close apps and turn off the screen. While this may be good for the average user, for us it becomes dangerous, especially if you are relying on the watch to get your peek. The following steps will help ensure your watch is on and ready when you need it, but keep in mind this could potentially diminish your watch battery life.
Apple Watches, by default, will cause their screen to time-out and dim after 15 seconds of non-activity. This can be changed to 70 seconds very easily. On the watch, go to "Settings", then "General", then "Wake Screen", then scroll down to "On Tap" and tap the button that says "Wake for 70 Seconds". On the phone itself, go to the "Watch" app, then to "General", then "Wake Screen", then tap "Wake for 70 Seconds."
Second, set "On Screen Wake Show Last App" setting to "Always". This ensures, when you wake your screen, the ThoughtCast app will appear. This setting is also located in "Wake Screen", above "On Tap" settings (as seen above).
Third, set the ThoughtCast watch app as the first app in your watch dock. You can do this by going to the watch app on your phone and tapping "Dock". Then, if you have set dock ordering to "Favorites", tap "Edit" in the upper right corner, and scroll down to the ThoughtCast app. Tap the green + button to the left of the ThoughtCast icon, and it will add it to the dock. Once in the dock, tap and drag the three lines to the far right of the ThoughtCast icon to set it as the first app. If you have "Recents" set for your dock, just make sure the last app you use is the ThoughtCast watch app.
Lastly, you can put your watch into Do not Disturb mode as well to prevent alerts from coming on when you perform ThoughtCast. To turn on Do Not Disturb on the Watch, slide up from the bottom on the watch face to show the watch Control Center, then tap the moon icon to enable Do Not Disturb.
Now, before you perform, connect your Sensor Board to your phone and open the ThoughtCast app on your watch. Do a quick test doodle and feel for a vibration. Then, as the spectator goes to draw, tap your watch face to turn it on. You don't have to peek until they are done, but now you can tell if they are drawing. If you fiddle with the crown a bit, this will also ensure it stays on. After you get your peek, you can force the phone to sleep by placing your palm on the watch so it covers the face.