Stylus for iPad

[crakddx]

I'm fairly interested in digital art, however drawing with my index finger on an iPad has its constraints. Being the broke 13 year old I am, I can't afford tthe ridiculous $200 price tag for an apple pen. So, what are some styluses under $50 that work with iPad.
Follow up question: Also, since an iPad, you can touch with your finger right, so couldn't you just cut some of your skin off and glue it onto an office pen? How exactly does an iPad's touchacreen work? What materials will provide an output/signal?
Also, is your hand conductive? How does an iPad detect a touch?
Sorry for the complicated post, hope I can get some answers.
EDIT: Just remembered humans are conductive. Stupid me. Edited May 14, 2022 by Mr-G-Man

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Maybe you can find used apple pens

[crakddx]

Researched into it a bit. iPads use a capacitive touch screen, which means only conductive materials will give a signal. Examples of this would be cheap metals such as aluminum and copper. If I connected a strip of tin foil to a battery, effectively running a charge, the iPad would assumedly pick up on that. Going of this hypothesis, if I gutted a pen and stuck this tin foil battery configuration in, with the tin foil being where the tip is, it would work as a stylus. However, this would damage the screen, being the scratchy metal it is. Are there conductive silicons/foams I can use as a tip?

[crakddx]

Used pens are not an option, as the cheapest one I could find was a 1st gen pen with an error rendering it functioness, going for $90 on gumtree.

[Needfuldoer]

Plenty of cheap capacitive touchscreen styluses already exist. No need to reinvent the wheel.

 

https://www.amazon.com/ORIbox-Stylus-Pen-Compatible-Smartphones/dp/B085FDR67C/

 

None of these will give you the Wacom-style pressure and angle sensitivity the Apple Pencil will, though. If that's what you're after for digital art, you might want to save up for one of those, or an older model Intuos, Cintiq, or one of the few Dell and Lenovo convertible laptops with Wacom digitizers.

[RockSolid1106]

10 minutes ago, Mr-G-Man said:

if I gutted a pen and stuck this tin foil battery configuration in, with the tin foil being where the tip is, it would work as a stylus.

Instead of using a battery, you could just extend the tinfoil up so your fingers would touch the foil as you hold it like a pen, it would work too. Your finger/body works as the conductor here.

I've tried it in this kind of a thing, and it wasn't great. You need to apply too much pressure on the screen by your pen for it to recognize touch.

 

In some other DIY ways I found that if you use some damped cotton, which is then connected to some foil, which is in turn touching your fingers. While it worked much better than the previous method, damping it every time you want to use it is tedious, and it also leaves streaks all over your screen.

 

If you want a working solution for as cheap as possible, yeah, I think a cheap stylus off Amazon would be good enough for you.