Identifying a tool touching a touchscreen device. A touch location of a tool on a touch-sensitive surface is received from a touchscreen controller. Based on the touch location, one of a plurality of electrodes disposed at locations across the touchscreen is selected and an electric circuit is enabled. The electric circuit includes a signal generator attached to the tool that transmits a modulated identification (ID) signal, a parasitic capacitance path between the signal generator and the selected electrode, a demodulator connected to the selected electrode that receives the ID signal, a resistive layer connected to the demodulator, covering the touch-sensitive surface, and a resistive path through the tool to the signal generator. The demodulator demodulates the modulated ID signal to recover a bit sequence. The tool is identified, based on the recovered bit sequence.