Linux on access technology

I doubt there's a port of the kernel for the z80/z180 architecture,
not to mention all the other utilities. I personally use my old bns640
occasionally for what it was designed to do, and am happy with that
kind of usage. For more modern usage, I
have an android phone, and a laptop, both of which take care nicely of
what my bns can't do, and 99% of what it can do.

Greg

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
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Tom Fowle

2016-05-25 03:31:47 UTC

I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille Lite,
Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the lite was
done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor which was a Z80
offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2 megs of ram and probably
64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to me
about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but trouble with
it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket of
squashed worms.
Tom fowle

Rob

2016-05-25 04:18:49 UTC

Tom Fowle <***@fastmail.fm> wrote:

Pretty sure they had no more than about 2 megs of ram and probably

Post by Tom Fowle
64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.

Yeah, 64k and about 16 mHz clockspeed. I asked once.

Gregory Nowak

2016-05-25 04:55:46 UTC

Interesting to know what the cpu actually was. I knew it was z80/z180
compatible, but that's it. As far as the clock speed, someone once
told me the Blazie units ran at 6-8 MHz, 12 MHz if you got the double
speed upgrade.

Greg

Post by Tom Fowle
I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille Lite,
Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the lite was
done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor which was a Z80
offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2 megs of ram and probably
64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to me
about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but trouble with
it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket of
squashed worms.
Tom fowle

Tom Fowle

2016-05-25 05:04:43 UTC

And, since the software was all in eprom there wouldn't be means for
upgrading without burning new eproms.

I wonder what speech synthesizer they used suppose must have been based on
the long dead TI SPo256.
Tom Fowle

Post by Gregory Nowak
Interesting to know what the cpu actually was. I knew it was z80/z180
compatible, but that's it. As far as the clock speed, someone once
told me the Blazie units ran at 6-8 MHz, 12 MHz if you got the double
speed upgrade.
Greg

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Gregory Nowak

2016-05-25 05:50:46 UTC

Actually, models made after I believe Sept. 1995 had a flashrom board
for upgrading the firmware by yourself, which I did quite a few
times. Units made sometime since the Summer of 1996 had superflash,
which also held firmware and were user upgradable. These were both
optional upgrades for the bns640, but were standard on the
bns2000. I'm not sure how that corresponds to the braille lite models. The
basic interpreter manual for the units said the speech chip is a
si263, but that's all I know on that. Supposedly this is the same
speech chip as used in the accent synthesizer.

Greg

Post by Tom Fowle
And, since the software was all in eprom there wouldn't be means for
upgrading without burning new eproms.
I wonder what speech synthesizer they used suppose must have been based on
the long dead TI SPo256.
Tom Fowl>

Zachary Kline

2016-05-25 05:52:13 UTC

This is bringing back memories. I miss my BNS. :)

Post by Gregory Nowak
Actually, models made after I believe Sept. 1995 had a flashrom board
for upgrading the firmware by yourself, which I did quite a few
times. Units made sometime since the Summer of 1996 had superflash,
which also held firmware and were user upgradable. These were both
optional upgrades for the bns640, but were standard on the
bns2000. I'm not sure how that corresponds to the braille lite models. The
basic interpreter manual for the units said the speech chip is a
si263, but that's all I know on that. Supposedly this is the same
speech chip as used in the accent synthesizer.
Greg

MENGUAL Jean-Philippe

2016-05-25 10:15:21 UTC

I'm not sure I understand 9hat xou talk about. If you talk about linux
iN braille display, some projects are studied. Otherwise, Raspberry
seems a good point of beginning. If it's another thing, I don't know.

Regards,

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Kirk Reiser

2016-05-25 13:08:49 UTC

Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.

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Angelo Sonnesso

2016-05-25 13:17:47 UTC

Can you send me information on the updated battery and charging system?
Thanks

73 N2DYN Angelo

-----Original Message-----
From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-***@linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of Kirk Reiser
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 9:09 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology

Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40 everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in devices like the Alva units.

Post by Tom Fowle
I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille
Lite, Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the
lite was done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor
which was a Z80 offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2
megs of ram and probably 64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to
me about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but
trouble with it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket
of squashed worms.
Tom fowle

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Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Kirk Reiser

2016-05-25 13:27:27 UTC

Hi, I cannot but Intelligent Access Microware's Fred Stam probably
will be happy to share information. I don't have an email for him but
their phone number is (519) 679-4828. As far as I know he still
repairs and modifies almost all access technology devices.

Post by Angelo Sonnesso
Can you send me information on the updated battery and charging system?
Thanks
73 N2DYN Angelo
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 9:09 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology
Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40 everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in devices like the Alva units.

Post by Tom Fowle
I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille
Lite, Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the
lite was done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor
which was a Z80 offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2
megs of ram and probably 64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to
me about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but
trouble with it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket
of squashed worms.
Tom fowle

_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Well that's it then, colour me secure!
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Angelo Sonnesso

2016-05-25 13:16:45 UTC

You can run programs on the Braille Lite, and there was a version of BASIC that worked with it, but I am not sure how we can find out about it.
I also have a Braille Lite still running..

73 N2DYN Angelo

-----Original Message-----
From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-***@linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of Kirk Reiser
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 9:09 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology

Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40 everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in devices like the Alva units.

Post by Tom Fowle
I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille
Lite, Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the
lite was done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor
which was a Z80 offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2
megs of ram and probably 64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to
me about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but
trouble with it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket
of squashed worms.
Tom fowle

_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Gregory Nowak

2016-05-25 23:43:05 UTC

I guess you can find out about it and other stuff from people who
saved the stuff while it was still available. I still have a floppy
with nearly all if not all of the basic interpreter stuff. The biggie
though is a tarball of ftp://blazie.com while it was still up. I got
that from someone on this list, I think it was Igor Geths. I could
probably host all that, but don't want trouble from FS over doing so.

As for the clunky editor ... while it isn't like what we have today,
it was good enough to take me through part of grade school, all of
high school, and a couple years of university. I did the majority of
my school work and papers on my bns, and still think back fondly on
the process. There was something magical about brailling into a video
tape sized device on my lap, being able to spell check, and prepare it
for printing.

Greg

Post by Angelo Sonnesso
You can run programs on the Braille Lite, and there was a version of BASIC that worked with it, but I am not sure how we can find out about it.
I also have a Braille Lite still running..

Glenn

2016-05-25 13:40:49 UTC

If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kirk Reiser" <***@reisers.ca>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
<***@linux-speakup.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology

Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

John G Heim

2016-05-25 15:17:52 UTC

I actually went as far as to contact a plastics molding firm about the
possibility of making a case for a Soekris motherboard. The Raspberry Pi
isn't the first tiny, low power motherboard. I happened to have
inherited one at my job from a company called Soekris. I was going to
have the plastics company make a case so that I could put in a Soekris
mobo and a standard notebook keyboard. I thought I could either use a
blutooth braille display or have the case molded such that you could
snap in some low-cost braille display. I figured the parts other than
the braille display would be about $300 per unit. But the minimum order
from the plastics company was in the thousands. I didn't really want to
start a company to compete with Freedom Scientific and Access
Technology. I'm not sure it would have been a valid business model
anyway considering the advent of smart phones.

Post by Glenn
If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology
Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

_______________________________________________
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http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
--
John G. Heim; ***@math.wisc.edu; sip://***@sip.linphone.org

Janina Sajka

2016-05-26 07:36:41 UTC

Post by Glenn
If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.

This is a pretty sound idea, imo. If we had a box with speakers, braille
keyboard, basic other IO like RJ45, audio, etc., but could simply swap
in mb from time to time to pick up on enhanced cpu, ram, etc., wouldn't
that be pretty future proof?

Janina

Post by Glenn
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology
Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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Well that's it then, colour me secure!
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Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200
sip:***@asterisk.rednote.net
Email: ***@rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

John G Heim

2016-05-26 13:26:45 UTC

I'm changing the subject of this thread...

Is there a standard for the size and shape of small motherboards? When I
got my pi, it wasn't even standard for different versions of the pi.
When you ordered a case, you had to know which revision of the raspberry
pi you had.

What we need is to get one of the dozens of people trying to design the
next break-through braille display to give up on that and design us a
case that can be printed on a 3D printer. Seriously, how often do you
hear about another group of well-meaning grad students working on yet
another cheap braille display that never materializes?

I am imagining a set of instructions that would include how to order the
various parts like battery, keyboard, etc, a 3D printer file for the
case, and instructions for installing linux and getting speakup working
on a pi. Bingo! A notetaker any blind person can build themselves.

Post by Janina Sajka

Post by Glenn
If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
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http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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--
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D.J.J. Ring, Jr.

2016-05-27 03:19:41 UTC

Hi John,

It's best not to change the subject of a thread, your message will likely
not be read by those who are ignoring the Access Technology thread because
of how mail programs sort mail.

Changing the subject line doesn't change the thread.

Sometimes when a thread has been changed, it won't even sort correctly when
sorted by Subject. The new message gets lost with the old thread.

Make a brand new message and address it to: the group.

David

Brandon Keith Biggs

2016-05-26 15:46:21 UTC

Hello,
If you have a little money you can do the following:
Get the following:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/eora-3d-high-precision-3d-scanning#/

create a case using clay and scan it. Have a sighted person look over the
result and make sure it is what you want, print it, then you can get the
pie and some buttons, then you can create your own notetaker!
(It would be a prototype but I think it would work).
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>

Post by John G Heim
I'm changing the subject of this thread...
Is there a standard for the size and shape of small motherboards? When I
got my pi, it wasn't even standard for different versions of the pi. When
you ordered a case, you had to know which revision of the raspberry pi you
had.
What we need is to get one of the dozens of people trying to design the
next break-through braille display to give up on that and design us a case
that can be printed on a 3D printer. Seriously, how often do you hear about
another group of well-meaning grad students working on yet another cheap
braille display that never materializes?
I am imagining a set of instructions that would include how to order the
various parts like battery, keyboard, etc, a 3D printer file for the case,
and instructions for installing linux and getting speakup working on a pi.
Bingo! A notetaker any blind person can build themselves.

Post by Janina Sajka

Post by Glenn
If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.

Post by Glenn
----- Original Message -----
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology
Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.
I worked on a project to try to develop a TTY modem for the Braille Lite,

Post by Tom Fowle
Dean was extremely tight about giving me any info about how the lite was
done. I believe they used a Hitachi HD64180 microprocessor which was a Z80
offshoot. Pretty sure they had no more than about 2 megs of ram and probably
64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to me
about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but trouble with
it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket of
squashed worms.
Tom fowle

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Well that's it then, colour me secure!
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Janina Sajka

2016-05-28 13:07:43 UTC

I suspect it would be OK to accomodate different sized boards in a
generic case, as long as they were just right or smaller, of course. If
smaller, they could still be anchored firmly and their IO extended out
to the ports on the case. Not ideal, but certainly not prohibitive.

I like the notion of socializing the need for a generic case to try and
inspire some grad project. Good idea.

Janina

Post by John G Heim
I'm changing the subject of this thread...
Is there a standard for the size and shape of small motherboards? When I got
my pi, it wasn't even standard for different versions of the pi. When you
ordered a case, you had to know which revision of the raspberry pi you had.
What we need is to get one of the dozens of people trying to design the next
break-through braille display to give up on that and design us a case that
can be printed on a 3D printer. Seriously, how often do you hear about
another group of well-meaning grad students working on yet another cheap
braille display that never materializes?
I am imagining a set of instructions that would include how to order the
various parts like battery, keyboard, etc, a 3D printer file for the case,
and instructions for installing linux and getting speakup working on a pi.
Bingo! A notetaker any blind person can build themselves.

Post by Janina Sajka

Post by Glenn
If the keyboard wasn't an integral part of the motherboard, I'd consider
pulling the MB and putting in my Raspberry PI.

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to
work on some of the legacy technology.
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be
upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed
that all the components are soldered down.
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old
devices.
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Well that's it then, colour me secure!
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Gregory Nowak

2016-05-27 00:32:58 UTC

Post by Janina Sajka
This is a pretty sound idea, imo. If we had a box with speakers, braille
keyboard, basic other IO like RJ45, audio, etc., but could simply swap
in mb from time to time to pick up on enhanced cpu, ram, etc., wouldn't
that be pretty future proof?

Janina Sajka

2016-05-28 13:12:36 UTC

I'm not concerned whether or not it's sufficfiently profitable for
commercial business. There are plenty of nonprofits that would take this
up, if the value could be demonstrated.

The forthcoming approx $500 braille device coming from APH is an
example. It will also be a note taker, apparently.

Janina

Yup, but I can only see a nonprofit or an individual creating such an
option. No for profit company would go for it. Can you imagine the
loss in revenue if in order to upgrade all a user had to do is to
replace the mobo on their own? Let's take it further. What if the
entire thing including case and hardware could be printed on a 3d
printer, and the stl files were freely available? Keep the cost of the
entire thing down to $200 maybe $300 per unit. Allow a bit more if the
user wanted a braille display, maybe those could be 3d printed some
day too. I wonder if someone started something like that on
kickstarter, if it would take off?
Greg
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Buddy Brannan

2016-05-28 13:35:39 UTC

a *very* basic notetaker. No translation or anything like that, so what you type into it is what gets stored. If you haven't seen the manual for it, or at least the preliminary manual for it, it's here:

http://tech.aph.org/tbd_doc.htm

Naturally, there are compromises in the design (somewhat slower refresh rate, for instance, and no cursor routing keys), but both are very acceptable compromises for the price, IMO, especially the cursor routing keys. Yeah, I expect integrating 20 extra switches into the cells would increase the cost by somewhat. Reports are, too, that the braille is excellent quality, reminding some of the braille on signage.

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Post by Janina Sajka
I'm not concerned whether or not it's sufficfiently profitable for
commercial business. There are plenty of nonprofits that would take this
up, if the value could be demonstrated.
The forthcoming approx $500 braille device coming from APH is an
example. It will also be a note taker, apparently.
Janina

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D.J.J. Ring, Jr.

2016-05-31 06:42:36 UTC

Profitable for non-profits is a project that succeeds in interesting the
donors who fund the organization, or if the sales produce enough profit.

The main difference between for-profits and non-profits is that the
non-profits cannot retain earnings for reinvestment, so they have to get
rid of profits by paying board members and executives or spending on
capital equipment.

Some non-profits are running over with money that they have to spend. If
one of those is around, get them interested.

Have fun,

David

Post by Janina Sajka
This is a pretty sound idea, imo. If we had a box with speakers,

braille

Post by Janina Sajka
keyboard, basic other IO like RJ45, audio, etc., but could simply swap
in mb from time to time to pick up on enhanced cpu, ram, etc., wouldn't
that be pretty future proof?

contacts.

Post by Gregory Nowak
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Jude DaShiell

2016-05-25 13:44:55 UTC

I think it will be interesting to discover what Linux interface
possibilities become available after American Printing House For The
Blind starts marketing the Orbit 20 cell refreshable display in the end
of 2016. Price point is supposed to be competitive too.

Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 09:08:49
Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology
Just as a point of interest, my wife uses her braillite-40
everyday. We replaced the batteries and charging circuit with more
modern ones about ten years ago. She really likes it and is always
worrying about what she'll do when we can't repair hers any
longer. It's editor is clunky but beats the shit out of the editor in
devices like the Alva units.

probably

Post by Tom Fowle
64K of eprom Don't know about the clockspeed but bet it was pretty kreeky.
I don't believe it was ever field upgradable, Dean said something to me
about using Ymodem to upload programs and having nothing but trouble with
it.
Considering the instability of the hardware I think it'd be a bucket of
squashed worms.
Tom fowle

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to

work on some of the legacy technology.

Post by Glenn
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be

upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed that
all the components are soldered down.

Post by Glenn
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old

devices.

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Dawes, Stephen

2016-05-25 14:02:42 UTC

It wouldn't surprise me if FS Packmates start showing up for sale with FS support of windows 10. With main stream devices starting to support windows 10, it wouldn't be long before a move away from dedicated devices such as the packmate start to diminish.

Stephen Dawes
-----Original Message-----
From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-***@linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of Jude DaShiell
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 7:45 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Linux on access technology

I think it will be interesting to discover what Linux interface
possibilities become available after American Printing House For The
Blind starts marketing the Orbit 20 cell refreshable display in the end
of 2016. Price point is supposed to be competitive too.

probably

Post by Glenn
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone is working on a light-weight version of Linux to

work on some of the legacy technology.

Post by Glenn
I am thinking of devices such as a Braille Light 40 and the like.
I don't know how much RAM these devices typically used, or if they can be

upgraded, the last time I had one open for some battery work, it seemed that
all the components are soldered down.

Post by Glenn
I imagine that it would take a .BIN file to prompt it to load Linux.
My thoughts are that it could give a bit more usefulness to these old

devices.

Post by Glenn
I think otherwise, it's just a clunky Braille display.
Thanks for thoughts.
Glenn
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2016-05-26 07:30:57 UTC