Desiging a case (was: Access Technology)

Thu May 26 09:26:45 EDT 2016

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.

On 05/26/2016 02:36 AM, Janina Sajka wrote:
> Glenn writes:
>> 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
>
>> Glenn
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Kirk Reiser" <kirk at reisers.ca>
>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
>> <speakup at 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.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Tom Fowle wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 08:48:08PM -0500, Glenn wrote:
>>>> 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
>>>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>>>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Speakup mailing list
>>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> -- 
>> Well that's it then, colour me secure!
>>
>> -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
>> Version: GnuPG v1
>>
>> mQENBFYV5DMBCAC060mbsnLhGPjnFkf0R0p+7MxcfxlOuy5wc8y59y9ZNF0RZD1s
>> OTEsDih4vD9YJ3zA78VsBUDK47aiDWduh3nHzYN2ZSuxAQ9u7qPqphCG0jPagTU8
>> p7+Ceeya4I5odWtq+Nkf1UrHB7KKEtexphStSwUG5Bhi4bb84YinmX/a3I+OGV1D
>> by4QBSdPvSuDw0qFkt/ucLyEwv4L6lDjoH2GF+tnCew4SJtliJFvA1k7NpWO6HW9
>> aWtBxfYU85ccZKBSE25y+9KprUCncVTpaVs3FztCWG0dQRXHvEbV+Damp/IBd9Jv
>> HZX7azqbERUa/FjPTIlZhhI9VtaZaFfJSH+5ABEBAAG0HUtpcmsgUmVpc2VyIDxr
>> aXJrQHJlaXNlcnMuY2E+iQE+BBMBAgAoBQJWFeQzAhsDBQkADS8ABgsJCAcDAgYV
>> CAIJCgsEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRAHTEsk7UQUUoeuB/wIqsdLCfDrSvr3qg7rKBDg
>> ru44OMuRit6hbdWFZjmxccCdjeNhBJRVd5wrEqjj5YoqQAhmacXaEB0DO/TZlDgo
>> kUfJM7lrtQD4mYU9GVtrzJxCJoBUyeMVnMJt39F91tBu0mYM6oI/dv81dwxIv++4
>> hj55TZ4GG7DGYAy4LwNb+noNbivgOFHlnfNq8nxhZkHbJdYKP+sptZOL5sagmBQZ
>> iS9STB54g/U7Jtt1Fe+JwDmbxQhbSHa9JuWn0xZ8CtYhrz06xSqZl5vpMlak3eW2
>> x6m6IcqZfyuI2K7W/9BCgcsQyYzufO4Gk9KyPNISskX6pFBLuNxIH6hdfxSYYm9y
>> uQENBFYV5DMBCACtMyhHog5MR6eQUPTx7fWH5ntkgCtmWvQp4lcKj0HHbteDWglS
>> NVbWKWEk9PAKA4UeQVUH4vOhTRhAPpuDUavLdp2tDtT7ZBVh91B3AWIM6+7fIvyU
>> 2uYt1q/CNjga8RllXBT7mW2zHGEYQFIkBJvqlU0PN1HlxRZIbSSEb+zQuVAd+ph3
>> kt/oZon3ZbNmKg+arsYMmKkYJ0REwKQib7h5Xl31aK74XmWBp2Ky+lopsJSP8wpH
>> AfC71h4s3LDm8ADHF1Ns4KuGZdLTugr8uiPm5kEJFGes1uYKy8R7OTFko0NEuJkv
>> STfpPYnTU2qDCJBH08zZErI/6YBIlSsCSde3ABEBAAGJASUEGAECAA8FAlYV5DMC
>> GwwFCQANLwAACgkQB0xLJO1EFFKAmgf/d3dk1/HgmF8rmvYVru/hJvmIpmiLqPl5
>> bYSwdZeU+k82qp3xACM2yMJhOh89SgHsaaqQAE1qo5rAJcSG7/+7M/kzf4u/WM/E
>> unXDtLkbzi5Zl+gjoikrfOhgF0NmuGdlrOme8a6ue7+iE4XLAo0/jhVlh45O6Iq0
>> 0DGyeFr22cR3jZj4wRmPw5zj4r/sWc06UfquVAEMmfIvJMaGYvwBI+TU6gI8MjLe
>> VDY0vay/nQ79fXSLQmYEvjwKXIavQu9c8TFt0z9EDdoIMx69ZunqZuYQInxaT+cL
>> i9zhihMGz4XA1q3blLNX3I0jWzAa23ZchI7htc3kfxp1jWqrGyGEIg==
>> =nrPH
>> -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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