Hi John - and all that said, it was such a horribly ugly brute, a sighted friend said it looked like a museum piece. My bank sent me 2 card readers recently, the ordinary one is smart and slim line with nice buttons, the talking one is large, ugly in shape, and feels cheap in build! It really doesn't have to be like this. Andy Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 8:06 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Poor quality of equipment? Hi Andy, I'm with you on the crap quality of the PTR1. The battery wouldn't hold a charge after six months, and there's very bad earthing noise on the mic input, and the internal mic's total rubbish. When I managed to get an email for Plextalk and emailed them re the interferrence on the mic input they said I should use a different mic. I took their advice and tried one of the microphones they suggested and it was no better. Apparently the problem, according to a technician I had look at it is a badly shielded power supply. It certainly wasn't worth the money, and wouldn't be worth it, given its defects even for a quarter of the price. John. ----- Original Message ----- From: ANDY COLLINS To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 7:33 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Poor quality of equipment? ...and don't get me going on the extortionate PTR1, what an ugly over price full of faults that thing has been, and sending it back for repair was a waste of time, and cost a fortune in P&P - I'll shut up now as this is off topic, and no doubt will get some telling me I should be grateful for this shabby stuff Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: spring.flower To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 7:24 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Poor quality of equipment? Can't help with the equipment but have to agree regarding this general topic, I can never get a talking watch's battery replaced without the watch dieing in no time, I even sent the last one back to rnib and I gotit back and was told that the control cup was faulty, it sone of the radio controlled ones and now the visual display displays one time and the voice says another, think there's five minutes difference, the voice is correct though thankfully. I had three calendar clocks from cobolt and all died within two or three years, my talking microwave lasted about two years, my parrot the same. You'll be thinking that I hanl=dle my things roughly but I don't, may be I'm too careful, may be I should start slamming things against the wall a few times LOL Trace ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Moore To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 5:48 PM Subject: [access-uk] Poor quality of equipment? Hello all, This is not strictly computer related, but involves accessibility equipment.... Does anyone know of a good quality talking tape measure; other than the Cobalt one? I have two of these, and a year is about the most I can get out of both them, as they always end up giving spurious measurements- such as 2513 inches when the tape is fully retracted. Replacing the battery etc does no good. Do we have to put up with inferior quality materials every time? Regards, A disgruntled Mike