[bcab] Re: Laptops and Focus Braille displays

Laptops and Focus Braille displaysHi Tim,

I've been using a Focus 40 for nearly a year, and the only problem that I have 
found with it is that the key cover that fits over the braille input keys can 
be very tricky to put back on once you've taken it off.  Otherwise, there's 
absolutely no problem with it and it doesn't seem to drain too much battery.  
Hope this helps.
Karina
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: tim.pennick@xxxxxx 
  To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 2:49 PM
  Subject: [bcab] Laptops and Focus Braille displays


  Hi All, 

  So I've more or less decided to buy a laptop for mobile work use.  I'm 
wondering whether if I got hold of a focus 40 Braille display, I'd be able to 
more or less just use the keyboard on the focus display for note-taking, with 
the laptop running notepad.  What I'm trying to achieve is a replacement for a 
Braille lite which can do Wi-Fi, can run VPN and security software, but is also 
fairly easy to use for straightforward Braille note-taking.  It occurred to me 
that I could just use the focus display in "typing" mode, i.e. what you type on 
its keyboard gets entered as text rather than initiating a function.  I could 
then keep the laptop lid down to conserve power, and more or less use the Focus 
like a braille-lite, until I want to do something more complex like run 
Outlook, in which case I'd open the lid of the laptop and use the native 
keyboard.

  What I'm not sure of, is whether you can send all the necessary key 
combinations from the Focus keyboard e.g. ALT-Tab.  Also the drain on a battery 
would be fairly crucial as a factor in deciding whether or not this was 
feasible.  I'm thinking about the Toshiba Portage, and would be interested in 
any views on whether the battery in this type of machine would be likely to 
cope with a few hours running in a meeting environment driving a Focus display 
via USB connection.

  Can anyone else think of any reason why this is a really bad idea or wouldn't 
work? 

  Regards, and thanks, 

  Tim 

  Tim Pennick 
  tel:    01473 609040 
  BTnet:  00 1609040 
  email:  tim.pennick@xxxxxx 



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