Actually, this is the good news, we caught the corrosion just in time.there is a little bit of acid at some of the seams of the battery but nothing got into or onto the rest of the unit. The rest of the unit is actually in very good condition for a gadget this old. The issue we have is to turn off the beeps about the missing battery and have the display contend with just getting its power from the mains adapter.
Mr. Terry from Optalech said he would check with their technician about if and what could be done that won't cost an arm and a leg. That he is on this list and saw my query is a godsent.
thanks for your advice and I just hope we can nurse my braille display back to health so that I can still get a few years of use out of it.
thanks much. Doris At 06:22 AM 4/12/2013 +0100, you wrote:
Hi Doris.Unfortunately it sounds like your display is on its death bed. When batteries corrode and especially if they have been corrosive for some time, it is always possible that the acid may have leaked in to the main electronic components and damaged the delicate wiring and circuitry. Battery acid is very corrosive to electronics and so attention from a service technician is probably the only route you can take. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.All the best, Ibrahim. -----Original Message----- From: Doris and Chris Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 9:31 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Alva BT 340 Portable A few years ago, I bought the above Braille Display from the "Recycle It" mailing list. I am not a very good Braille reader at all and made only marginal use of the display. When I bought it, the display had a weak battery that would only hold a charge for maybe half an hour. That was quite sufficient for my Braille reading needs. We moved several times over the last few years and it had been a while since I had used the display at all. When we now arrived in our current apartment and unpacked and attached the display to my computer, I found that it did not work at all. We opened the display and found that the battery was corroded, i.e. had begun to leak a little bit of the battery fluid. fortunately nothing had gotten on the display's mother board and other innards yet. My husband performed a batterectomy and we hoped I would be able to use the display working directly off the wall charger. this is not working,however. The unit sits there and emits complaining beeps and also displays some code on the display. We are absolutely broke and cannot afford to get the display serviced. Is there something my husband and I can do to fix the problem ourselves? I have the driver and the Manual in etext format but even though I studied the battery section in the manual, I did not really see anything relevant. I do not want to dump the Braille display because I find the electronic Braille much easier to read than paper Braille and though the unit was used when I bought it, it seems in good condition except for the battery problem. I would be thankful for any advice. Thanks bunches, Doris ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
