Hi Ben,
Bad luck to trash an Optacon…. but sometimes there are no alternative
unfortunately.
I was a little bit luckier than you.
My first Optacon (model R1B) was dated 1975 after my 3 weeks training.
At time Optacon was very well supported in Italy, and it was until the end of
Optacon II production (late 90s I believe).
But after that….. nothing. No one is able to fix Optacons, and no parts are
available anymore.
So, when my Optacon II failed in 2018, I found this list looking for a possible
fix. It was a simple google search.
And, after my first post here, many listers came to me with Richard Oehm in the
US and David Godfrey in UK that was my choice following my location (Italy).
So I sent to him my Optacon II and after two weeks it was back at my home
perfectly working. I will never stop to thank David for that great job.
I believe that modification performed by Richard Oehm is removing original
Optacon 1's battery and convert the Optacon to an only-220 volt device (or 110
volt in the USA).
Remember that, if battery is too low, Optacon 1 is not able to work when
connected to its power supply, the battery must be removed.
Marco
Il giorno 10 feb 2022, alle ore 06:08, Benjamin Blatter
<b.blatter@xxxxxxxxxx> ha scritto:
Hi Pamela, what happens when an Optacon is modified to be totally electric?
What is the advantage?
By the way, if it's of interest to you all, I got my first Optacon at my
school when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. The principal herself taught me.
And I felt and was told too that being able to read with an Optacon wasn't
just something every one can do. As far I know no one else was given this
chance, at least as long in these about ten years I attended this school.
My Optacon sounded a bit different than the principal's one. While hers was
totally silent when a blank space was under the camera, mine always had a
constant sawtooth tone, as soon I turned the upper dial up, even there was
nothing to be felt on the tactile array.
When I was about 15 the battery had to be replaced. I could just bring it to
school and the principal took care of it.
Maybe 20 years later I wanted to read something with my optacon again after
some years of not using it very often. I noticed that a portion of the
tactile array didn't work anymore. There was like a black hole which didn't
respond at all. I had just the right man for this in mind, a Swiss engineer
who developed audio mixers for the public radio 30 years ago. He had a look
at it and removed the battery of the Optacon, so it wouldn't leak. But he
wasn't able to open it up further. He was quite disappointed himself. He told
me that fixing the tactile array would have been an easy thing for him to do.
Too bad, I had to pay about 100 Swiss Francs and didn't get anything out of
it. So, I did what other people did as well, I trashed my first Optacon with
a heavy heart.
Last year I became desperate enough to look for an Optacon on Ebay. I found
one and got it - only to read about VideoTIM a few days later and find this
mailing list eventually. Wish I had found it before and maybe could have
asked how to open up the Optacon further.
In hindsight it's a bit a sad story I guess, and I admit there is a little
black hole in my heart like on the tactile array because I threw my first
Optacon away. But I think it's wise to go forward and learn from the past,
whenever it's possible.
Ben
Am 09.02.2022 um 22:09 schrieb Pamela Drake <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
I was certified as an Optacon instructor at TSI. I taught a friend in
Philadelphia through the Associated Services program. If I rememberu
correctl her training was $500, including the Optacon. I stayed with her
during the training. And it was great! She and I had been friends for years,
so I simply stayed with her and bought food. It was a great time! As it
happened, she did not use the Opticon as much as she thought she would, so I
purchased it from her along with two others from friends. Even though I have
Aira and we have a scanner and software, I still enjoy my Optacon. I would
never want to be without one. Richard Oehm modified one to be totally
electric.
On Feb 8, 2022, at 2:21 PM, Margaret Ricciardi <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I received my Optacon training from someone who came to my house. One of my
friend's refused to buy it because training was a requirement in order to
purchase it. I agreed with him, but I wanted to be able to read print so
much, that I did the training. Another friend had an Optacon that someone
gave her. She ended up giving it to me and since I really didn't need it and
it needed to be repaired, I sent it to Richard Oehm so that he could use it
for parts. The Optacon has allowed me to read knitting patterns that are
written out in charts. Something that a scanner would never be able to read.
Peggy & Dixie Marie
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 8, 2022, at 3:16 PM, <dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx>
<dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This discussion about sawtooth waves is interesting. When I was a music
student in college I had to take a physics of sound course and we talked
about which instruments emit sawtooth waves. Now I can't remember which
ones.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Benjamin Blatter
Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 2:00 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training
Charles, this is amazing. I can somehow imagine the Sawtooth being the best
suited waveform for this It probably has the correct bite to make things
sharp and clear.
What did became of the Optacon III project? and what would have been
different in the Optacon III you were considering in difference to the
previous models?
Ben
Am 08.02.2022 um 19:40 schrieb Charles ("wpg67")<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
time. It's sad that your people felt disturbed by the sounds of the Optacon.
allow me to amend a part of my previous message. More accurately, a
sawtooth waveform felt the best. it most closely resembled the
optacon's squarewave when its pulse width was at 50%. My apologies.
Charles
On 2022-02-08 1:36 p.m., Charles (wpg67) wrote:
I had experimented with sine waves and other waveforms when attending
to an optacon III project, but either because of training and
experience or because of something intrinsic to the optacons R1 and
II,, or to human perception, its driving square wave felt best and
it gave the clearest tactile and audio information.
As for the painful finger picking which limited reading time, I
used polymer reeds rather than copper wire reeds. Like fine fishing
line with a good stand-up coefficient. So, whoever develops an
optacon display, a mechanical one at any rate, should not ignore the
texture of the fine tactile pins.
Charles
On 2022-02-08 1:24 p.m., Benjamin Blatter wrote:
Dan, it was very interesting to read from you how things worked at your
I read or heard somewhere that the developers of the Optacon would have
changed the sound to a less disturbing sound curve like par examples sinus
wave. But the Optacons where progressed already way to far for this.
their optacons in the trash. I'm sure I could find someone to use it if IWhile I had joy with my Optacon the constant picking needles made me
tired after maybe 30 minutes and so I didn't really want to read
whole books this way. I for sure couldn't have kept up during my
musical education with an Optacon. In this time book scanners and
OpenBook came up and I got many materials presented on floppy discs
:-)
Ben
Am 08.02.2022 um 18:20 schrieb dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx:
When I got my optacon in high school there were limited options
where I could get training and an optacon to keep. I got my
training at a school for the blind and my optacon was loaned to me
by the U.S. Department of Education with the understanding that I
would need to return it when I graduated from college. Some people
I know went to Associated Services for the Blind in Philadelphia
for training which I think included an optacon. I wonder how much
the training cost. The fact that I would not be able to keep an
optacon was a disincentive for me to ever become a fluent user. I
did not get much pleasure from the device and my family hated the
noise. I was always having problems keeping paperback books and
magazines open. Maybe my skills would have improved if I had spent
more time with the optacon. In college I wasn't able to keep up
without hiring readers. Recently A friend gave me an optacon and I
need to get around to fixing it. It isn't my highest priority. If
we ever get a new type of optacon with more features I probably
would be more interested in developing my skills using it. If I
don't get around to fixing the optacon then I will donate it to
someone on this list. I wouldn't do what some friends did by throwing
decide getting it fixed wouldn't justify my using it.
research and development. It is a sad situation.
I know my comments sound negative but this is an example of where I
would want more modern technology to interest me more in an
optacon. I think the device should be essentially the same but with
newer components and a digital interface so software could be
updated. We have the technology except for a practical tactile
array which is a real shame. The worst of it is that we don't have
enough interest in an optacon where we could obtain funding for
the quotes) in the message subject.
Dan
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