I had Richard convert two of my Optacons to run only from an external power
supply. He told me that the main caveat is that you have to use a power
supply with very solid regulation; otherwise, some of the electronics in the
Optacon can be blown by voltage spikes or perhaps from cheap power supplies
in which the regulation is not very tight. He also told me that a few folk
had just disconnected the battery and run the Optacon off the Optacon
charger. This setup is not safe because the voltage of those chargers is
not tightly regulated. He offered me two of the supplies that he obtained,
and I chose to buy them from him. I forgot what he charged for each; but in
light of the price of an Optacon or its repair, I thought that the price he
wanted for each charger was very reasonable.
Another reason why one should not simply disconnect the battery and continue
running the Optacon off the original charger is that the battery does more
than just supply power for the unit. The battery itself serves as a form of
voltage regulation to hold the voltage constant over some amount of
variation in the voltage provided by the original Optacon charger. Then,
too, another function of the battery often not known to a casual user of
electronic equipment is that of "stage decoupling." That decoupling
prevents unwanted interaction between various circuits in the unit; for
example, proper decoupling (sometimes called isolation) between circuits
prevents the spikes from the Optacon's oscillator from getting back through
the DC supply to other sections where that signal does not belong.
I understand, too, that a few folk removed the batteries from the Blazie
Braille 'N' Speak and encountered problems because the "wallwart" intended
for these units was not tightly regulated; it also had to put out a higher
voltage than that of the battery in order to charge it. When Richard
converts an Optacon for house-current only operation, I understand that he
makes some small changes within the Optacon to make it safely operate that
way.
Regards,
David Plumlee
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Noel Runyan
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 3:41 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training
Hi,
Richard or I can give you contact information for suppliers of regulated 5
volt power adapters that already have the proper barrel adapter for plugging
into the standard barrel jack on the back of an Optacon I with no
modification other than having its battery removed or disconnected.
It would be nice to be able to plug USB chargers directly into the back of
an Optacon, but , for most less technically talented folks, it may be an
easier conversion if one just purchases a cable adapter that is a short
cable that has a female USB (USB-A) connector on one end and has a standard
Optacon compatible barrel plug on the other end. Last year, I was able to
purchase such a cable adapter for only about USA $10.
A reminder for those who might do this, using a USB or other 5 volt
regulated power adapter in this way only works if the battery is
disconnected or removed.
Well, to be more precise, it would actually be possible to power an Optacon
I through a USB adapter, without disconnecting the battery, if Richard or
some other talented tech adds a voltage converter circuit inside the
Optacon, to boost the 5 volt input from an external charger. This added
circuit would need to boost the supplied 5 volt input up to about 7.5 volts
to supply enough voltage to charge the internal battery.
Such an internal power booster circuit would allow you to run off the
batteries and to USE a compact and more universal standard USB power
adapter.
Feel free to contact me off-list, if you want more details about how to deal
with these Optacon power modifications.
Cordially,
Noel
-
Noel H. Runyan
Email: Noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At 11:16 AM 2/10/2022, you wrote:
The 5V modification is a sensible thing to do assuming you don't needMy apologies.
portability, especially given the age of your typical Optacon battery
these days. I've modified my R1C to have a USB a port on the back and
find it works well.
On 2/10/22, Noel Runyan <noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ben and others,
Most Optacon I units stop working if their battery is completely
dead. Yes, it can be partially fixed by just removing the battery
or popping the circuit breaker.
However, it is not safe to run an Optacon without its battery on an
unregulated power adapter. This is because the Optacon circuitry
can be damaged by the higher voltages from an unregulated power adapter.
There are readily available 5 volt regulated power adapters that you
can use to safely run an Optacon with the battery removed or
disconnected. I've previously provided sources for this on this
list, and we will be glad to share those details again, if you need
them. We can also explain how you can use your Optacon with one of
the much more compact USB power adapters.
By the way, if the battery in an Optacon is not being used, it
should be removed, so that it can't damage the insides of the
Optacon if it starts leaking corrosive fluids.
Anyone who can operate a screwdriver should be able to remove the
battery. It is a simple task.
Of course, Folks like Richard, in the USA, or David, in England, can
do this for you and assure that you have the correct type of power
adapter.
Cordially,
Noel
-
Noel H. Runyan
Email: Noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-
At 09:08 PM 2/9/2022, Benjamin Blatter wrote:
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>:TSI. I taught a friend in Philadelphia through the Associated
I was certified as an Optacon instructor at
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.
Ricciardi <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 8, 2022, at 2:21 PM, Margaret
someone who came to my house. One of my friend's refused to buy it
I received my Optacon training from
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<dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx> <dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 8, 2022, at 3:16 PM,
imagine the Sawtooth being the best
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
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>:
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%.
to:to view the list archives, go to:disturbed by the sounds of the Optacon.Charlestime. It's sad that your people felt
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
word "unsubscribe" (without theI 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 toWhile 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
use it if I 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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