Hello tim:
I would agree that an open source braille display would be of interest.
The complexities of creating one are quite daunting. I know of no hobby 3d
printers that could create the small parts with the tight tolerances required.
I have seen some parts made by an EOS 3d printer from Germany, but the price is
in the range of $200,000. There are also the problems of fabricating actuators
and the related circuitry.
I was a member of the National Federation of the Blind’s Committee for Research
and Development. We would hear of people with ideas for new braille displays,
but their projects failed due to the complexities involved.
Regards,
Robert
From: BRLTTY <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tim Böttcher
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2025 2:20 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [BRLTTY] Open-source refreshable Braille displays?
Hi,
I don't want to turn this email into a rant, but I'm a power user of
refreshable Braille displays--due to my deafblindness, they're my only means of
accessing my various computers, RaspBerry pis, phones etc--and the sad truth is
that they're just not fit for intensive use without requiring maintenance every
6 to 12 months; I don't expect them to survive falling out of a plane
mid-flight, the way an iPhone once miraculously did (see: Door blow-out on an
Alaska airlines flight), but it would be just splendid if they could handle a
bit of water, or the skin particles that we all, inevitably, shed while using
them.
I've started religiously cleaning my refreshable braille displays with a micro
fiber cloth in hopes this'll slow down the eventual, inevitable breakdown of
pins and it seems to help--but not prevent the issue.
Somebody ended up on Hacker News recently with a 3D-printed keyboard; there's
also this link, albeit it's rather old and looks like it never really got
finished properly: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:90144 But the point is
that creating your own Braille display and fiddling with it to figure out a
setting that works better for you *should* be possible, given the general
know-how.
Are you aware of any efforts of open-source construction of Braille displays
via 3D-printers? I'm starting to lose faith that the manufacturer industry at
large will ever properly address the needs of users who, like me, use the
braille displays daily for long stretches of time... (Important disclaimer: I'm
not saying all braille displays are bad; there are many models that I like and
many with really cool features, but all of those I used, without exception,
have sooner or later exhibited problems such as keys or pins breaking.)
Many thanks for any input on this.
Kind regards,
Tim
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