All,
I apologize if the following is too long.
Evan's story helps to point out a proper
maintenance tip for vintage electronic
equipment. Almost all electronics you might own
contains electrolytic capacitors. When
electrolytic capacitors are left too long without
being powered up, they can depolarize and become
vulnerable to shorting out. After depolarizing
because of their device sitting on the shelf too
long, the depolarized capacitors are likely to
short out and fail the next time the device is
finally turned on (often with an impressive pop
and subsequent bad smell). To avoid this
problem, proper maintenance of electronic devices
should include occasional, perhaps yearly,
powering on of the electronic devices. So, it is
a good idea to pull out that old backup Optacon
once a year, turn it on, and leave it running for
about an hour or so, to make sure that the
electrolytic capacitors are freshly re-polarized.
If you have any vintage electronic device that
has not been turned on for many years, there is a
process for properly re-powering it so that you
can avoid the risk of having the capacitors short
out. If you want to know more about that
procedure, you might contact Richard Oehm or me
off list, or search the net with a term like
"re-polarizing electrolytic capacitors".
Sorry, but the following story may also be too
long and a good thing for most folks to skip.
You might be interested to know that TSI
developed a tactile sensitivity measuring device
that incorporated a modified Optacon to test
people's tactile sensitivity. A tester, who sat
behind the Optacon had a vibration strength
control and a switch to turn the vibration on or
off. The testee sat in front of the Optacon,
with a finger on the tactile array, just like we
do when reading with the Optacon.
This modified Optacon did not have a camera, as
it just generated a solid field of vibrating
pins. Companies could use this device to test
their employees, to determine the minimum tactile
sensitivity of each employee, something like a
hearing test. Subsequently, say maybe after an
employee's exposure to harsh chemicals, the
modified Optacon testing could be used again, to
determine whether or not the employee had
suffered any loss in tactile sensitivity of their fingers.
Emerson Foulke derived a much cheaper and simpler
tactile sensitivity test, using just sand paper with various roughness.
John Beard was TSI's strongest proponent of the
modified Optacon tactile testing product. I
agreed to let him test my finger sensitivity, and
we sat down across from each other at a small
cloth-covered table in a restaurant, with the
machine between us. When the test was finished,
John was truly perplexed, since, for each of the
tests with very weak vibration, I had
consistently given the wrong answer. I had said
"Yes" when their was no vibration, and said "No"
when there was a weak vibration. After I asked
to be allowd to check out the controls he was
using on the back of the machine, I discovered
that the toggle switch that he operated to
randomly select to turning the vibration on or
off, was actually causing the whole Optacon unit
to tip forward when the switch was pressed to the
Up position. So, I was actually detecting the
very slight shift in the movement of the whole
array whenever the device was switched to the "Off" position.
The findings from John's testing on me ended up
invalidating most of the data from the previous
field trials of the modified tactile testing
Optacon. That tactile tester never became a successful product.
Perhaps we should chop up several sheets of sand
paper to make up DIY tactile sensitivity kits for home use.
At a minimum, a visit to a hardware store could
give you an opportunity to test your own tactile
sensativity by touching the various grits of sand
paper they usually have stocked on the shelf.
It might be helpful if we can find out if there
is a sand paper grit size standard that might
help each of us determine whether or not we have developed too much neuropathy.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there is
already some sort of inexpensive self-testing kit
already available on the market.
Cordially,
Noel
-
a a
At 07:48 PM 10/26/2018, you wrote:
Hey Guys,
This is kind of long, but I have a little story
I want to relate. It has a very happy ending.
I have two Optacons here, an AC only model, and one with a battery.
Iâve been keeping the AC only one as a spare
because, especially in the summer, I like the
option of being able to take the battery one
outside for checking my Bookshare scans while
Iâm reading through them on my braille display.
For a long time now Iâve been losing my
ability to read with my battery Optacon. I
canât say how long because it has been such a
gradual process. I just began to notice that I
was having more trouble making out print than I
used to. It kept getting worse over time. I
gradually began to defer using my Optacon more
and more often, doing things with my scanner or
OCR apps on my iPad that I used to do with the
Optacon. But I donât think I have to tell most
of you here that that just ainât the same
thing at all. Like many of you, I really prefer
having the sense of actually looking at the
print. I began to feel a sense of increasing
discouragement whenever I did use my Optacon. It
just got to be more and more of a struggle, and
my reading got slower and slower. I could still
read, but gradually things just got more and
more difficult. I thought the cause was my
finger losing sensitivity. Like all of you,
Iâm getting older, and another possible cause I thought was that my life pa
rtner and I compromise on the temperature of
the house; I like it warmer and she likes it
colder. Sometimes my hands are colder than they
would be if I were controling the temperature.
So between increasing age and sometimes being a
bit cold, I thought I was just losing finger sensitivity.
Last Monday, things got especially bad. On my
braille display, I was reading through a book I
had scanned for Bookshare. Every once in a
while, I would look at a page with my Optacon to
figure out a scanning error I couldnât deduce
from context. The book is a mass market
paperback, but from my experience, that didnât
seem to be enough to explain the amount of
difficulty I was having. Mass market paperbacks
can have bad print, but this was worse than I
had ever seen. I could barely make out anything
at all. It was to the point where I was almost
completely unable to read with my Optacon. My
discouragement had reached a new level.
Naturally, as I have been doing for so long now,
I thought it was my fingerâs fault. Somehow,
finally, finally, the thought dawned on me to
break out the AC only Optacon and see how it
would do on that print. Things got so bad that I
began to wonder if maybe I was wrong about what
my reading problem was. The difference in readability with the battery Op
tacon was incredible. At that moment, I knew
that it wasnât me at all; it was the machine!
If thereâs been a time when I was happier to
be wrong, I canât think of it. If you ask me
why I didnât think of it earlier, the only
answer I have for you is that I thought I
already knew what the problem was. Perhaps
thatâs not a good answer; perhaps I should
have thought of checking with the other Optacon sooner. But there it is.
So naturally, I called Richard Oehm. I hooked up
the battery Optacon again and checked how long
it took to get that lowered pitch on the battery
charge button. It took 19 minutes.
I got a new battery for this machine five or six
years ago I think. At first, I was pretty
asiduous about using the battery and running it
down. But eventually, I began to backslide and
started keeping the machine plugged in all the
time. Particularly after my reading ability
started to decline, I used it in battery mode
less and less. So gradually, the battery got
worse and worse, and so did the Optaconâs
ability to give me a clear image on my finger.
Thatâs not quite the end of the story though.
That AC only Optacon, which I was planning to
use while I sent my battery Optacon to Richard
for a replacement battery, quit working that
day, right after I turned it on the second time.
So, I sent that one in instead. Since, even
though the other one didnât work very well, it was still better than nothing.
I sent my AC only Optacon in last Thursday, and
I got it back on Wednesday. Turned out that a
couple capacitors had burned out. He replaced
those, and a few others just to be on the safe
side. Those components are forty something years old after all.
Three days later, I still havenât gotten over
the novelty of being able to read print again. I
think I may have forgotten how clearly an
Optacon thatâs working well can create an
image of the print on the array. I am still
exhilarated. It is almost like having regained a
sense that was lost. Perhaps that sounds over
the top to some of you, but Iâd be willing to
bet that some of you can understand what Iâm
talking about. Maybe youâve had a similar
experience of losing your ability to read for
one reason or another and then getting it back
again. Or maybe some of you who use your
Optacons a lot will be able to get the idea
without having gone through that experience
yourselves. After having had a capability that
Iâve used, and depended on, for over forty
years, my entire adult life, then the
discouraging, depressing really, feeling that I
might very well have lost it for good, I have a
tremendous sense of elation at having gotten it
back as well as ever before. Itâs hard
to describe without language that would
probably sound completely over the top to many
of you. I still get it whenever I put the
camera on the page and adjust the threshold
knob and the print comes through on the array
sharp and clear, something I havenât experienced in I donât know how long.
So Iâm back to reading again like I used to.
Iâll be sending my battery Optacon to Richard
next week. Once I get that one back, I will once
again have two working Optacons in the house.
I know I am very fortunate and I do not take it for granted.
Now for anyone who may feel that theyâre not
reading as well as they used to, maybe it is
age, maybe it is something in the finger; but it
might be the machine instead. Donât wait as
long as I did to find out for sure.
I know this is a bit long, but I wanted to tell
you about my renewed Optacon reading ability,
and my joy at getting it back. I know at least
some of you will relate to what Iâm saying here.
Evan
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