Yes, Dave, agreed about merely building a retro-display. (Iâm still way
behind on everything here including e-mails.) Not only would merely
duplicating an R1D tactile array be a waste of engineering time and resources,
but it really wouldnât forward the cause of a new and up-dated and modern
optacon with an even better display and rich with optional and wished-for
features. The wish list was not mine; it was a collection of suggestions from
listers from the past several years. Even with existing optacon displays, a
few actuators/pins can cease operation, and as long as they are not in a line,
the optacon user likely wonât notice. Iâm not sure what is more difficult:
fixing and reassembling an existing array, or duplicating it and saving its
re-assembly time. Integrating electromagnetic actuators with the scanning, the
timing and the voltage changes of the optacon R1D (or for that matter an
optacon II) which is meant to power bimorphs would require another sub-project,
and at the very least it would be somewhat redundant electronically. For those
who are looking at the idea, even a casual look at the optaconâs video port
should bring this immediately to light.
At this point here, I am now squeezing every thou out of the diameter of the
tactuators, and I can now do a display with at least 36 vertically and about
half that horizontally. I am testing to see if it is necessary to enwrap each
separate tactuator with fine Mu-Metal foil, or can this cautionary step be
skipped. The Mu-Metal foil serves several purposes, including minimizing
inductive and magnetic cross-talk between these very closely placed tactuators.
However, using a sensing algorythm based on the leading and trailing pulse
edges of the tactuators, and the fact that they are stacked and staggered (like
some of my friends on the weekends, stacked and staggered they are)might make
this Mu-Metal foil jacket unnecessary. It is a bit of a challenge to obtain
accurate and consistent and reproducible results for comparison both with and
without the Mu-Metal foil because of the dynamic nature of the magnetic
circuits, and because of their geometry.
Charles
From: Dave Godfrey
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 6:55 AM
To: rrreinoud@xxxxxxxxx ; cpond
Subject: Optacon array
Hi Reinoud and Charles,
The Optacon emails of the last few weeks are definitely interesting but just
catching up with Fridayâs posting Iâm not sure how beneficial it is to
design and develop an array to retrofit the R1D models?
From the point of view of servicing the Optaconâs, Iâve only ever had to
replace one or two Optacon arrays in the 28 years Iâve been servicing them.
One of these occurrences was because the unit wasnât protected enough for
carriage and suffered transit damage.
[ The most common fault is with the Retina cable where the signal wires will
break through wear and tear at the grommet entry to the camera barrel.]
Would it be better to keep engineering and design effort into styling a new
carcase for the new array and processing electronics.
Best regards
Dave Godfrey
Blazie
Market House, Suite B, 2 Marlborough Rd, Swindon, SN3 1QY
Tel: 01793 435225.
Since Charles pointed out the specifications and design considerations for the
original Optacon I have assembled a second actuator aimed specifically at this,
and it tested quite successfully with just a small update to the driver
electronics. This actuator would fit the original 6x24 display configuration of
the Optacon R1 very well.
This display configuration would be more expensive and use more power than I
had originally hoped for but it is clearly the golden standard and even better,
it may well allow for direct replacement of existing Optacon displays.
Charles seems to be aiming (much) higher but for me this is quite good enough.
I'm committed to making an Optacon replacement module available as soon as
possible. Mechanical design for a prototype will start next week, and taking
the usual manufacturing delays into account I expect to be able to start
assembling it about a month.
If anyone knows about interface or mechanical specs for display modules in
existing (R1) Optacons, please let me know. If you have a broken (even beyond
repair) Optacon, please consider sending it to me.
Besides the fairly expensive and power hungry Optacon display I will continue
development of a low cost, low power, lower resolution mobile display aimed at
a 'real-world scanner'.
Have a nice weekend!
- Reinoud
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1434 / Virus Database: 4311/9137 - Release Date: 04/27/15
to view the list archives, go to:
www.freelists.org/archives/optacon-l
To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes) in the message subject.
Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes)
in the message subject.
