[misc.handicap] romeo braillers

Grant.Downey@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Grant Downey) (01/23/91)

Index Number: 13129

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I agree with you Al you are right on about the Romeo Brailers
Ihad to send back two out of four that I've had experience with
and after some persuasive talking the sent me a replacement and
have never had a problem since.  I'm having the same problem
with one of my Vert Speech boards.  No matter what I do, set,
push or what jumper I change that board locks up the computer
and it won't even boot.  Backit goes on Wednesday and I'll stay
on them til I get a new one. Grant

 

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Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (01/23/91)

Index Number: 13141

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Hi Grant & anybody else interested:
     The Romeo RB-40 is a good, solid machine for personal brailling.  I 
use one at work, and the only problem I have is static electricity 
building up as paper rubs along the paper-path, and it locking up 
occasionally.  This problem is a pain, but when I solve it, the rest of 
the machine is great.  Its the easiest machine of its type to setup and 
operate--in comparison to the TSI braillers the configurations for the 
Romeo are a breeze.  I hate the TSI configuration method, its just 
stupid.
     Has anybody else had the static problem?  I would appreciate any 
suggestions to this, because at times this problem almost outweighs the 
usefullness of the brailler!
     Romeo Braillers are sort of like cars, you can get a lemon, if that 
happens, tell them to exchange the entire machine right away, no fixes, 
because some of the Romeos just won't work well ever, and others will 
work fine for ever.  I have used five or six of these machines and think 
I have a pretty good handle on the reliability of them, and the above 
pretty well sums it up.
     Oh, does anybody have the Tiff file format specifications?  I want 
to finally write a graphics brailling program for the Romeo, and can't 
find the format specs.  It would be a great program for looking at 
scanned images.

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Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (01/23/91)

Index Number: 13161

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

About the Romeo:

     No, I don't waste a sheet oof paper between print jobs, thats only 
the form-feed function, but is that really significant anyway?  If you 
use print, it will put the formfeed at end of file, other print programs 
will also do it, but thats definitely not a Romeo function.  Sure, if 
you want to rip the page off, and then do another print job you will 
need one page for the tractor, but I guess this never even occurred to 
me as a problem, I like an extra page at end of file for a cover.
     I don't like TSI's configuration method, its just not as simple as 
the Romeo, and its definitely not intuitive at all.  I believe that the 
VersaPoints we have are the latest models, we have several around our 
agency, and they usually have the newer ones.  Maybe I am wrong on this 
point, but its unlikely.
     Hmmm elaboration on the configuration thing is something I will 
have to do more work on.  I simply found the TSI configuration method 
irritating, even though there was one option I saw that is not on the 
Romeo, which is the Strobe setting for parallel input operation.
     You are correct about the graphics and the bar.  But, you can let 
the machine do text with the bar in graphics position.  Its just slow.
     Concerning portability I'd take a romeo any day, but then I don't 
intend to take my brailler anywhere so thats not a primary concern for 
me.  I wonder just how many people it actually is a big concern for?
     Actually I like my LED120 more than either machine.  after a bit of 
preparation on my part it works great, and at $600 I can't even bother 
to comare!
     Later.  If you have experience with the Index, lets hear it, sounds 
interesting--maybe we'll see if we can get a demo sent out for a month 
or two from Humanware and if so, I'll write up a big msg with some info. 
 Later.

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