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NVDA, the free and open source Screen Reader for Microsoft Windows
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Support for the Caiku Albatross braille displays from Tivomatic #4750

Closed nvaccessAuto closed 6 years ago

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Reported by jkinnunen on 2014-12-26 06:01 Would it be possible to create a driver for the Caiku Albatross braille display? There are two models available, one with 46 cells and one with 80 cells. They can be connected via USB or serial port.

There is a driver for the BRLTTY package that might help in the development process. You can get more help also by contacting Teijo Burman teijo@burmanintk.fi, who has been involved in the development of the JAWS driver for these displays.

I have the 46 cell model of this display myself, so I am ready for testing the driver.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 1 by jkinnunen on 2014-12-26 06:14 Changes: Changed title from "Support for the Caiku Albatross braille display" to "Support for the Caiku Albatross braille displays"

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 2 by jteh on 2015-01-06 06:28 As well as technical documentation (driver source code is not suitable alone), we would need access to a display at no cost for at least a month to do this work. We would also need this again periodically for updates. Otherwise, someone outside of NV Access with such access will need to do the work.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 3 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-07 08:19 I found a user who might be willing to donate his display. Does he have to pay for the packaging and shipping costs himself, or could NV Access pay for them?

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 4 by jteh on 2015-01-08 07:52 We aren't able to cover the costs. However, I don't think a user should have to do this either. Ideally, the manufacturer should be willing to provide a display, since they make money from sales. It might be worth contacting them to see if they are willing to do this.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 5 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-08 13:52 As the displays have been discontinued around 10 years ago, and the manufacturer is no longer in operation except for maintenance, they are probably not able to do anything. Therefore, it seems that the user does have to cover the costs.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 6 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-08 18:06 The user is willing to pay the shipping costs. Please give a postal address where the display should be sent to.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 7 by jteh on 2015-01-08 23:15 Before we go ahead with anything, is someone able to get hold of technical documentation (for developers) for the display? Using the BRLTTY source code as a reference will take far too much time and is not something I am willing to do.

Also, what connection interfaces does this display support?

It's worth noting that you should be able to use this via BRLTTY with NVDA.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 8 by jkinnunen (in reply to comment 7) on 2015-01-09 20:03 Replying to jteh:

Before we go ahead with anything, is someone able to get hold of technical documentation (for developers) for the display? Using the BRLTTY source code as a reference will take far too much time and is not something I am willing to do.

Here is technical documentation written by the author of the JAWS driver.

Also, what connection interfaces does this display support?

The display supports USB and serial port interfaces.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 9 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-11 05:36 Here is a document describing the key combinations used in JAWS. It may give an idea on how to use them for NVDA.

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 10 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-11 05:44 Changes: Changed title from "Support for the Caiku Albatross braille displays" to "Support for the Caiku Albatross braille displays from Tivomatic"

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 11 by jkinnunen on 2015-01-12 08:31 Do you need further information about the display or are the above documents enough?

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 12 by jteh on 2015-01-12 08:47 I'm not sure. I'll look into this when I have time. One further question, though: is a special dll needed to communicate with this display via USB?

nvaccessAuto commented 9 years ago

Comment 13 by jkinnunen (in reply to comment 12) on 2015-01-12 10:31 Replying to jteh:

I'm not sure. I'll look into this when I have time. One further question, though: is a special dll needed to communicate with this display via USB?

It can be used with either of these USB drivers or with this virtual serial port driver. Nothing else is required.

LeonarddeR commented 6 years ago

@jkinnunen: Am I correct that these displays are supported by brltty? If so, I'm tempted to close this issue, since the displays have since long been discontinued according to https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues/4750#issuecomment-155331785

jkinnunen commented 6 years ago

In Windows, there are problems that prevent these displays from being used smoothly with BRLTTY. As I no longer have one of these devices myself, am not able to comment on the problems exactly.

LeonarddeR commented 6 years ago

In that case, I'm closing this as I proposed.