[Boatanchors] Re: Speech synthesized meter economics

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:29:22 -0500

Fred, 	

This I can read! Thank you. 	

The meters were last manufactured by Micronta in 1993, as far as I can verify
for sure. After that, Radio Shack decided to get spare/replacement parts from a
different company. I do not know whom.	

i had to raise heck to get as far as I did, Fred. I rattled cages like a Zoo was
having an animal riot! Corporate did hear me, eventually, and did make an
admirable effort to assist me. 	

The failed board is the IC#1 board, which has the main cpu on it. They showed
that it still existed, the other two IC boards do not. It sold for $20.59 I had
RS Corporate people track down a qualified repair tech who 'knew' how to replace
the IC board, as surface mount is not easy to work on and this board meant I
probably had but one chance at fixing the meter. It turned out, more irony, it
was in Lansing, Michigan about forty miles to my southwest!	

I arranged for the meter and the replacement board to both arrive at the repair
center in Lansing, which they did. The manager of the facility was in phone
contact with me.	

Unfortunately whomever made the IC board did not make it to the corrrect size
specifications. I am certain that RS knew this, but because it has been ten
years probably nobody remembered the problem. 	

There is simply no way to reduce the board to fit into the meter case.	

The only possibility would be to literally build a new meter into a larger case
and somehow wire in this board. Now this would be a major challenge, as it is
almost impossible to do this. 	

The only real solution, Fred, is for some caring soul who is not money motivated
to adapt an existing digital VOM or build one from plans that QST put out some
time back and add the speech modification to it. this is not apt to happen, as
it is going to require someone with considerable technical skills who wants to
do this project for fun. Truthfully, it can be done fairly easily, but unless
somebody is simply going to do it to help the blind as a gesture of good will,
it is not going to happen. It is a small market, not much money to be made. Not
enough for any business to waste their time on, frankly. 	

It saddens me greatly, as it had been my hope that when the price of the speech
technology came down, and it has to a few dollars instead of hundreds, that
companies would build and sell adapted devices for the blind and print
handicapped at affordable prices. The opposite happened. What little was there,
went away. Not enough money to be made, so nobody made much of anything.  	

Sometimes the more we advance, the less we achieve it seems.	

Thank you for your interest Fred, but there is nothing left to do with RS on
this matter. The meter came back to me today, in fact.	

Duane W8DBF	

----------
From: Fred Neff <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Re: Speech synthesized meter economics
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:02 PM

Duane,
How's this?
Here's my suggestion:
I don't know how long ago your meter was built, but by law, there has to be 
a supply of spare parts kept aside for repairs, and it's probably for longer 
than you  think.  Check it out.
If the problem with the board you were sent was that it is too large, it may 
be easier to adapt what is  left of your meter and the new board to another 
case that will fit it.  If the spare part just plain doesn't work, see the 
above suggestion.  They have a legal responsibility.  If that is not 
profitable for them, they may want to just buy you the Omega and send it to 
you, rather than start a new production run...unless they saw a profit 
potential...and that may mean contacting the contractor who actually made 
the unit in the first place, since RS makes almost nothing outright.
I have a feeling that the Americans with Disabilities Act may give you some 
added leverage.  As far as I am concerned, if it gives you a leg up on what 
the average Joe has to put up with to deal with some multi-national company, 
I say go for it...the concensus seems to be that it's all about 
numbers...well, maybe in your case it's not.  Are there any lawyers in our 
group to lend a hand in this?
The other possibility would be to program a blank IC chip for your needs.  I 
read an article about this less than a year ago, and have never thrown away 
any electronics, four-wheel-drive, or guitar-related magazines in a long 
time, so it is here someplace, and I know it can be done.  Again RS/Micronta 
should have the specs on at least the program used for the talking meter.
I was bothered by the seeming inability of any of us to come up with an 
intellegent solution to your problem, so I am forwarding a few dumb ideas 
back to the group in the hope that it will trigger some brainsorming...and I 
will try to find that article, and contact the gent that wrote it.  I doubt 
that he's a real boatanchors kind of guy, but he would probably know what to 
do and might even write another "homebrew" article so we could all benefit 
form this, because I think you are right, that most of us would like to have 
a talking meter for all the reasons you mentioned.
Sincerely, & 73's
C. FRED NEFF
KB9RMT

C. Fred Neff
KB9RMT
From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF " To: "Fred Neff" Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Re: 
Speech synthesized meter economics Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:32:20 -0500 
There is no message here. Just a blank screen. If you don't know how to use 
plain text, than ask the Hotmail people how. ---------- From: Fred Neff To: 
[email protected] Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Re: Speech synthesized meter 
economics Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 9:21 PM

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