Freedom Scientific Braille Blazer Owner's Manual

Braille printer the portable embosser

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Braille Blazer
The Portable Embosser
Owner's Manual
December 2002
440102-001 Rev. A

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Summary of Contents for Freedom Scientific Braille Blazer

  • Page 1 Braille Blazer The Portable Embosser Owner’s Manual December 2002 440102-001 Rev. A...
  • Page 2 Freedom Scientific. Copyright © 2002 Freedom Scientific, Inc., All Rights Reserved. 440102-001 Rev. A...
  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Introduction ..................1 Getting Started.................. 2 Computer and Hardware ............ 2 Braille Translation Software ..........2 Braille Paper ................ 2 Brailling Speed of the Blazer ..........3 Using the Blazer as a Speech Synthesizer....... 3 Touring the Blazer .............. 4 Connecting the Blazer to Your Computer ........
  • Page 4 Introduction ............... 18 Printing Mode and Menu Mode........18 Configuration Menus ............19 Appendix: Commonly Asked Questions ........40 440102-001 Rev. A...
  • Page 5: Introduction

    Blazer is Brailling a document. The Braille Blazer is very portable as it closes up into a compact, 12-pound case with a sturdy handle. Although you probably will not carry it around on the subway every day, it is small enough that you can run it across the street to your colleague's desk or carry it with you on your next airplane trip.
  • Page 6: Getting Started

    Getting Started To produce Braille on the Braille Blazer, you need to connect the Blazer to a computer through either its serial or its parallel port, and use Braille translation software to translate your document for Brailling. Computer and Hardware •...
  • Page 7: Brailling Speed Of The Blazer

    Braille labels and index cards as long as they come in fanfold form. Contact us directly to find out what paper we sell at Freedom Scientific, or contact your local Braille paper dealer to see what sizes they offer.
  • Page 8: Touring The Blazer

    Then we'll lift up the lid and check out the inside. The Outside of the Blazer When you take the Braille Blazer out of the box for the first time, you can see how small and compact it is. It only weighs about 12 pounds and looks like a carrying case with a nice sturdy handle.
  • Page 9 Run your hand over the top of the Blazer to the backside of the machine. The first thing you should notice is the handle that runs across the middle of the back of the Blazer. Just above the middle of the handle is the Blazer's speaker. Now run your hand over to the lower right-hand corner of the back of the Blazer to find the On/Off rocker switch.
  • Page 10 the Blazer's voice with an earphone instead of through the Blazer's speaker. The Inside of the Blazer To lift up the Blazer's lid, simply find the front side of the machine and run your hands along the indentation for the cover.
  • Page 11: Connecting The Blazer To Your Computer

    Connecting the Blazer to Your Computer The Blazer works with an IBM PC-compatible or Apple computer, a Braille 'n Speak, Braille Lite, or Type 'n Speak. The Braille Lite, Type 'n Speak, and most computers let you print (or Braille) through a parallel connection, so the Blazer comes from the factory with the parallel port activated and the serial port off.
  • Page 12: Serial Connection

    As long as you direct the Braille translation software on your computer to transmit to the parallel port you're using for Brailling documents, your Blazer and computer should communicate easily once the parallel connection is established. Serial Connection The serial connection is a little trickier because you may have to use an adapter to make the connectors match the ports both on the Blazer and on the computer.
  • Page 13 your computer have to be talking the same language, at the same rate of speed, and so on. The Braille translation software you use to translate your documents into Grade 2 Braille should have some kind of printing facility. If the printing facility lets you configure your printer connection so you can use your computer's serial port instead of the more common parallel connection, the printing facility should also set telecommunications settings for you.
  • Page 14: Handling The Paper

    Handling the Paper To prepare the paper in the Blazer for Brailling a document, you need to load the paper into the Blazer and align it to the top of the first page so that your text Brailles in the right place. Here's how it works.
  • Page 15 If you need to straighten the paper, here's what to do. About two and a half inches from the left side of the Blazer on the metal piece where the paper is resting is a small square hole. This is the Top-of-Form sensor used by the Blazer to detect the top edge of the paper.
  • Page 16: Setting Top Of Form

    Within a couple of seconds, you should hear the paper move slightly and the Blazer say, "Braille Blazer ready.” Now find the three keys midway along the right side of the top of the Blazer.
  • Page 17: Setting The Top Margin

    paper back and forth to align to the Top-of-Form sensor we talked about earlier. And you'll feel part of the first page come out the back of the Blazer between the back of the Blazer's cover and the back side of the machine itself. This is the sheet that has to be wasted so the paper won't jam in the Blazer.
  • Page 18: Brailling A File

    Brailling a File To send a file from your computer to the Blazer, you must make sure your file is ready for Brailling, not printing, you must make sure the Blazer is ready to receive your file, and that it knows where the top edge of the page is, and so on.
  • Page 19: Preparing The Blazer To Receive A File

    Make sure your text is really ready for Brailling before you issue the command on your computer that tells the Blazer to start Brailling. Also, you must make sure the Blazer is ready to receive data. Preparing the Blazer to Receive a File When you first turn on the Blazer and set Top of Form, it's ready to receive a file.
  • Page 20: Looking At The Last Page

    buffer when you take it "off line", it will resume Brailling that data the instant you press the "on line" key again. Your safest way to clear the Blazer's buffer is simply to press the three keys on the right side of the top of the Blazer simultaneously.
  • Page 21 One way to move the last page the Blazer Brailled out from under the Blazer's cover is to press the "form feed" key. This is the key closest to you on the keypad on the right side of the top of the Blazer.
  • Page 22: Customizing Your Blazer

    Customizing your Blazer Introduction To change the Blazer's settings, you use its configuration menus. There are five menus of settings you can alter: Speech, Printer, Sideways, and Service. You may not need to change any of the Blazer's default settings but if you do, this chapter explains how to do things like telling the Blazer which port to use for printing, whether to activate the speech synthesizer, and that you want to print your document...
  • Page 23: Configuration Menus

    Press the rocker switch on the left side of the top of the Blazer toward you. While holding down the rocker switch, press the three keys on the right side of the top of the Blazer at the same time. Then release the rocker switch. This key sequence causes the Blazer to Braille as well as speak feedback to you.
  • Page 24 the Blazer simultaneously to enter menu mode, the three keys take on different functions from what they do while you're in printing mode. The key labeled Formfeed is now your Enter key for entering a configuration menu and for cycling through its choices.
  • Page 25 Once you're pointing to a particular configuration menu, here's what you can do: • View a menu's choices by pressing Enter (the key closest to you). • Move forward through a menu's choices by pressing Skip (the middle key). • Move backward through a menu's choices by pressing Back- up (the key furthest away from you).
  • Page 26: Changing The Port

    Changing the Port When you enter the Speech configuration menu, the first setting you can change is the Port. Whichever port is active, anything coming into it from a computer or a notetaker is spoken by the Blazer's built-in speech synthesizer when the Blazer is in printing mode.
  • Page 27 Changing How Much Punctuation is Spoken Enter the Speech configuration menu. Press Skip twice to move to the Punctuation setting. You should hear the Blazer say, Punctuation, Some", which is the default. This means that the Blazer says only some punctuation as it speaks. To change this setting, cycle through its options by pressing Enter.
  • Page 28: Printer Configuration Menu

    settings by pressing Skip until you hear either "Pitch higher" or "Pitch lower." Once you're pointing either to "Pitch higher" or to "Pitch lower", you can change the Blazer's pitch by pressing Enter repeatedly. Each time you press Enter, The Blazer says the word "Higher"...
  • Page 29 Enter the Printer Configuration menu by pressing the three keys on the right side of the top of the Blazer at the same time. The Blazer says, "Configuration: Speech config." Now press Skip (the middle key) to bypass the Speech Configuration menu and hear, "Printer config."...
  • Page 30 Changing the Direction of Paper Feed Enter the Printer configuration menu. Press Skip once to move to the "Paper feed" setting. The Blazer should say, "Paper feed, pulling active", which is the default. This means that the Blazer will pull the paper from the front of the Blazer toward the back. This it is the preferred direction for feeding paper through the Blazer to prevent the paper from jamming.
  • Page 31 Setting the right margin: When you enter the Printer Configuration menu, press Skip three times to arrive at the Right Margin setting. The Blazer says, "Right margin 34, active", which is the default. This is literally the right edge of the paper since the largest paper width the Blazer can accept is 8- 1/2 inches.
  • Page 32 Changing Page Length Since the Blazer can accommodate a variety of page lengths, you can adjust the page length on the Blazer through the Printer Configuration menu. When you enter the Printer Configuration menu, press Skip seven times to arrive at the Page Length setting. The Blazer says, "Page length 11, active", which is the default since the standard page length is 11 inches.
  • Page 33 Changing the Weight of the Paper The Blazer can Braille on heavyweight and lightweight Braille paper. It's important to set the Blazer for the correct paper weight to avoid tearing lighter paper or producing faded Braille on heavier paper. When you enter the Printer Configuration menu, press Skip nine times to arrive at the Paper Weight setting.
  • Page 34 Checking the Status of Paper-Out Detection You're most likely to use the "Paper-out Detection" setting to check whether it's on or off. It's best to keep it turned on all the time so the Blazer can let you know when it thinks it's out of paper.
  • Page 35 The Blazer says, "Print control characters off, active", which is the default. Should you want to turn it on, simply press Enter. Selecting 6- or 8-dot Braille You're most likely to use "8-dot Braille" if you're accustomed to reading it. To most of us, 6-dot Braille is the norm. However, if you do want to Braille using 8-dot characters, as many Europeans are familiar with, here's what to do.
  • Page 36 press Skip (the middle key) twice to bypass the Speech Configuration menu and the Printer Configuration menu. You'll hear, "Sideway Print config." Press Enter to move through the menu's settings. At this point, you can do the following: • Press Skip to move forward through the Sideway Print Configuration menu's settings.
  • Page 37 Suppressing Multiple Spaces If you want to Braille a document that was originally formatted for print, it probably has multiple spaces in it. That is, it may have paragraphs with their first lines indented by five spaces, each sentence separated by two spaces, and so on. Your Braille translation software should strip out most of these extra spaces before your document ever goes to the Blazer.
  • Page 38: Changing The Baud Rate

    order to work properly. This can seem a bit technical at first, but we'll keep it as simple as possible. The Serial Configuration menu on the Blazer has many telecommunications settings you can adjust so that your connection runs smoothly. You'll need to check the documentation for the device you're connecting to the Blazer through its serial port to find out how it expects telecommunications settings to be set.
  • Page 39 speed. Generally, computers (and even our B lazie notetakers) are set at 9600 Baud. When you enter the Serial Configuration menu, the Blazer says, "Baud rate 9600, active", which is the default. Generally, you'll want to leave it at 9600 since it's the fastest speed the Blazer can handle and since most devices use 9600 as a default.
  • Page 40: Service Menu

    When you enter the Serial Configuration menu, press Skip three times to arrive at the Parity setting. The Blazer says, "Parity none, active", which is the default. To cycle through its options, press Enter. The Blazer lets you cycle through Odd and Even before it cycles you back to None.
  • Page 41 Blazer simultaneously. The Blazer says, "Exit." You're now back in printing mode, ready to continue Brailling your own documents. Testing the Braille Blazer You can test the Blazer to check whether it's Brailling properly. Here's how: Enter menu mode by pressing the three keys on the right side of the Blazer simultaneously, the Blazer says, "Configuration,...
  • Page 42 Checking Your Serial Number Each Blazer comes with its own unique serial number. If you need to find out exactly what this number is to identify your machine to Blazie, for example, here's what to do. Enter menu mode by pressing the three keys on the right side of the Blazer simultaneously, the Blazer says, "Configuration, Speech config."...
  • Page 43 To exit menu mode, press the three keys on the right side of the Blazer simultaneously. The Blazer says, "Exit." You're now back in printing mode, ready to continue Brailling your own documents. 440102-001 Rev. A...
  • Page 44: Appendix: Commonly Asked Questions

    Appendix: Commonly Asked Questions Here are the questions we get most often about operating the Braille Blazer. We suggest you try out the solutions we recommend before calling for help. It might save you a long-distance call. When I Braille a document with the Blazer, the Braille seems very scrunched up and too close together.
  • Page 45 When I try to Braille a document, all I get is speech from the Blazer. Enter menu mode and go into the Speech Configuration menu, enter the options for changing the port, and cycle to Off. Then exit menu mode and try sending your document to the Blazer again.
  • Page 46 system, and that you've instructed your screen access program to use the Braille n speak driver for speech output. Note: Older models of the Blazer's built-in speech synthesizer did not support indexing (the ability of the speech synthesizer to match precisely to a reading cursor).
  • Page 47 440102-001 Rev. A...

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