[BRLTTY] Slightly OT, cleaning braille display cells

[Stéphane Doyon]

On Tue, 2 Jan 2007, Robin Williams wrote:

>  Do people on this list have any reccomendations about cleaning Braille
> display cells? It has come to my attention that after a few month's usage,
> some dots often remain in the up position when they should be down. I can
> imagine that the cells could get a bit dirty if the Braille display is used
> often, as mine is.
>
>  I'm using a four-month-old Brailliant 40, which has been fine until the
> last week or so. At the moment only a couple of dots are misbehaving. My
> previous display, a Tieman Voyager, got in to a terrible state after
> eighteen months.
>
>  Any tips for keeping cells clean without damaging them will be much
> appreciated, as I want to keep this display usable for at least three years.

I too have run into this issue and would be interested in any tips others 
might have. I use my display several hours every day, to work and at home, 
and I have to carry it around. My Brailliant seems to be better at this 
than my previous displays for some reason. Before this one I had a 
PowerBraile and before that a Navigator.

With those it was pretty much inevitable that the cells would eventually 
become clogged after some months. At some point I got fed up of having the 
display serviced and learned a few tricks: how to pop the cell caps on the 
PowerBraille and clean them. Usually with those old displays it was the 
holes in the cell cap that became partially clogged with some sort of 
smudgy dust, so I would poke a pin through the holes from below. It can be 
tricky to remove and put back the caps though as the caps are pretty 
fragile, especially the part towards the router button. You want to avoid 
handling the dot pins as much as possible since they're pretty tiny: hard 
to find after you've dropped them onto a dirty floor :-). Often my wife 
was able to clean the cell cap holes by scratching the dust off with a 
pin, without my having to remove the caps. You want to try not to push 
dirt/dust under the cap. In the worse case, the service technician and I 
once had to soak the cell caps in water and some sort of detergent. If 
this sounds like a lot, keep in mind it's all over the course of 15years 
or so.

But cell design seems to have improved a lot, my Brailliant seems to be 
less susceptible. Good thing too as it doesn't seem as easy to clean.

The only advice I have for you is to try to avoid dirtying the cells in 
the first place. If your hands feel the least bit sticky or dusty, take 
the time to go wash. No eating near the Braille display. If you need to 
lug the display around, pay attention what you wrap it in. I used a piece 
of soft foam to protect my display at some point, and in retrospect I 
think the surface of the foam probably retained dust and dirt, which would 
then come in contact with the cells. Actually I can't understand why 
displays don't come with a protective case, especially given their price. 
Of course there are factors we can't really control, like dust in public 
places, messy renovations next door, humid climate...

Four months seems like a rather short time to be developping a serious 
dirtiness problem. Good luck with that.

-- 
Stéphane Doyon
<s.doyon at videotron.ca>
http://pages.infinit.net/sdoyon/