[BRLTTY] latest feedback Was: Re: OOOPS! something really wrong with the driver or my Optelec

[Aldo]

Hi Dave and all,

appology my very long silence.

I had to bring  my Optelec back so unfortunately I shouldn't be able to
answer to all of your questions, but I'll try:

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 05:19:18PM -0500, Dave Mielke wrote:
> [quoted lines by Aldo on 2009/11/12 at 18:51 +0100]
> 
> >I may do something wrong with pressing keys without knowing what they are
> >used for, 
> 
> That shouldn't be a problem. No brltty function should cause brltty to hang.

Than there's something wrong with the cable or so from the Optelec they gave
me.
 
> >but a few minutes ago it had hanged again, showing lots of 
> >*********************** on screen, and something moving rapidly. 
> 
> If you're getting junk, and especially if you're getting junk that changes 
> rapidly, it may be a sign that one of brltty's functions is allowing you to 
> move the display off the screen. It'd be extremely helpful if you could figure 
> out which function is doing this.

As long as I remember I've got the "hang" after using the two keys at the
ext. left and ext. right of the display near the 40 cells :
	;					 ;
	;........................................;

I was using the left key to go back until the top of the screen or zo then I
suddenly got the problem;
but I'm not sure it is explicitly at that moment,
I've got the problem of losing connection (err 110) many times, so err 110 +
the junk ...? Anyway my Sattelite 544 does work much better :-) 

> One of my granddaughters (who's only just turned two) actually did find 
>one of 
> those a month or two ago. Whenever she'd play with my braille display it 
>ended 
> up in a very similar state. It turned out that she was always pressing the 
>same 
> key combination when that happened. Once I figured out what she was doing, 
>I 
> was able to quite quickly find the problem in the code. For the curious, 
>it was 
> when the HWINUP function was used when too close to the top of the screen. 

As a trial maybe you can disgard these two keys and test if the problem
happens again when using the front keys only ? 

> The BC640 has no binding for HWINUP, though, so I doubt that's your 
>particular 
> problem. Also, I did include that fix in 4.1.

My bin was a static 4.1.
 
> >After unplugging then replugging and resetting On, it didn't produced braille 
> >again, so I only rebooted. For now it works again.
> 
> Well ... it may be hard to find, but I'd sure appreciate it if you can.

What I discovered is that if you wait enough after a while I've got again
brltty beeping and it was okay, again braille, without having to reboot nor
to disconnect/reconnect the USB cable. Strange!

> >I hope I didn't caused the hang myself yesterday ? 
> 
> If it happened then it's a bug which shall be fixed once we figure out 
>what it 
> is. At this point I'm suspecting it's a general problem and not specific 
>to the 
> BC640.
> 
> >For now I tested it, removing cable and setting Off, recabling then setting
> >On, and it works now: the name Alva BC640 does appear, then USB connected, then
> >the "blip" of brltty and the message BrlTty 4.1. 
> >
> >But no  asteroid:~#  prompt as long as I don't press <ENTER>...
> 
> That's because brltty starts running in the background so logs start to be 
> written after the prompt.

Awful! 

> >> For Bluetooth, the data part of the device name is the Bluetooth Device 
> >>Address 
> >
> >OK, but I don't know how I have to find it somewhere...
> 
> The BC640's menu tells you what its Bluetooth device address is.

Unfortunately this wasn't tested since I was hill sunday and had to bring
the Optelec back at least monday morning.
So bluetooth is for later.
 
> >I attached the lsusb -v output for you: 
> >I found something like a serial for my BC640; can you confirm it's the right
> >one? 	00A0962CDB29
> 
>   iManufacturer           1 Optelec
>   iProduct                2 ALVA BC640
>   iSerial                 6 00A0962CDB29
> 
> So, yes, you have it right.
 
> >If it works with the -d usb:mmmmm parameter on the fly, I suppose it will
> >in brltty.conf too?
> 
> Yes. If you put it in brltty.conf, though, then the brltty you may want to run 
> for the Satellite will also pick it up.

Very nice! 

> >For having that same dispaly in usb + bt, can you give me a template of
> >device line for the brltty.conf ?
> 
> You can specify more than one device by providing a list separated by commas. 
> Let's say the serial number is 1234 and the Bluetooth device address is 
> 01:23:45:67:89:AB. Then you can specify both of them like this:
> 
>    braille-device usb:1234,bluetooth:01:23:45:67:89:AB
> 
> >That's why I try to ask then do step by step, maybe that will help.
> 
> All of your help is very much appreciated. I, too, am a very methodical person 
> when it comes to trying to figure out a problem. It's an excellent approach.
>  
> >Ah OK. I see; it's like this:
> >		  ;
> >	f1  f2  enter  f3  f4
> > 		  ;
> 
> Yes, sort of. It's more like this:
> 
>                Up
>    F1 F2 Left Enter Right F3 F4
>                Down
> 

OK, thanx very much Dave for all your help,
sorry if I can't help further for now.

Aldo.