Re: Support for Inka?

[Dave Mielke <dave@mielke.cc>]

[quoted lines by Mike Keithley on January 14, 2002, at 18:10]

>The Inka display is made by Baum.  It seems to have 2 mode.  There is a
>driver for the display in JFW and they tell you to use mode 2 (modes are 1
>or 2).

If those are references to Baum's emulation modes 1 and 2, then the Inka may
already work, more or less, with BRLTTY. The Vario driver supports emulation
mode 1, and the Vario-HT driver supports emulation mode 2.

>They talk as if mode 2 emulates the Alva displays.

BRLTTY also has an Alva driver, so that, too, may provide a ray of hope.

>The Inka has its own PC-style keyboard and won't work (in Dos) if not
>connected to the keyboard (large DIN) port of the PC.  (A PS2/DIN
>adaptor works.)  It also uses the serial port.

This kind of setup would also work with Linux, although, if it uses the
keyboard port to drive the cursor routing, then BRLTTY won't be able to route
as smartly as it does.

>Its cursor-routing is done by optical means by placing a finger over a
>square above each cell.

That may be comfortable, but it's probably also a bit accident-prone.

>In the JFW driver (above), cursor routing
>doesn't seem to work.

That, again, may be because they're driving the routing through the keyboard
port.

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