Trying to get Stenograph Mira or Stentura to work with Plover

[Luke Arndt]

I have Plover on my Windows XP laptop, and am trying to connect it to a couple different steno writers -- a Stentura 8000 LX and a Mira.  Both have serial ports.

My laptop has a serial port, so I tried a straight serial cable, and selected the correct COM port in Plover, but it wasn't able to connect at all.  I also tried a USB-serial converter which is used for CAT, and I had no success with the Stentura and limited success with the Mira.  With the Mira, the Mira would keep "dumping" everything in the current job over and over.  As an example:

I start a blank Word document and have a blank job open on the Mira.  I type "hello" on my Mira, and Word keeps repeating "hello" many times a second.  I type "world" on the Mira, and then Word keeps repeating "hello world" ... and so on.

I tried this having "Stentura" selected with Plover, and I mixed up the timeout and flow control options to try to see if I could get something to work.

So, to summarize:  The Mira works in the sense that it's talking with Plover, and keeps dumping the text over and over.  I can't seem to get the Stentura to work at all.

Just wondering if anybody has come across anything like this or has any suggestions!

Thanks,

Luke

[Mirabai Knight]

Weird. I thought that the Stentura 8000LX at least would use Stentura
protocol, and the serial port on your laptop should work perfectly. Is
it possible to put the Mira into TX Bolt mode and try with the TX
protocol setting rather than the Stentura setting?

[Hesky Fisher]

The only machine I have access to that uses the stentura protocol is the protege so that's what I tested it on. It's entirely possible that I made some wrong assumptions that still worked on the protege but then don't work on other machines even though they use the same protocol.

If I could get my hands on these machines for some debugging I might be able to get it to work. Is anybody here in the NY area and has any of those machines?

Alternatively, Luke, you mentioned that you're a programmer. Maybe we could meet over the phone/skype/hangout/whatever and collaboratively get this fixed?

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[Luke Arndt]

I'm afraid I'm more of a wanna-be programmer than an actual programmer. :-) That said, I am good with computers and would be happy to do what I could to help out -- if it means something like remote-control and Skype with the Stentura/Mira connected to the computer.

I have a few other computers I can test with first, just in case the problem lies with mine.

Whereabouts in NY are you?  I live in Illinois but am actually up in the Rochester area until next week.

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[Hesky Fisher]

I am in New York City.

We can certainly do what you described. Let's take this discussion to a more private email and set up some time to skype.

[Gabriel Holmes]

This really is one of the biggest barriers to making the plunge. Most people start with a specific laptop, and want to learn Plover without having to buy a new laptop. They don't know going in if they'll be any good at steno, so they might be reluctant to buy top of the line machines. It would be nice to be able to buy a machine and *just know* that it's going to work with whatever computer one is already using. I think it would be great if you could have someone just test the machines, and then sell "tested" machines. That would take away a great deal of the anxiety out of this whole thing.

[Andrea Dietrich]

I'm having the "dumping" issue with a Mira Elan machine, using a serial-usb connection on Windows 7.

Any update on why this is happening yet?

Thanks,

Andi :)

[Hesky Fisher]

I understand why this is happening but I haven't gotten around to fixing this yet. I hope to get to it soon.

Part of the delay is that I don't have a Mira Elan to test the fix on. If someone in NYC has such a machine and can arrange to meet then please let me know.

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[Hesky Fisher]

I've just released a version of Plover that tries to fix the "dumping" issue on Mira. If you have such a machine I'd appreciate it if you could give it a try and let me know if it works.

Windows: https://github.com/plover/plover/releases/download/v2.5.4/plover.exe

Hesky

[Andrea Dietrich]

It works perfectly from what I can tell! I actually don't know steno, so I'm going to have to wait for my co-worker to make sure everything is translating correctly, but it looks good to me. No more dumping! :)

Thanks so much -- this is great!

-Andi :)

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[Pete]

Hesky,

 

This works on the Stenograph Wave! Finally, I can use Plover to steno. In fact, I'm using it now for this reply!

 

 The only issue that I seem to have now is that if I have to turn off my Wave, I have to reconfigure Plover. I do this by having Plover scan for the virtual c o m m port--which it can't find--and then typing in the c o m m port to have Plover reconnect.

 

 

 

 I'm not seeing any dumping, and it works fairly well with my R T F Phoenix dictionary.

 

 

 

 Many thanks for this great program! Kudos to all involved!

 

 Pete

[Hesky Fisher]

Hi Pete,

I will think about ways to make Plover behave more gracefully when the machine is turned off.

In the meantime, try this: When you turn off the Wave while using Plover, switch to the Plover main window and you should see a message on the bottom that the machine is disconnected and a little circular arrow button. It might take about 5 seconds for this to happen after the machine turns off. If you click that button it will try to reconnect. After you turn the machine back on, click that button and it should just reconnect to the machine. If it doesn't work right away try to wait a few seconds after turning the machine on and try clicking the reconnect button again.

If you try this, please let me know how it goes.

Hesky

[Pete]

 H e s k y,

 

 no luck, I'm afraid. It seems that every time I start Plover or have to stop my machine, the Stenograph Wave loses it's connection. The work around, though, is simple enough: I open the configuration in Plover, have it scan for c o m m port. Plover can't find the virtual c o m m port, but and save that configuration. Of course, Plover can't find the writer with out the c o m m port. I then re-enter the Plover configuration, input the c o m m port manualy and save it. Plover can then re-connect and works. For what it's worth, I've noticed that when I turn off my writer, Plover does not necessarily show that the writer has been disconnected, and I wonder if that points to the root of the problem.

 

 

 by the way, I'm using Plover now to write this response. I'm painfully slow with steno, but practice is supposed to make perfect, right? Notice, how ever, that words are not capitalized after returns and alphabet spelling generates an extra space.

 

 As always, many thanks!

 

 Pete

 

 

[Hesky Fisher]

Hi Pete,

I think I can help you with the formatting issues. Which dictionary are you using? If it is an RTF dictionary, from which program is it? Would you mind sending it to me? Then I can either advise you on how to adjust the translations or fix a possible bug in Plover.

If you send me the dictionary please point out which strokes you use to do a new line and couple that you use for fingerspelling.

Hesky

 

 

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[Pete]

Hesky,

 

I'm using my own dictionary (Phoenix Theory 2) converted to RTF from CaseCatalyst. I have attached that dictionary.

 

Phoenix Theory uses /R-RPB for a return. Keying the alphabet is as follows: All of the letters (except three vowels) are stroked with on the left side of the keyboard. For capital letters, stroke /-RBGS with the letter. For lowercase letters, stroke /*RGBS. For capital letters with a period and a space, stroke /FPLT with the letter. For capital letters without the space, stroke /FPT. Finally, for stitching, stroke an asterisk with the letter (although I thought this was supposed to produce uppercase letters such as A-B-C, but Plover produces a-b-c).

 

Hesky, I'm not asking that you fix my dictionary; rather, I would learn much more if you could explain how _I_ can do myself. In fact, if there is a FAQ on the site about how the dictionary should be structured, please point it out, for it would be a great resource for many of us.

 

Many thanks! I will add my voice to the accolades for you, Mirabai and the rest of the team!

 

Pete