Models wanted of Braille and raised print alphabet tiles

[Joan Horvath]

Here is a relatively simple project that could be split up and done by a whole class, requested by LAUSD.
Create a set of alphabet tiles. Each tile should have a raised version of a block capital letter and then next to it the Braille for that letter.
Be sure to look at the suggestions for printing Braille and other links at
https://hackaday.io/project/11312-3d-prints-for-teachers-of-the-visually-impaired/log/43785-3d-printing-braille

[rmag...@spa.edu]

I have a group of students who would love to work on this project. They will start with the alphabet tiles and may go on to some words or phrases if they have time. Any specific requests?

Great project!

Thanks for setting this up.

-Rick Magnuson

3-5 Science Teacher

St. Paul Academy and Summit School

St. Paul, MN

[Joan Horvath]

That's awesome!  I've asked the Teacher of the Visually Impaired who gave us this one to weigh in.
A few things to note: we have some instructions about printing Braille (e.g. print it on the SIDE of the tile, not on top, since you won't get stringing that way - or, in other words, print the tile edge-on, vertically.) We can help you with modifying the open-source code we have linked in the Hackaday project.  The first time we did it we just printed dots, but people had trouble reading those.
https://hackaday.io/project/11312-3d-prints-for-teachers-of-the-visually-impaired/log/43785-3d-printing-braille
Ask questions and we will be happy to help!

-Joan and Rich (aka Whosawhatsis)

[lore schindler]

Rick,
That's wonderful! I'm a teacher of a student who is learning braille. I would love to have some of the following words that I would be able to label various parts of the room: door, bookcase, computer, window, closet, calendar, desk, chair, sink, light switch, embosser, number chart.
Any or all of those would be appreciated--thanks!
Lore Schindler
Teacher/Technology Coordinator, Visually Impaired Program
Los Angeles Unified School District

[Joan Horvath]

I also just added some more instructions to the "Printing Braille" log (and Whosawhatsis added a ReadMe file to the repository where the code is.) We realized there were some steps missing!  Ask for any help at all that you need.

[rmag...@spa.edu]

Hi Lore,

I am working with my kids and  following the guidelines for braille spacing. It makes for small tiles. We are also working on the labels you asked for.

For Alphabet tiles, we are including a raised letter along with the braille. Should we be using capital or lower case letters to correspond with the braille?

Thanks and I'll let you know how things are going.

-Rick

[lore schindler]

Hi Rick,
Thanks for writing. Please print lower case letters. We use a dot 6 in front of a letter to indicate capital, but for general labels they wouldn't be capitalized.
Keep me posted on how things are going and thanks so much for taking on this project.
Lore

[rmag...@spa.edu]

Hi Lore,

We have made many of the tiles, but when they print, the dots are not very well defined. This might be due to the printer we have, but I have been playing with lots of different settings. The biggest obstacle is printing the letters with the correct size and spacing of the dots. Would it be helpful to have tiles that are bigger than the normal spacing/size? They will print better, but not be useful in teaching what they students will be reading. Just wondering. We will keep working on them and looing for ways to improve the designs. The kids are loving the project.

Thanks,

-Rick

[Joan Horvath]

Hi Rick-
This is Joan (one of your moderators, and 3D printing consultants.) A few questions -
- Are you printing the Braille on a vertical side? (see our Hackaday project about why.)
- What kind of printer are you using? We may be able to help you with settings (particularly retraction) to improve the outcome.
- Could you post a close-up picture of how the dots are coming out?
Let's see if we can improve the quality with messing with the spacing off the bat. :-)
I know there are others hanging out here who have done a lot of this, so we should among us be able to solve this.

[rmag...@spa.edu]

Hi Joan,

I am printing on the vertical side after reading your post. 

I am using a Type A machine. Series 1. I will post a close up later.

On the picture from your Hackaday project, how big is the tile that you show? It seems that making the braille letters the actual size makes for really small prints. 

I'll get that picture posted later today.

Thanks,

-Rick

[whosawhatsis]

Hi Rick

There are standard dimensions for Braille, and experienced readers of Braille can get pretty annoyed if the dimensions are wrong. I'm not sure, however, if it's considered acceptable to make the braille larger for children who are just learning to read it. Maybe Lore can weigh-in on that.

The print letter on the tile should probably be larger than this, through. Even so, you might find that each tile is so small that the prints will be distorted because each layer doesn't cool sufficiently before moving on to the next layer. You can slow down to allow more cooling time, but the plastic won't cool very well with the not nozzle staying that close to it. The solution to this problem is to print several tiles at the same time. This forces the nozzle to move away from each part (to work on the other ones), which gives them time to cool. A TAM is a pretty big machine, so I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to print the entire alphabet at once. You may, however, want to arrange the pieces so that the letters are all facing outward (toward the edges of the platform) with no other pieces in front of them. This ensures that if there are any print artifacts caused by retracting and moving between parts (which can be rough and uncomfortable to touch), they will be on the back faces of the tiles.

[whosawhatsis]

So, it turned out that the code that I wrote for generating Braille was really easy to modify for this purpose, so I took 20 minutes and made a set. https://www.youmagine.com/designs/braille-alphabet-tiles