Updating your Blazie Note-taker
October 1, 2000


Warning! Warning! Warning!

	Before updating your Braille 'n Speak, Type 'n Speak, Braille Lite, or Type Lite it is necessary to save all files on your machine to disk.  Updating your machine may destroy your files.  Failure to save your files to disk before updating your unit may mean that you may lose all of your files and you will not be able to perform a file recovery.

	If you would like to update your machine so that it will have the latest features, you don't have to send it to our office. You can do this yourself by loading the update program into your machine, and then running the program. Here are instructions on how to do this.

	If you are a Braille 'n Speak 640 user, the file you need to have loaded in your unit is bspeng.bns. Braille 'n Speak 2000 users should load the file called bs2eng.bns.  Braille Lite 18 users need the file bsleng.bns. Braille Lite 2000 users should load the file bl2eng.bns.  If you are updating a Type 'n Speak, the file you need is called tnseng.tns.  Braille Lite 40 users will need the update program called bl4eng.bns.  Type 'n Speak users will need tleng.bns. We know this may seem confusing, but only the file for your note-taker will appear on this disk.  As an example, if you are a Braille 'n Speak 2000 user, then only the file bs2eng.bns will be on this disk.  In other words, you won't see the other files for the other note-takers on this disk.  The file can be loaded into your machine either from a PC or by using our optional disk drive.

	If you are using a PC to send the program file to your unit, you will need a communications package.  These programs are mainly used for modem communications. Almost any of these communications programs should do the job nicely.

	If you are using one of these programs, you will need to match the communications parameters of the program so that it will match your 
Braille 'n Speak, Type 'n Speak or Braille Lite.  For example, the baud 
rate of both devices must match.  Other settings, which must match, are: data bits, stop bits and parity.  A good group of settings might be 9600 baud, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit.

	From the PC you must tell the communications program that you wish to upload or send a file.  When asked for a protocol, use ymodem. 

	From your Blazie note-taker, enter the file menu, followed by t-chord.  TNS users should press the Printscreen key.  Now enter the letter r to receive the file, followed by y for ymodem.  Do not create the file first.  Your machine will do this automatically and will allocate the proper number of pages for the update program. These programs will take around 70 pages, so you will need to have that much room before attempting to receive the file.  Press the enter key or e-chord on your machine to begin the transfer.  It will take a couple of minutes to load the file, and you will receive the "ok, enter file command" message when it is finished.

	If you are using our disk drive or the PC Disk software, enter s-chord or alt s from the Type 'n Speak.  Next enter the letter y.  Enter the letter r followed by the file name.  Now press the enter key or e-chord.  Once again, it will take a couple of minutes to load the file, and you should receive the "ok" message.

	Please understand that at this point you have not yet updated your machine.  You have only, so far, loaded the update software. However, your machine still does not have the latest revision in it.  The update process takes the software you have just loaded and places it in the machine's permanent memory.  We will cover this process next. Before you do this, please, if you have not already done so,  take time to back up all files in your unit.  The update process may destroy information in your machine, so please save ALL files before updating. This is very important.  The last item to check before updating your unit is ensuring you have plenty of battery power.  If you are getting near to the battery low point, plug your unit in while performing the update.  


	Updating your machine is quite easy.  Simply enter o-chord or f9 on a Tns.  Enter the letter x.  Your unit will prompt you, "Enter program to execute."  The file you just loaded into your unit is in fact a large program.  Your unit is asking you for the name of the program you wish to execute, so type in the name of the update software.  Now press e-chord or the enter key.

    Braille Lite users will first note that if your voice had been turned off, it now automatically comes on.  This is normal.  You will first hear a warning that updating your unit may destroy your files, and then get asked if you are sure you want to continue.  Enter y, then you will be asked again, are you sure, so enter y a second time.  The first task the unit performs is a check to ensure you have a valid program file.  This takes about thirty seconds, and your unit will tick along to indicate that in fact something is happening.   

     When the validation process is finished, you will hear some more messages.  What you hear depends on whether you have super flash memory or not.  If you do not have super flash memory, It will tell you it is now updating your unit.  it will warn you not to do anything until it is complete, it will tell you to turn off your unit when you receive a continuous high pitch tone, and finally, it will tell you that if you hear rapid beeping for more than thirty seconds, your update has failed and to call us.  This may all seem confusing, so here is a description of what you should hear after the spoken message is finished.  When the messages finish, your unit will begin beeping again in a similar fashion to how it beeped in the validation process.  This will go on for two to three minutes, then your unit will abruptly sound a continuous, high pitch tone.  When this occurs, simply turn off your unit.  This high pitch, continuous tone is good news, it means your unit successfully updated.  An extremely small chance exists that something might fail during this process.  It is extremely rare.  If something does go wrong during this process, your unit will beep very rapidly all of a sudden.  If this continues for more than thirty seconds, your update failed.  If this happens, just give us a call.  Once again, this is extremely rare.

     If you have super flash memory, you will be asked an extra question before hearing the above messages.  You will first hear, "Super flash detected, enter a for first language or b for second language."  With super flash memory, you have two language banks.  Unless you purchased an additional language, your unit contains English on both sides a and b.  It is necessary to update both language banks, so if you have super flash memory, you actually need to run the update program twice.  This question is asking if you wish to update language bank a or b.  We highly recommend that you choose b the first time through.  When you run the update program the second time, choose language bank a.       

	After answering this question, you will hear the same messages described above for the non super flash units.  After the update is completed, you will hear a long, high-pitched tone.  This tone means that the update is successful and you should turn off your unit. 

	You may find that after turning your unit back on, it may not speak. It also may speak gibberish or the voice may sound very strange or garbled when you turn it on following the update procedure. If this happens, first try a warm reset at power on.  To do this in a Braille note taker, hold down dots 1-2-3-4-5-6 chord as you turn the unit on.  For Type 'n Speak owners, hold down the alt and delete keys as you turn the machine on.  If all is well at this point, you may begin to use your unit again.  If you have a super flash unit, you will want to update language bank a.  If you do not have super flash, you need not update your unit a second time, it is not necessary.  If you have super flash memory, simply repeat the steps listed above starting with executing the program by typing o chord or F9 on the TNs, followed by the letter x.  WARNING!!   Type 'n Speak users with super flash memory will not be able to run the same copy of the update program twice.  Once you run the Type 'n Speak update program, it will not run if you try to execute it a second time, but will tell you that the validation has failed.  Therefore, to run the Type 'n Speak program a second time, you will need to delete the tnseng.tns file from your unit and reload it from disk a second time.  Reloading the update file from disk a second time is not necessary on Braille note takers.  Once you are through updating your unit, you may delete the large update file.  All the information in this file has been transferred to your unit's permanent memory, so this file is no longer necessary.

     If your unit does not behave normally after performing the warm reset at power on as described above, just do a hard reset.  Remember, you need not do this if your unit is working normally after the warm reset.  This will clear the machine of your files, but it will also reinitialize your system, thereby allowing the new update to run properly.  To perform a hard reset, press an I-chord as you turn on your unit. Type 'n Speak users should press control-alt-delete as the machine is being turned on. When you do this, you will hear "initialize file system, enter y or n."  You will need to enter Y for yes.  Doing this will erase your files.  You will be asked to confirm that you really do, in fact, want to do this, so you will need to answer Y a second time.  Next, you will hear "initialize flash system" enter y or n." It is probably not necessary to do this, but if you do your flash files will be erased. If you do not have the superflash memory option, then you will not hear this prompt.   Answer Y a second time when asked to confirm this choice.  Next, you will be asked to "initialize folder system, enter y or n." It is necessary to answer Y for Yes to this question, which will eliminate the folders you may have created except for the ram startup and flash startup folders.  The final question will be "delete all data in file areas, enter Y or N."  When you enter the letter Y for yes, your unit will click for a few minutes while it erases all of the data in your file areas, giving you no chance of recovering your files.  

     After the updates have been run and your unit is back working, the last step is to load the new help file and the documentation explaining what is new in the September 2000 revision.  You should load the following files into your unit from the disk:
Update00.txt
help file for your unit
	
     You will not actually find a file named help on your disk.  What you will find is a file with the same name as your update program file, but with an extension of hlp.  As an example, if you have a Braille 'n Speak 2000, your help file will be named
bs2eng.hlp
Load these files into your unit in the same way you loaded in the update program file earlier.  These files are much shorter, and should take very little time to load.  The last step to perform is renaming the help file.  Your help file will not appear when you access your help file until you give it the name help.  Until you rename this full length help file to help, you will only see the mini help file when you access the help file with dots 1-4-5-6 chord.  

     To rename the help file, first go to your files menu.  Type o chord followed by f, or F1 on the TNS.  Next, locate the file in your file list.  Once again, it will have the same name as your update program, but with a hlp extension.  Once there, type r chord, or alt r on the TNS.  It will prompt, "enter file name."  Type the name help followed by e chord, or enter on the TNS.  That's it, you are done.  For your information, you may move any or all of these five files to super flash memory.  

 	Read the file update00.txt.  It explains all the new features for your unit with the September 2000 revision. Once you have read this file, you may delete it from your unit if you wish.

     A variety of other files are also sent on the disk.  They cover update documentation from previous years and general information about your note taker.  Additionally, we have included a copy of the spell.dic file for your convenience.

Some of you may be wondering why we recommend you update both language banks a and b in units that have super flash memory.  This may seem a bit tedious and unnecessary, but there is actually a good reason for doing this.  The p-chord L command (alt-P and the letter L on a Type 'n Speak) switches your note-taker from language A to language B.  If you did not place the update in both language banks and you decided to issue this command, you might be switching your machine from the September 1, 2000 to an earlier update.  This may seem harmless but if you switch to a revision which is much earlier than this one it may corrupt your files, which is something we know you want to avoid.  It is for this reason that we encourage you to update your note-taker twice, choosing language b during the first update process and choosing language a for the second and final updating.

       If your unit is capable of containing two different languages, make sure that the date of the non-English version matches the revision date of the English revision, or that it is later than the English revision. As an example, since the English update on this disk is dated September 2000, make sure that the foreign language update you wish to load has a revision date of September, 2000 or later.  We know this may be confusing to some of you, so if you have questions feel free to call us at 561-223-6443. Our email address is support@blazie.com.

