instructables

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display

by madaeon

De s cript io n

The goal of this project is to create an electronic Braille system that is a ordable and can make this technology
available to everyone. After initial evaluation, it was clear that thus the design of the individual character had to
meet some minimum requirements:

must use as many parts that are already commercially available

should be made up with the lowest parts count possible
custom parts must be easy to prototype, easy to scale up (injection molding)
power must be not needed to keep the state of the pins

After working on several iterations, I have designed an electronic Braille character with a magnetic retaining system
that has a really low parts count, is easy to reproduce or to scale up for production!

The project was self-funded, and I decided to not patent this system because I'd like to see as many people as
possible bene t from it.

Ho w do e s it w o rk?
With the current design, each "dot" on a character module is made up of 2 3D printed parts (Body and Magnet
holder), 2 M2 nuts, 2 magnets, and 0.1mm enameled wire. A controlling PCB also hold the bodies. This design uses a
really low parts count, and e orts have been put to use parts already available, such as the M2 steel nut; this design
allows for a very low cost per character.

A (no t de nit iv e ) co s t a na ly s is
The cost for a single pin , for a production in the order of hundreds, is estimated around or less then 0.85€. It
includes nuts, 2 injection molded parts (magnet holder and body), magnets, and coil. The cost for a single character
is thus in the order of 5/6€ per character, with a small/medium sized production. The cost for an entire line of 10
characters is around 120€, including 60€ of characters and 60€ of pcb, most of it due to the TB6612 currently used
which are quite expensive. An hypothetical device with 8 lines, a controlling board, sensors, battery and enclosure
should have a total cost of less than 1000€ for a medium/small production, allowing a nal retail price of probably
2000€... which is quite not bad compared to the commercial products available today!

Supplies:

2 × M2 Steel Nut An M2 steel nut is used as an easy to get, low cost part for the holding mechanism

2 × 2mm dia, 2mm tall magnet They are inserted into the Magnet holder

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 1

1 × Magnet holder (3d printed) Magnet holder is available to download as STL le

1 × Body (3d printed) Body is available to download as STL le

1 × Coil (0.1mm enameled wire) 5.5m are used, approx 300 turns

Step 1: All the Files and Parts You Will Need!

This is the list of the provided les. Remember, everything here is WIP!

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 2

PCB. z ip (Braille v2 pcb Eagle les)
Bra ille Sy s t e m Co m ple t e . z ip This is the concept of the Braille Tablet I am going to develop
(should funding or winning some Big Prize happen!). Zip les contains the full Solidworks assembly.
Requires Solidworks 2015.
Bra ille Print e rSy s t e m . z ip This is the project for the portable Braille Printer that I am designing.
When completed, it should be integrated in the docking station of the Braille Tablet. Zip les
contains the full Solidworks assembly. Requires Solidworks 2015.

Bra ille Cha r3. z ip This is the PCB for one character, Zip les already used for production of the PCB
(Gerber, drills, etc).

Te s t _ De m o B o a rd_ Uno _ O le d_ FILM S. ino This is a sample Arduino program. It will show letters
"F I L M S" as shown in the video. Requires an Arduino Uno Board and the "Arduino Shield with Oled"
PCB.

Arduino Shie ld W it hO le d. z ip This is the latest version of the demo board for testing characters.
It is designed as an Arduino shield for Arduino Uno. Zip les already used for production of the PCB
(Gerber, drills, etc).

bra ille _ne w e r_s m a llpa ds _w ide s pa ce . s ch This is the PCB for one character ( Eagle
Schematics)

bra ille _ne w e r_s m a llpa ds _w ide s pa ce . brd This is the PCB for one character ( Eagle Board)

M a g ne t Ho lde r_v 8 . S T L Magnet holder for each pin. Can be 3D printed with a resin-based 3D
printer. Design still work in progress, as is this project.

Co rpo V8 . S T L Body for each pin. Can be 3D printed with a resin-based 3D printer. Design still work
in progress, as is this project.

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 3

 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FFD/MYIL/K2R9Q61O/FFDMYILK2R9Q61O.zip
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FHI/72KX/K2R9Q61P/FHI72KXK2R9Q61P.brd
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FSC/1G11/K2R9Q61Q/FSC1G11K2R9Q61Q.sch
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FJR/UWAB/K2R9Q61R/FJRUWABK2R9Q61R.zip
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FWQ/HVXS/K2R9Q628/FWQHVXSK2R9Q628.zip
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FAO/Q0RX/K2R9Q63P/FAOQ0RXK2R9Q63P.zip
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FP5/O3FF/K2R9Q63Q/FP5O3FFK2R9Q63Q.stl
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F4S/YJJA/K2R9Q63R/F4SYJJAK2R9Q63R.stl
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FT0/1PZ5/K2R9Q63S/FT01PZ5K2R9Q63S.zip
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F6I/GD1Y/K2R9Q63T/F6IGD1YK2R9Q63T.unknown
…

Step 2: Instructions

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 4

St e p 1 one pin are assembled for the current prototype.
3D Printing the body and magnet holder The body
and magnet holder le are available in STL le format St e p 3
and can be printed with a resin-based 3D Printer. Part Coil winding I assembled a simple machine to
thickness is down to 0.3mm in some points, but it still automate the coil winding. It is controlled by an
printable, and after UV curing the part is strong Arduino.
enough.
St e p 4
St e p 2 Assembling the CharacterPCB Once you have
Assembling the magnet holder Once you have 3D assembled the 6 pins, it is time to insert them into the
printed the parts, it is necessary to assemble them. characterPCB and solder them.
This video shows how the di erent components of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rZetKXEhM&feature=emb_logo

https://youtu.be/eobXfH6CkRc

https://youtu.be/FfDIr4dtriA

https://youtu.be/iiwTl1gc33w

Step 3: Testing BrailleShield Demo Board

In order to be able to quickly test the Braille character Oled that will display the letter that corresponds to
units, I designed a demo board, that should be also the Braille letter shown by the pins.
useful to showcase the project to potential users. This
board is designed as an Arduino shield, 12v powered, Eagle design les are available.
using 3 TB6612 ICs to drive the coils. It has a button to
select the showing modes, and the space for a 128x64

https://youtu.be/e311u-i-iT0

Step 4: Concepts for Braille Tablet With Docking Station and Printer

Both are available for download as Solidworks assembly. The printer is

quite re ned and with some re ning is ready for prototyping.Winning the Assistive prize or nd a sponsor would be
super! Up to now all the project was self-funded and it has been a quite time-consuming project, so some funding
may be necessary for this project to be continued...

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 5

Step 5: MOLBED Tested and Lots of Feedback!

During a meeting with an association for blind people in Italy, MOLBED has been tested and we received a lot of
feedback, that will be very important for developing a product that is tailored to their needs.

This is a short list of their suggestions / requirements:

Multi line is not important as one might think;

a standard size Braille cell dimension, on the other hand, is more desired to get faster read speed.
The MOLBED character can be re-con gured to take the same, or slightly longer space, but have the
same pin size and distance as standard (expensive) Braille cells;
Integrating a Braille paper printer on the docking station may be very interesting;
Chances of funding for this kind of projects will probably be much di cult for the current "state of
things", at least in this country, despite they recognize that this project really has a lot of potential.
So at the moment this competition is still the best opportunity for this project to be continued and
give this people a low cost alternative to expensive products, and that can be really tailored on their
needs!

I really love this project. I would consider learning Braille recreationally if I could have one of these
in my pocket too
Impressive project. Your method of establishing the state steady feature is well done.
Thanks for your work on this.

MOLBED - Modular Low Cost Braille Electronic Display: Page 6

Brilliant idea. Something similar came to my mind years ago. My prototype was not shared to many
people. Time and resources were not in my favor so I did not pursue the idea further. You pursued
your idea and I'm glad to see it come over my display.
Internet is making it possible for people to share great ideas such as this one and make life easier
or better for others. Production of components in large volumes should bring the costs down and
make larger displays possible. I hope some manufacturer takes your idea and starts making a final
product for real life use. They should reward you with decent royalties as well. You have my vote.
This is really clever! Nicely done :)

Thanks!

Great project! Refreshable Braille has always been expensive. You have my vote!

My wife Sue uses an Orbit Reader 20 that has a single line of 20 Braille cells and a Braille
keyboard built-in. This costs just under £500 here in the UK, which is cheap compared to other
Braille displays, but still too expensive for a lot of people.

Details here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/Orbit-Reader-20

Thanks! I hope that this project will be able to continue and become one day a commercial (much
cheaper) alternative to products like the one you mentioned.
This is an amazing device. Thank you for sharing it.
Making each pixel (touchel?) from scratch is very impressive :-)
Thanks! Love the "touchel" name :)

Having thought about it overnight, I think that "tactel" works better.. Please feel free to use either :-)

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