[blindkid] Embossers

[Richard Holloway]

My philosophy on embossers has been to buy used, but only so cheaply that if they break and we cannot fix them on our own, we can just throw them out. The Romeos we have found for example, have been in the $200 range. (They are $2000 plus when new.) I checked with the people who make and repair them (I guess that one is Enabling Technology?) just to see what a typical repair is-- Over $1000. At that price, I don't see fixing them, and the Romeos are pretty reliable anyhow...

On the software, one option that is a hassle, but which I have done in the past is to have an old junky PC that will run an older copy of the software (Duxbury in this case) and just use that to print. Simply "sneaker net" the file to a drive on the old machine to produce the output if networking is an issue. If you have a complete solution that is just old, that may be the best plan, otherwise you may have driver issues, port issues-- it can get messy and really time consuming. Besides, you can always tinker and try new things with the embosser over time, so long as you have a backup solution to revert to, right?

For peace of mind, you might also call and ask the Tiger folks if they still service these machines (sometimes parts are no longer available) and ask what the minimum as well as a "typical" repair costs are on the machines of that model and age. Most of these companies are pretty good about telling you such things. As always, your mileage may vary.



On Aug 24, 2011, at 10:53 AM, Erin Teply wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have the opportunity to buy a used Tiger Max embosser or Versapoint Duo.  Both come with Duxbury software, although everything is about 10 years old.  It has been hard to find info on either of these products.  If anyone does have experience, please share anything with me.  I do have some concerns that I will have to buy new translation software because what they have won't be compatible with any of our PCs or Macs, and it is quite expensive.  Would anyone recommend NOT buying these because of their age?  I am able to buy at a very reasonable price (not sure what that is yet), also, so it probably won't be a huge investment.  Also, can anyone recommend one over the other?  Thanks so much for any insight.
> 
> Erin Teply
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