The Icon Mobile Manager and Icon Braille Plus
Part One - Getting Started
This article will cover putting in your battery, keyboard orientation and
setting date/time. The July and September issues will cover all other features
of this remarkable mobile manager.
I. Opening Your New Present
Included in the packing case of your Icon Braille Plus Mobile Manager are: the
unit itself (Icon or Icon Braille Plus), a battery with a small indentation on
the left side, carrying case, carrying strap, lanyard, interface cable, AC
adapter, USB cable, ear buds, software CD, and print/Braille quick start guide.
If any of these items are not in the box, use the contact information below for obtaining the missing pieces.
Customer service: 1-800-315-2305
email:
support@levelstar.com
Braille Plus users can also call APH: 1-800-223-1839
and ask for customer service.
Email APH:
cs@aph.org
II. Installing The Battery
Place the unit face down on a flat surface. Make sure the long rectangle
interface cable port is facing you.
On the lower back of the unit closest to you there is a sticker with a printed serial number. I suggest to use some Dymo tape or Braille on paper from APH and put the serial number here in Braille.
Just above the sticker, you can feel a very small line where the battery cover meets the unit’s casing. Press down here and pull towards yourself to remove the battery cover.
Hold the battery so the small indentation is on your left. The indentation fits over a group of pins inside the battery compartment.
Slide the battery in with the left side first and press firmly on the right edge to finish installation.
If the battery will not go in, flip it over keeping the indentation on the left and try again.
When the battery is successfully installed, the unit will vibrate signaling it is starting up. During this process, you can slip the battery cover back on.
Flip the unit over on it’s back and Waite until the Icon or Icon Braille Plus says, "Welcome to the Braille Plus" or "Welcome to the Icon" followed by a version number and the word "applications menu."
The Applications Menu is equated to a desktop screen on a home PC.
III. Orientation To The Braille Plus Or Icon
A. Braille Plus
Rest the unit on a desk or flat surface so the long rectangle interface port is
on the desk and the edge with jacks/ports is facing straight up.
From left to right are: microphone input, mini-SD card slot (can handle up to four GB SD card), a headphone jack and finally input for a headset with microphone and earpiece combination. These are commonly used with cell phones.
Lay the unit back down on the desk with buttons facing up and the edge you just explored pointed away from you.
In the center top face of the unit is a private earpiece for listening to messages. One would hold this pressed on their ear for best listening.
Just below the earpiece are three buttons. From Left to right these are: program one, applications and program two.
Program one is not currently used.
The Applications Key is used to access the various programs in the unit.
If you press and hold this key, the task manager is accessed. This is used when a program hangs and you need to exit it.
Program Two is for turning on/off the wireless access.
One press will show all the network profiles currently connected. Holding down the same key will list a history of networks previously accessed.
Move your hand down and you encounter two small rectangle buttons located on the left and right.
The left button accesses the status menu. Pressing the button once will tell you what menu you are currently in. Pressing and holding the same button tells you any up coming appointments, date/time, software version, status of wireless connection and signal strength.
The right hand button is help. Pressing this will provide help for whatever menu or mode you are currently using.
Holding this button down for more than one second turns on key learn mode. This is a quick way to learn key functions. Press and hold the help button again to turn off key learn mode.
Traveling down on the face of this unit, a diamond shape key is found. The top point is the up arrow. The bottom point of the diamond is a down arrow.
The left and right points of the diamond are left/right arrows.
In the center is a button used for selecting a choice.
Further down on the face is a set of buttons arranged in a half circle.
The left most button is okay.
The center longer rectangle button opens the options menu.
The far right button is used to cancel an action/choice.
A quick press of the cancel key will stop an action. Holding down this button will shut off the unit. Press the cancel button again and the unit is turned on.
Just below these three keys is the telephone style keyboard. These keys are arranged as shown below.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
star 0 pound
There is a very, very small built in microphone located right of the pound button.
Turn the unit 90 degrees clockwise or to the right. You now find six Braille keys.
The next Braille keys are plastic making them feel different than the other rubber ones.
From left to right you find the keys 1 2 3 4 5 6.
There are three more below the Braille keys labeled from left to right as shift, space and control.
You do not use eight dot Braille on this unit.
Moving down to the unit’s bottom edge. To the right of the interface cable slot is a keyboard lock key. Moving this to the right locks the keys and left unlocks them.
On the top left and right sides of the unit are two stereo speakers.
The next long button below the left speaker increases and decreases the volume. Pressing down on the upper edge increases the volume. Pressing the lower edge will decrease the volume.
The next round button is for short recordings and will open the voice recorder.
You can also do long recordings like classes.
The very last button switches the speech output between the stereo speakers and personalized earpiece explained previously.
B. Icon Mobile Manager
Rest the unit on a desk or flat surface so the long rectangle interface port is
on the desk and the edge with jacks/ports is facing straight up.
From left to right are: microphone input, mini-SD card slot (can handle up to four GB SD card), a headphone jack and finally input for a headset with microphone and earpiece combination. These are commonly used with cell phones.
Lay the unit back down on the desk with buttons facing up and the edge you just explored pointed away from you.
In the center top face of the unit is a private earpiece for listening to messages. One would hold this pressed on their for best listening.
Just below the earpiece are three buttons. From Left to right these are: program one, applications and program two.
Program one is not currently used.
The Applications Key is used to access the various programs in the unit.
If you press and hold this key, the task manager is accessed. This is used when a program hangs and you need to exit it.
Program Two is for turning on/off the wireless access.
One press will show all the network profiles currently connected. Holding down the same key will list a history of networks previously accessed.
Move your hand down and you encounter two small rectangle buttons located on the left and right.
The left button accesses the status menu. Pressing the button once will tell you what menu you are currently in. Pressing and holding the same button tells you any upcoming appointments, date/time, software version, status of wireless connection and signal strength.
The right hand button is help. Pressing this will provide help for whatever menu or mode you are currently using.
Holding this button down for more than one second turns on key learn mode. This is a quick way to learn key functions. Press and hold the help button again to turn off key learn mode.
Any Key
Traveling down on the face of this unit, a diamond shape key is found. The top
point is the up arrow. The bottom point of the diamond is a down arrow.
The left and right points of the diamond are left/right arrows.
In the center is a button used for selecting a choice.
Further down on the face is a set of buttons arranged in a half circle.
The left most button is okay.
The center longer rectangle button opens the options menu.
The far right button is used to cancel an action/choice.
A quick press of the cancel key will stop an action. Holding down this button will shut off the unit. Press the cancel button again and the unit is turned on.
Just below these three keys is the telephone style keyboard. These keys are arranged as shown below.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
star 0 pound
There is a very small built in microphone located right of the pound button.
Moving down to the unit’s bottom edge. To the right of the interface cable slot is a keyboard lock key. Moving this to the right locks the keys and left unlocks them.
On the top sides of the unit are two stereo speakers.
The next long button below the left speaker increases and decreases the volume. Pressing down on the upper edge increases the volume. Pressing the lower edge will decrease the volume.
The next round button is for short recordings and will open the voice recorder.
You can also use the voice recorder to make longer recording such as classes.
The very last button makes the speech come out of the private earpiece explained previously.
IV. Changing Date/time
1. Hold down the status key. This is the far left key in the second row.
2. Press the select button.
3. You can press the left or right arrow to choose a clock format. Make sure you
are on 12 h our.
4. Arrow down to check the time zone. This is usually set to US Central.
5. Arrow down again to "enter time." Press the select button and enter two
digits for hour and two digits for minutes.
6. Press the pound key to switch between AM and PM.
7. Arrow down to the date. Press the select key. Type in two digits for the
month, two digits for the day and four digits for the year.
8. When finished entering the date/time, press the okay button and everything is
set.