Hi ! Working with visually deficiant and blind young public, i wonder if anyone is motivated enough to propose an automated tool to create small braille signs.
I do have a braille printer at work but it only work for paper. I’ll like to be able to create PLA signs that i can just glue to crates where the kids put their toys, for example.
Braille is relatively easy by itself as it’s just direct letter conversion to 6 pottential points, that need to be sorted and of fixed size. This being said, i don’t have the knowledge to code something like this myself and my researsh online aren’t going anywhere. Several tools exist to convert text to compatible braille printers but all working for printers that actually print on paper, no 3d prints.
Any chance someone can give an helping hand? :x
I think I can help with that.
Most of my designs are based in openSCAD, so they are fully customizable.
You can go to my profile and check if that kind of designs fits in your needs:
https://makerworld.com/en/@migueljeronimoa
(I was thinking in something simple that would transform a text into Braille, giving a dot or symbol size. It could also accept multiline text)
Happy to help for a good cause
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BTW @MakerWorld
Maybe this is a good idea for a new contest.
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Did you try the new MakeMySign tool? You can upload your own font.
I tried with this Braille font Braille | dafont.com and I think (I don’t know Braille) it works fine:
You just need to download the font, and use it in MakeMySign:
Hope this can help you and your kids!
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Wow, didn’t expect answeres so fast (nor answere at all to be honest, it’s so niche), thanks a lot Miguel & Michelem!
Miguel your models are pretty cool, while not directly adaptable i think, i’ll probably grab one of your Gorillaz lightbox for my own use as soon as i’ll get an AMS haha.
I’m really interested if you have any input of how to adapt text into brail “easily” on models or signs in general. Also, thanks for taging makerlab, i must say it can for sure be really cool to see people adapt things for blind people, like some table games for exemple, that definetly lack for those peoples.
To Michel, i actually didn’t saw i can upload my own font until you actually told to me. It will require some small tinkering but i think it can do the trick, braille language is relatively codified, as i have to maintain a size of 0,48 mm height so that don’t break the childs habits, but luckily the size tool is precise enough to have minimal deviation on MakeMySign.
Thanks again to both of you, will gladly take any hand given if someone have ideas or proposals in general, nor if people have questions (if too of topic for this post just know my PM are open 
)
It’s a not so big world but with so much needs, and recent techs (ai, 3d print etc) are tools that i look into on daily basis to try to modernise things for them. ^^
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I have made a sample generator. I can send you the code and maybe you can see if it is a good starting point or if it would not fit into your needs even with some changes. I will send you a file via DM, so you can test it in makerworld
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@migueljeronimoa YOu’re super efficient, thanks a lot, i’ll keep an eye in my PMs
I’ve already sent it but to your makerworld profile (the forum would not let me send other file extensions different to images or 3mf)
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@Lemdoran you could also ask to this guy edisadilovic | Published - MakerWorld
He is completely blind but incredibly motivated, and I truly admire his work — it could be an inspiration for your kids. He’s very kind, and I think he’d be great at lending a hand.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1hrpx4w/i_am_fully_blind_and_this_is_how_i_3d_design_and/
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Oh sweet, gonna give it a look tonight as i’ma bout to go to work, but yup definetly
Answering a little later but just checked the video and tested to reproduce parts of it, i’m really impressed by this young men. Thanks to pointing out his reddit post & bambu profile, i’m gonna watch him closely to keep up and bring new ideas on the table at my work
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This is actually something we’ve been sought out to help with. But there’s some additional information when the braille becomes public use. Braille has national standards like ASME and ISO9100 to control the dimensions and specifications.
Truly achieving the standard is possible but very tedious from our experience. Surfaces must be absolutely smooth with no variance in transitions, each “dot” is specific to a certain distance apart and height with minimal tolerances.
The client who reached out was seeking help with consistent results, we’ve only held best results using E3D’s REVO 0.15mm Nozzles.
Not sure if any of this helps but it’s been surely a challenge on the industrial level using FDM versus injection molds & SLS.
Thanks to @migueljeronimoa he actually did an incredible job with scad, i join few screens and picture below, while NOT sharing the code directly as it’s his work and he plan to release it for public use as soon as we complete the characters integrations.
ParametricModelMaker.3mf (923,8 Ko)
It’s super easy to use, and i have used a caliper to double check, with a deviation of less than 0.1 mm it totaly do the trick ^^
On bambu studio i manually changed smoothing type to surface superior smoothing so it end up like this;
So the printer “lines” are actually parralel to finger movement and don’t feel present at all when sliding the finger, only the dots are percieved.
We used the official esytime dot sizing and quotations, so it’s reaaaaaaly close to an esytime dotting. But the code allow tweakings on the go so it’s possible to mimic “cardboard dotting” like the ones on the medics in france, that are a little largers, for example.
Depending of the cover chosed on printer, my p1p with a 0.4 nozzle and standard pla did a smooth enough print so my 7 - 10 yo kids were all able to read it from the first go. ^^
This being said as i’m not specialised in braille teaching / learning by itself, i’ll be glad to ear out any input you may have on this subject too :o
Linking the print file if anyone want to try it to feel the touch
ParametricModelMaker_Plate 1_demo.gcode.3mf (78,4 Ko)
(2.7g, ~10mins print)
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