Category: accessible Devices
this is for pacmate users if anyone has problems with their pacmates please let me know
I haven't had too many problems with mine. The only thing I hate is, if I don't use mine for a while, and it runs of charge losing everything including settings. The other thing is the price to keep it updated.
Let's see, mine's crashed about 4 times since I've had it, even after I upgraded to the 4.0 fermware.
thank you for posting
I've only had to do a cold restart once and I lost everything. I agree completely with what BB said: If you have it on charge and it drains you lose everything including the settings. And of course the cost to upgrade everytime a patch comes out. I don't use mine except for meetings and right now all I do use is FS Edit, Contacts, Calendar and the File Explorer. The other tools like IE, Mail and Messenger all require a connection to the net and I don't own a wireless card.
I plan on buying a compact flash card to store all of my lions cocuments for the FS Edit program I depend on.
Yea, that revision 4 was not good. Hopefully the next revision will fix that. AS far as the battery dying, and losing things, this is standard pocket PC behaivior with windows 2003. Unfortuantley, even if the unit isn't on power is still being consumed. This happens on PDA's as well. I use a Dell x51V with Mobile Speak pocket and the trekker maestro that runs on the Dell x50. Both will eventually die if I don't keep them charged and although the x51V running wm5 won't lose everythinkg the x50 running Trekker/maestro will.
I honestly had no idea the version 4.0 fermware was so unstable; however I had to upgrade in order to run the StreetTalk software. The thing was though, I asked FS to send me version 3.0, and next thing I knew I got version 4.0 in the mail, so I figured they must know what they were doing, and 4.0 must have something 3.0 didn't.
However, my pacmate has now crashed to the point where I can't even get it to hard reset, and I'm thinking of just switching to something else altogether.
Good evening Juliet. your not being able to cold reset is quite interesting. Please pardon these questions but it's what us tech support fellers do. By cold resetting you used the button under the unit? did you remove any compact flash cards before doing the cold reset? if the answer is yes to all of the above then my only suggestion would be load the update back on to your cf card, place it in the slot and cold reset again in the hopes that it will look at the flash card first and reinstall the firmware. you might have to try both slots. If this doesn't work wow! the sound of fried pacmates is deafening. I would really like to know how this goes since I do have clients using this unit. Thanks.
Ok, my error, I didn't know you couldn't reset it with the cf cards in it; so I feel like a complete dumb ass now. I got it back up and running now, but I lost everything and it also lost charge because it's been sitting around for about a week, so I have to reinstall everything, but thanx for that piece of info.
this is an example why i would never buy this device. lol
I evaluate and recomend assistive technology. I recommend Pacmate under a few conditions. First, if someone requests it. Second, if they are computer-comfortable. Third, if they demonstrate a good deal of patience. On the other hand, I love the braille display. I recommend it for people using laptops, because it works so well with JAWS and is relatively inexpensive.
Lou
yes. i would love to have just the braille display of this unit. The idea of hooking it up via USB is a great one.
Ya know! I had a client buy the pacmate display alone for her computer and she just loves the thing. Probably the lowest priced decent display you will find.
One way to prevent the los of data is to back up the pacmate using two utillities. Sprite backup is a software package that is included on your pacmate cd. I don't know much about it and you may have to call freedomscientific for an authorization for it which is free. Also, you can use active sync to back up the unit. I believe in the menu choices there is a backup menu. This will backup the unit to your computer so should you have a crash you can restore it. I highly recommend syncing contact and calendar so that should the unit crash you can plug it in to the computer and restore those thinkgs.
I've actually been trying to figure out how to do that, but wasn't sure how. I've been trying to figure out how to sync my contacts, but when I establish my partnership it has the contacts option there, but then it says "not installed," so I don't know how to fix that.
I was wanting to learn to do that for several reasons; partly to practice with the pacmate, and also because I'm about to get a new cel phone that runs the same operating system, and I figured that would be a good way for me to program my contacts with it and I wouldn't have to ask for sighted assistance, but I can't seem to get passed the "not installed," thing.
Good evening Juliet. Can you be a bit more specific? Exactly what happens? Let's go through the steps because I have never seen this at all. Assuming you have active sync installed version 3.8 or higher when you connect your pacmate it should ask to creat a partnership. you want the first choice in the radio buttons not guest(I forget the name of the choice shame on me slap,slap)... once you check this button click next and it will say somethinkg about exchange or i forget but then click next again. then you should be in a list of items to sync. move up and down the list and check the ones you want and click next. it will then tell you that you have completede the wizard or somethinkg and then click finish. now the cyncronasition will begin. this may take up to 5 minutes depending on how much data you are syncing. So, with that procedure in mind, where is it saying somethinkg is not installed? I look forward to your post and sincerely hope I can come up with the solution. I have clients who use the pacmate and have never experienced this behaivior at all. what cell phone are you going to get and will you then be getting mobilespeak pocket? Have a great evening.
I've completed all the steps mentioned, but when it shows me the list of things I can syncronize, next to contacts, and I think there may have been one other thing it also says "not installed. As for the cel phone I'll be getting, it's the Nextel I930 that runs windows mobile 2003 SE, and I'd like to get Mobilespeak Pocket for it, but I'm debating that because I was told it wouldn't run on a smartphone, but when I looked it up on google I found several pages that stated it would run on any device running 2003 SE, so I'm not sure what to do.
Okay! first, I really don't know where to go with that uninstall issue because if active sync is installed then it should just sync and contacts don't have to be installed. Wow, wish I could help but have never seen this at all. If you do find an answer I hope you will post here so we can all benifit. About Mobile speak. The adddition for smart phones is not out yet. it should be released soon but there isn't a date yet. right now there is Mobile speak pocket for PDA's and phone pda combos. If you were to go with a simbian series 60/80 phone I would recommend talks.
Hi yoou need to have outlook 2002 or higher on your system in order to sync contacts. Do you have outlook on your system?
I would love to have a pac mate, but I do not have the funs for it or a state angencty to help me get one so I can get once un less I get a referbished one someware or maybe someone mighet just desided that they just can not use one and I would have one, but do not see that any time soon.
another thing you can do to back up your files is store them in a compact flashcard, I mean doing that has saved me from loosing my files so many times it's !unreal
Yes I like tghe pack mate for that reason. Now if I could just afored one I would be all set to go.
don't get a pac mate
After having a lemin where it always crashed, reset itself at various intervulse for no reason whatt soever... I've sent it back four times, nothing was found wrong with it. So I finally siad look people I have a matince agrement, send me another one! So they did and I've never had a problem with it cept it lost my v key once. So I just got another referbished one with 4.0 and it works like a charm.
I just got my pacmate fixed for the first time. The keys just stopped working no matter how manny cold or warm resets I did so I got it repaired. Now, after two weeks later, my down arrow key isn't working. Is there any way to fix the minor problem. I refuse to sent my pacmate back because I have school starting in a couple of days and otherwise, it works fine.
Hi I don't know did you try a warm reset. I am still consittering getting one,. I just need to get the money.
Are you in the exchange unit program? That's probably the easier way to get it quick, and fast.
I hate the friggan pacmate had it for one year, nothing but probs!!
wow; sounds pretty crappy. that is why i would suggest you get a brailleNote m power. they work well. when you do a warm reset, you don't loose any of your data.
Can you use street talk with 3.0? Just wondering.
Forget the Braille note, unless you need the display. Be an early adopter of the Icon, which you can find out about at www.levelstar.net
Wait, scratch that, I think it's levelstar.com
no the bn's are much more reliable then any packmate.
Okay. My Rehabilitation counsilor is looking at a Pack Mate for me, with a forty-cell Braille display, and the qwerty keyboard. . Can someone just tell me everything I need to know about it. Just send me a private message because this board may not have enough space to post it all.
Yep. Packmates suck ass. I had one for a short time and had it always crashing, dying on me when it said the battery was at twenty percent when obviously it was lower and then I pluged it in one time to charge it cause I thought it was getting low and it just restarted for no reason and I lost everything for the hundredth time. Very unstable in my opinion. But now I am the proud owner of a Braille Note PK and love it. I only had to send it in once and just recently got it back and its working fine. So yahe for Braille Notes!
I like the pac mate for its ease of use, but its good for nothing! I lose all my stuff when the battery goes dead, I get an error message that says the battery status is unknown, It might restart for no reason, it crashes all the time, and I had to do a cold reset 15 times. I highly recommend a braille note. I don't have one, but my friend does.
I also recommend the braille lite. I had that before I got a pacmate. I warn anyone who is interested in a pacmate to not get one! All you are doing is getting wripped off!
Hey all,
If you have a pacmate you don't like, and have a good sense of humor, I have some funny pacmate poems on my website. If you want the address to my site, please look at my profile or quick note me.
Purchasing all notetakers is a waste of money. The PC is much more versital, and cheaper.
That's true, but note takers are easier to move around.
The PacMate has its good points and bad points, as does everything.
Sprite Backup is amazing. For anyone wanting to learn how to use it but who would benefit from help, feel free to contact me, and I'll see what I can do.
I love the fact that the Braille display is detachable, and the display itself is awesome. You can use the display and not lose the function of your notetaker.
BrailleNote's are good, yes, but then you're dealing with proprietary software. If you don't mind that, then go with it, but others want more flexibility on what programs they can and cannot use on their notetaker.
I will agree that it costs an arm and a leg to keep your unit updated. I don't currently have the SMA or PMA for the PacMate and display...too expensive!
Just my two sense worth...
I back up files with active sync. Also, if you are typing something you don't want others to find, if someone else needs my pacmate, I can save the files to my compact flash card.
I had a bad day with my pac mate. I recorded an audio file on it, and when I was done, it crashed! I had to do 4 or 5 warm resets before I could get it to do anything. It wouldn't turn off. I think it was slow for some reason.
Well, I have been taking my pacmate to collegeand it has been doing ok. The problem is that I have to warm reset it every time I turn around. I get stuck on the today screen, and can't do anything but turn it off. Dang! If only I had a braile note.
hello there. Braille notes. are allsome.
I got my pac mate upgraded to a pac mate omni a month ago. It does work a little better than the older firmware, but it has crashed several times. I wish I would have got rid of it completely and got a braille note!
that is why i use wm smart phone 6.
hahahha i have my laptop and my cell phone :).
Give me a laptop over this piece of shite pacMate any day.
Also, after I got it back, the braille display wouldn't stay in very good.
Wow, I didn't know how much Pac Mates sucked. I use a Braille Note MPower, and I've had it for over a year and haven't had a single problem with it, except for having to reset it sometimes, but nothing I had to send it back for. As for the Braille Lite: sorry, but all Freedom Scientific's notetakers are crappy and unstable. I used a Braille Lite 40 for something like 8 years and it kept crashing. Everything in flash memory would get corrupted and stuff like that. I was basically sending it back repeatedly for nothing, because about 2 weeks after I would get it back, the same thing would happen. About the Icon: if they work out a few bugs with the software, that will be an awesome machine.I tested it out a few months ago, and while it had too many bugs for me to really enjoy it, it looks very promising if they keep working on it, which they seem to be doing.