Handicapper Assistive Devices in Search of a New Home

Community General Discussion
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For the last 12 years I've worked on the development of handicapper assistive devices for my daughter Rachele and for others in various countries. Several of these make use of Arduino sketches and boards. A bit over a month has passed since our daughter Rachi's death and I am trying to find homes for this equipment, either with people who can use them or with people who would continue their development. They will be donated gratis except for shipping costs.

Included among these are a PC with voice synthesizer and a powered wheelchair, both of which are innovative and advanced compared to what is commercially available.

I. Voice-output and PC-control computer with adaptive software and accessories:
The computer itself (HP Spectre OLED 13.5" convertible with pen) is itself not particularly special, but the software and add-on hardware is.

 Adaptive software includes:
      Windows 10 iOT LTSC: a very stable OS supported until at least 2032.
      "VOCA for WordPerfect" a multilingual (English, Italiano, Francais and Deutsch, and a little bit of Hebrew) user interface for navigating the vocabulary file (Rach's file has more than 300 pages with "canned" vocabulary, writing pages and storage of written texts, and links to external programs, e.g. music, photos, books etc.)  All of this is user selectable with switches and/or gaze tracker.  "VOCA for WordPerfect" is very flexible, but complex, so involves a decided learning curve. It is written in PerfectScript - a Pascal-like scripting compiler that is part of the WordPerfect package.
      SAFE (Switch-accessible Application Front End): a C++ program written by Mike Stewart that interfaces "VOCA for WordPerfect" with other programs.  Unfortunately, Mike died last year before he could adapt SAFE for WordPerfect versions newer than X8.
      GIRDER 3.3: for environmental controlĂą
      Loquendo (Nuance) text-to-speech voices and programs; 4 female (English, Italiano, Francais & Deutsch) & 2 male (both Italiano).
      Dasher (Cambridge Univ.), a freeware next character prediction program that is used as part of "VOCA for WordPerfect" writing page word prediction.

 Hardware (all presently wheelchair mounted.  See description below of Rachi's power chair) includes:
      USB-UIRT: infrared-output environmental control device
      24V to USB-C DC/DC converter
      Microprocessor (Seeed Xiao RP2040, Arduino programming) and sn74hc4066 based multiplexer with five switch inputs that feed: (1) USB-C serial output to the PC, (2) 5 pull down outputs for sheelchchair driving, (3) 5 open/closed digital-analog outputs to anything one wants to control, and (4) one latching on/off output for e.g. a kitchen mixer.

II. Power wheelchair: This is probably the most valuable of Rachi's kit, but the most difficult to find a new home for because it is entirely hand made, designed for Rachi and uncertified.

Structure is aluminum alloy. All up weight is about 115 kg with 208 Ahr LiFePO4 batteries and PC (see above). It can safely support users up to about 120 kg. It has faster-than-most >45o tilt and 30+ cm lift, a fold-down back frame, industrial high-efficiency (low impedance, but only 2 pole) 6 MPH (9.7 km/hr) motors, fat tubeless tires and a manually-adjustable center foot plate. The lift/tilt system has a single pantograph linkage with sliding central joint; this makes it quite light (about 12 kg.), but means that, unless corrected in software, tilt is not constant as lift changes. It has LED lights, a JayFit back, Whitmyer Soft3 headrest modified with 3 head operated switches and a manually-adjustable foot plate with 2 more switches inside. Workmanship is by no means flawless, but I had just completed a thorough re-manufacture of all of the moving parts two days before Rachi died.

The control system is a multi-node CANbus system described in more detail on WheelchairDriver.com. The modules are:
(1) Roboteq HDC2460 motor controller.
(2) Master - contains joystick, DB9 connector for switch inputs, on/off/wake from sleep push button, mode (drive, seat, lights) push button, speed pot and a joystick/switch input toggle.
(3) Display - contains a small, bright TFT screen, SD card and real-time clock
(4) PowerDistribution - contains STM VN5160STR-E chips for brakes and lights, and a pair of VNH3SP30-E integrated motor controllers for lift and tilt. It has 2 Hall-effect current sensors for measuring motor current, and now has a third one to keep track of battery drain.
(5) Aux2 - has two functions: uses just one rate gyro of a 6-axis gyro/accelerometer breakout for modified PID algorithm to coordinate lift and tilt; and digital inputs for lift/tilt limit switches.
(6) Programmer - used via serial monitor to set chair parameters

Modules (2) through (4) each contain an Arduino Nano MCU, a 24-5V DC-DC converter, and a CAN controller/transceiver board. Modules (5) and (6) are similar, but module (5) receives 5V from the PowerDistribution module and does not have a DC-DC converter. Module (6) is USB-powered. The documentation needs updating, but once that's done all of the design files will be shared on Drive. All programs can be modified if desired with Micro basic (for Roboteq) and Arduino-style C++ (all other modules).

I will keep a spare set of modules here so that I can provide some support if modification is needed or problems arise.

Now, why do I think it will be hard to find a home for this? A handicapped user will definitely need to have more than a little programming and mechanical design knowledge to change it from "Rachi"–specific to "me"-specific, and will probably need some willing temporarily able-bodied support to do the work. Being non-certifiable, it may also be difficult and/or expensive to ship it to anyone who can't come to Siena, Italia to get it and take it home.

Is there anyone with the skills and muscled help that are needed? Is there anyone who could come and retrieve it or pay the probably quite high cost of shipping it? It will be a sad day here if I have to send it to the recycling center.

If you know of anyone, or any organization, where this might be of interest, please feel free to share this message as widely as possible.

Lenny Robbins

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Sorry for your loss, I hope you'll find a new home for the equipment it will be a way for you and Rachele to contribute forward and live on.

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So sorry to hear about your daughter. She could not have had a more dedicated and innovative dad.

I don't know anyone who would benefit from the hardware you described.

But since you are concerned that the shipping costs would be high, it would be a good idea to mention where in the world you are. There might be someone willing to travel and collect, but if they don't even know if you are in the same country as them, they will probably assume you are on the other side of the world.

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@PaulRB I think that’s enough localization for decision-making.

@LROBBINS So sorry for your loss. You clearly went above and beyond to the extent you were able. I wish you the best in your efforts to find a continuing user for your creations.

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Sorry, I missed that. It was buried in the long post somewhere. I did look for it! :man_facepalming:

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Again sorry for your loss. I have had the privilege of working with disabled people with an origination called "Drake Music" in the UK. We mainly make musical instruments for disabled people. But I know there are many tech savvy disabled people and helpers that can implement things like this.

May I make a suggestion as to what you can do? I would suggest that you get in touch with the people who run The "Maker Fair" in Rome, and tell them your story and see if they would like to feature your inventions in some way. Also tell them Grumpy_Mike (friend of the two co-founders Massimo and David) sent you this message. I am very sure that they would have some ideas as to what to do.

As a lasting memorial I think it would be good to give each of the individual projects with full details and post them on the Showcase section of the forum. You would not have to do them all at once. Just one at a time as and when you have the time.

Hope that helps.
Mike

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I’m so sorry for your loss. A daughter with special needs was blessed to have a father with such a big heart.

The only suggestion I can offer is to consider reaching out to a local church which may be able to help provide support, or connect you with others who can.

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:cry:

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In case anyone else didn't catch this, here's the location in the original posting.

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Dear Mike,

Thanks for the suggestion of contacting Maker Faire Rome (that's the way they spell it). I'd like to do that, but I would rather open a conversation with an individual, rather than trying to find an appropriate link on their website. If you have the email address of someone there, could you share it with me? The most secure way to do that would be to go to https://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/ and send me a PM from there.

It is now past time to propose presenting this at the next Faire, and I am still too emotionally fragile to do so now, but I would certainly like to use their good offices to find someone who can use this equipment or can continue development along these lines. I have had some promising responses via other channels, but nothing yet definite.

The suggestion of posting details to the Showcase is a good one, but will have to wait. Right now I'm trying to help someone in Great Britain with design and programming for his wheelchair project, getting further info about the chair (and trying to find affordable shipping for it) to someone in Memphis, TN who is thinking about adapting it for patients at St. Jude's Hospital who otherwise won't have a chair.

But, everyone, don't stop suggesting things. I may not be able to use each one, but either I, or someone else wanting to help people with disabilities, might.

Ciao,
Lenny

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I can't offer any suggestions about re-using, but as the others have said, you have done over the odds to help your daughter.

If you can reach a wider audience, you might find a new user or users.

Just as a general comment, it is nice to hear that the Arduino project has been put to good use. Sometimes, the State, (NHS in the UK), does not or cannot help individuals, and you either have to buy in services or you do it yourself.

I had a similar situation where a close friend and partner was terminally ill. It was in the middle of Covid. She was desperately ill and the mechanism of getting support in was either too slow or restricted by the epidemic.

As she was living some distance away, and time was short, I installed a number of Sonoff devices to switch lights, check temperatures etc., and monitor remotely.

I think there is a real opportunity to harness the power of Arduino to help in these situations.

I personally benefit from having a Bluetooth enabled heart pacemaker that can use the phone connectivity to send data, an example of technology assisting healthcare. The pacemaker itself is an absolute example of technology making normal life possible.

Microcontroller, RTC, memory, algorithms, sensors (ECG, accelerometer, battery voltage, pulse generator etc.)

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The first installment of project details (for the wheelchair) is now posted at Projects/Showcase. It will be a good while until I can do something similar for the switch or gaze controlled voice output PC, but for that project the only Arduino bit is for the switch multiplexer that divides five switch inputs among chair driving, computer serial and general purpose outputs.

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