Minidisc & transcription

[DrSiddons]

My friend is a blind priest who records his sermons to a cassette recorder in preperation for giving a sermon. When giving the sermon, he uses a foot pedal to start and stop a portable tape player that plays his tape. He wears an earphone to hear the tape. His equipment is old and breaking. I'm hoping to introduce him to the minidisc technology.

Is there a foot pedal controller that works with a minidisc recorder?

Thanks in advance.

DrSiddons

[bogon07]

Could he use a remote with the minidisc? With the unit in his coat pocket and wires running down his sleeve.

[DrSiddons]

Yes. Presently he puts the tape unit in his pocket, has the earphone cord run under his shirt and has a foot pedal on the floor (with the cord running up to his pocket). He's used to working with wires.

DrS

I just re-read your post. He wants to use a foot pedal.

DrS

[atrain]

might have to be designed for him then. have you ever seen a knob remote? they are a lot more tactile. someone here should be able to get a pic or model no.

[Ishiyoshi]

Is there a foot pedal controller that works with a minidisc recorder?

Perhaps these --> IP-MDT MiniDisc Transcriber or Sony MDCC-2000

[Avrin]

A person with soldering skills can easily connect the pedal to the PLAY/PAUSE button contacts inside a remote. This is not much harder than connecting the pedal to the tape player.

A cheap RM-MC60 remote will work just fine.

Edited June 4, 2006 by Avrin

[dex Otaku]

If I'm not mistaken, a foot pedal was made for the [still being produced] "court reporter's" model of standard MD, which was made specifically for transcription purposes.

Unfortunately I don't know the model # off the top of my head, but I do believe that of the 2 models I recall being like this, both were silver, fairly large even for MD, and had a built-in speaker. One also had a 2nd MD recorder in it specifically for duplicating/2nd-copying [for legal purposes] recordings as they were being made [this model I believe is NOT made any more].

In any case, Avrin is correct in that a foot pedal could be fashioned using a cable from any Sony MD remote - caveat being that recording would have to be started on the unit, the remote being for pause/unpause and stop only during recording.

[The Low Volta]

I guess as it's meant for playback (the tapes/MDs are recorded in advance) dex, so the lack of recording functions from the foot-pedal wouldn't be a big deal

perhaps one of our soldering wizzards wants to try this as a 'project' and help this guy out

[dex Otaku]

I guess as it's meant for playback . . .

I missed that part.

* Thou shalt not reply to forum posts after drinking a whole bottle of grenache-shiraz.

[dwissl]

The MZ-B100 is a minidisc dictation recorder with a built-in stereo microphone and a built-in speaker. A footswitch for the unit is available separately.

[Avrin]

The MZ-B100 costs a small fortune. An MZ-RH710, which costs four times less, is more than enough. And its remote may also be modified.

The sad thing here is that a blind person will not be able to record on an MD unit without an assistant (which is not the case for a cassette recorder with mechanical controls). This will not be a problem for, say, a blind musician. But recording sermons in the presence of another person may be quite uncomfortable.

Edited June 5, 2006 by Avrin

[yoda_143]

I built one of those once. Constructing remotes for Sony portables is very easy, anyone with basic soldering skills can do it. If you need any instructions on how to do it, I'd be happy to provide them.

[atrain]

if you could post or link them yoda that would be fantastic. it may come in useful for more than one person then.

[yoda_143]

Well the only thing you really need to know to build something like that is that the "play/pause" command is given to the player by closing the circuit between pin2 and pin4 on the remote connector with a resistance of 330ohms between both pins. Although you might want to put a second 5ohms resistor inline, otherwise variances in resistors might cause a drop below 330ohms and the command will not be recognised. You are aiming for somewhere around 335-345ohms.

basic layout would be:

pedal--------------------------pin2

|

|

330ohms---5ohms-----------pin4

[Russell Letson]

The MZ-B100 costs a small fortune. An MZ-RH710, which costs four times less, is more than enough.

The B-100 runs $350 from Minidisco; the B10 runs $250. Both accept the Sony footswich. According to the equipment browser, the RH710 lacks a mike input. The B10's control layout might be easier for a blind person to operate than the B100's, but either would probably be workable.

[dwissl]

The MZ-B100 and B10 are the most accessible for blind people, because their record button stays pressed while one records and pops out, when the recording stops. So if the recorder has to stop, because the battery is flat and the recording person then touches the record button, it becomes immediately clear, that the recording has been stopped. In environments with little noise, one can even hear the recording button when it pops out.

The B100 has a mic sense switch and a sound button, one has to use the menu of the B10 to use these functions on it. Also the B100 has a built-in stereo microphone. If one wants to set the recording mode, one can set the machine to record pause mode, press the rec mode button and listen: If the output is monaural, one is in mono mode. One can then cound: Mono, stereo, LP2, LP4. ON the B10, this is only possible by connecting a stereo mic to the recorder. In my opinion, the B100 is definitely worth the money, if one wants better accessibility.