The Precursor Begins Shipping, and the Blind-Friendly Braille Variant Receives Functional Software

Noted maker Andrew "bunnie" Huang has confirmed shipping of the long-delayed open-hardware RISC-V Precursor handheld — and at the same time revealed a variant boasting a Braille keyboard for blind users.

Huang unveiled the Precursor in late 2020 as a smartphone-like gadget with physical keyboard, compact display, and processor based on the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture. The device was an offshoot of an earlier project to build a highly-secure messenger, and carried across a heavy focus on security — as well as an entirely open nature, complete with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) at its heart allowing for on-the-fly upgrades to its capabilities.

Shipping of the crowdfunded device, however, has been delayed owing to component shortages and the ongoing supply chain issues affecting the world. For those who backed the project, good news: The wait is now over. "As of the time of writing," Huang says, "most but not all of the crowdfunding orders had tracking numbers issued; hopefully, by the end of this week, the rest of the post-campaign pre-orders will have been shipped as well."

That the initial orders are being fulfilled is one thing, but Huang isn't resting on his laurels. At the same time as confirming shipment, Huang has shown off functional software for a variant of the device, which ditches the screen and BlackBerry-like keyboard in favor of a Braille variant aimed at blind users.

"In the past couple of weeks," Huang writes, "I managed to pick up the Braille edition again and finish an initial draft of a text-to-speech implementation, as well as tape out a revision of the PCB that uses some brand-new, low-profile mechanical scissor switches that came on the market sometime in the last year.

"I’m glad that I will soon be able to fulfill my overdue promise to Matt Campbell, the original blind developer who reached out to me and inspired this work, and send him a prototype with a Braille keyboard and a basic text-to-speech engine so he can offer further guidance and help on how to improve the user experience."

More details on the project, including a lengthy write-up of how ongoing global issues will affect Precursor availability going forward, can be found on the Precursor Crowd Supply campaign page.