Self programming where to get hard- and software

cs44 cables and cs53 flex strips?

Could somebody sticky this thread? There’s a lot of good info in here.

Just curious does anyone know if the AHPro 3 programmer provided by America Hears compatible with other software . Specifically the Resound Aventa 2.7 software ?

I don’t think so. I asked Susan from America Hears at one time about programing a Dot 30 aid. I was going to try but didn’t want to short something out on the dot 30 aid.

An alternative? Spend just $995 on an America Hears unit. You will get programming sofware, the cables and, as an extra added bonus, an excellent hearing aid, as well!!:

Then, donate your present (unprogrammable) hearing aid to charity and deduct its full cost on your income tax! This would cover most of the cost of your second America Hears hearing aid (Depending on your tax rate).

Edit: Oh, BTW, you can then take the cost of all the hearing aids as a medical deduction next year!

I, for one, and a few others , for all kinds of reasons have decided to use aids other than AH. If approached in a reasonable way even the hipro route can be feasible, and in the long run allow more options. In 05-06 after the Savia Art came out there were numerous original Savias on ebay that sold in the $400. to $500. range for a pair. This is almost the same time that the AH adro aids came out. I remember having the choice but had already pretty much decided on the phonak because I had heard their programming options were very flexable.
I actually had a guy give me a pair of resound metrix mx-60 also. At the time they were resounds best. For me they did not compare to the savias.
Given that the exelias have already been upgraded to the exelia art with the only real upgrade being the frequency compression option, the price of the old exelia will start approaching their real value.
The only tech latest greatest feature that I buy into as far as being a solution for more than just some, would be possibly the speed of the processor, and can I say ram. Of course no manufacturer seems to give anything but anecdotal numbers. Beyond that it might be how many options are available in the software, and how clean the sound is.

The same screwed up system that took you to ah took me to the hipro route.

There was a guy on this forum who purchased a pair of savia arts for $6-700.
That was a great price, and I thought about them myself but money being what it is, and the fact that I am still pleased with the savias made me not go there. In a years time the original exelia will be worth $1000 a pair. Edit probably $2000, people having paid 6
It will not be the blutooth feature that will make me want them.

Hello,
I have got one Noahlink to program my hearing Aids.
Because I´m in a trial phase I try differed Types of hearing aids.

The Noahlink works well together with widex compass and widex passion.
The programming is easy to learn and the fitting is fine.

Now I try to do the same with Phonak IPFG 2.3 and Audeo yes IX
I have a programming cable oticon 3 that seems to fit to the Phonak
But the IPFG does not come into contact with the hearing aid.

Is there any one who knows if there is a difference between the programming cables oticon 3 and that one from phonak?

Does any one know which pin from noah link is routed to which pin of the hearing aid?

Perhaps some one could do me a favor and give me a little drawing of the wiring?

thanks a lot

from Germany

@shan said:

If approached in a reasonable way even the hipro route can be feasible, and in the long run allow more options.

It’s good to see someone who has had success going this route. Feasible yes, simple, no. What did the hipro set you back ($)? I’m assuming you need a new cable for each insument you get, how much are they? The software is the toughest part I think. It sounds like you went completely without going through a fitter. When I looked at this route the manufacturers software was not even available for sale, it had to be bootlegged. My old audie offered to set me up to go this route, she would get the gear (no markup) & bootleg the software. But when all was done and said, the ‘full support’ price through the audie plus the $1000 for the hardware just did not make sense when compared to AH.

So in a few years if I get an itch for a new instrument, I’m guessing the delivery model for instruments will not be changed much and I’ll be comparing AH against the hipro again. Assuming you can get the software and cable, the world will be at your feet with your hipro!

There are a few seriuos technical people banging around the internet who are HI. I always though it would be a fun project for us to reverse engineer the hipro hardware and post the artwork + bill of material on the internet for free. We could also start selling complete units for $75 (this would even give us a couple bucks for our time). In fact one of these propeller heads had already looked inside of one. Now that I think back, his name was Jim, would that be you jchunter from hohadvocates?

I’m sure if you put the firmware from a hipro in public domain, you would be slapped with an injunction within a week. I don’t know for a fact, but I have this sneaking suspision that the hipro firmware does not do much anyways & the brains are in the host program.

It was a lot of trouble, There was an Oticon rep on a different forum who had some items he wanted to sell. I gave him $400 for a hipro, and for a pair of syncro aids and numerous other, maybe 2 other pair of siemens cic aids. He sent me the aids but never came thru with the hipro. Instead he sent me a pair of the Metrix aids. I rationalized that all was even enough and moved on.
About that time the savia’s became available and I purchased them first fit on ebay $450. w/remote, from England. At the time I was wearing a pair of siemens prisma 2 P w/vc.
I had all these aids but no hipro. I called hearing aid repair companys and ran across a guy who would talk to me, who was willing to trade my syncros, prismas, and two sets of cic’s for a hipro, cables and software for the metrix and savia aids. We actually had some mutual acquaintances, small world and lucky. Money wise I was in good shape, but what a lot of aggravation and energy expended.
During this time frame there were few ebay hipros offered. It seems now they are there all the time, probably because of the newer usb hipro.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280336058724&viewitem=6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120408913209&viewitem=3
One of these will sell for around $4-500. , probably the one listed in the business and industrial section. (harder to find) perhaps until now
I will sometimes search for items thru this site even though it mostly gets back to ebay, but it filters thru more catagories.

nationalstate.com3

This domain may be for sale!

The ripoff cables seem to be available at a site mentioned previously in this thread.
The software for most manufacturers seems to come online for download one place or another. People who find access don’t sell it but typically share it. or at least the access to it.

When I first got into my little venture, I had Internet people just volunteer to help.
Zafdor, this does not at all apply to you, but I have often wondered why are so many AH users so angry ?

@zafdor said:

In fact one of these propeller heads had already looked inside of one. Now that I think back, his name was Jim, would that be you jchunter from hohadvocates?

Nope, not me… But I agreee that Hipro’s “brains” are in the software. It’s largely a box of air. However, if the software pushes the wrong bits into a hearing aid, it may not work properly. I would not go that way. :eek:

@pax576 said:

Thought I should report back on the ‘ripoff’ cables Shan mentioned. Previously, we located them here:
hearing-loss-help-co.com

I paid $52 via paypal for Phonak CS-44a cables plus shipping. A day later the guy emails me and says they might not be available, he would have to check w/ his ‘source’. Days and weeks go by and I finally ask for a refund after I send him several unacknowledged emails to follow up. The guy completely died on me! Bottom line, don’t waste your money there. He won’t deliver and he won’t give you a refund. His name is Curtis Dickinson.

I’m sorry he did not come thru. I was hoping there was finally somewhere making these things available.
I discussed a few months ago with the guy the fact that the CS-44 was not the same as the CS-44a. , (These are the only 2 cables I am first hand familiar with), he, back then, thought they were the same. He used to only list the cs-44, then his site changes and he claims to have access to all.
Has it been weeks since I posted that link? In any case I apologize. If you want, pm me and I can communicate with with the guy beyond his sales website. We are far from buddies but I can contact him

While I’m at it, It was inappropriate for me to bring up garbage from a different forum. Zafdor is such a reasonable guy, I thought I could ask.
I apologize again.

@zafdor said:

I
There are a few seriuos technical people banging around the internet who are HI. I always though it would be a fun project for us to reverse engineer the hipro hardware and post the artwork + bill of material on the internet for free. We could also start selling complete units for $75 (this would even give us a couple bucks for our time). In fact one of these propeller heads had already looked inside of one.

.

I am somewhat of a gadget guy but I couldn’t touch this
Here’s a patent drawing for a Hi-Pro which connects to a laptop via the PCMCIA slot. You can find it at
Patentgenius.com17.

I’ve seen pictures of AH and hearsource programmers, they are so small.
To an electrical engineer this might be a very simple drawing.

@shan said:

Zafdor, this does not at all apply to you, but I have often wondered why are so many AH users so angry ?

It no doubt has to do with the cost/delivery method of instruments. When a layperson is told an instrument is $2000, he thinks there is some magical expensive technology in it. The reality is it is ~$100 worth of hardware delivered by a system with lots of fat in it. AHs delivery method is lean and they want you to self program because it makes their overhead easier. This exposes the fact that there is no magic in these things, just high cost delivery system.

The smiling audie at the end of the chain seems to get a lot of angst from some AH users because they start clicking away on their Virtual Office and think they are now masters of hearing correction. They think the audie was a charlatan who just bilks people out of money for something they can do themselves. My opinion is different; audies (and even good fitters) have skills that a layperson cannot match due to having fit hundreds (or thousands) or patients and their lengthy studies, but some AH users will never admit to that! If you are referring to the hohadvocates board, yes that is pretty much a lynch mob. As a pretty happy AH user, I still have to keep my head down there because these instruments are far from perfect.

I´m from Germany, so sorry, if my wording is not the best.

I´m a engineer of electronics and have some experience about the costs of electronics of medical devices. From my opinion the manufacturing costs are less than 20$. Some of them may have exactly the same chip inside so the tooling costs decrease to a minimum.
For example you will get the chips and all the detail information here:
http://sounddesigntechnologies.com/products_DigitalProducts.php12
The additional hardware you´ll get here: http://www.pulseeng.com/index.php?99710

If there are some freaks to build up a public hard and software design for hearing aids and software I would be interested to come in contact with.

Because it need´s to much time for only a single individual to do the complete development of such a device I decided to buy existing hardware and using software offered by the vendors of the hearing aids.

Now I have a noahlink, a widex passion 115 and use the compass software.
All together I saved more than 1000$ of costs.
The fitting is perfect and easy to do with the compass.

A big shame to those people who makes so much money with disability of people. :mad: