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A Different Approach in
Digital Hearing Aids:
BlameySaunders’ “Facett”
by Ross Tester
Having worn three different types of their hearing aids since 2011 when
BlameySaunders first entered the market, I was intrigued to find they
were once again launching a completely new model, with a slogan “Hear
Like Never Before”. What could be so different – after all, it’s only been 12
months or so since they introduced their brilliant Opus96 digital models?
T
he first thing you notice when
you open the Facett Hearing
Aids packaging is that the contents look quite different from previous models.
For a start, they don’t come with the
bulky “Sound-N-Dry” storage container with tiny beads that go everywhere
when the bag splits!
Instead, they have what they call a
“Pod”, a portable storage case/drier
which houses the hearing aids themselves. But is much more than a storage case and drier.
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Silicon Chip
For a start, it has a power socket on
the side – that’s used by the inbuilt
battery recharger.
Battery recharger?
Well, that’s certainly different – the
Facett uses rechargeable battery modules. That on its own is a very welcome change.
Each of the charged cell modules
will give up to 36 hours continuous
use.
Anyone who has used hearing aids
for a while will tell you that continuCelebrating 30 Years
ally buying replacement batteries is
more an inconvenience than a huge
cost – but a cost nevertheless.
For the common “312” size zinc-air
cells to suit the Opus96 (or the “13”
size to suit the Symphony), for a box
containing 60 cells I usually paid about
$25 for relatively unknown brands
and up to about $50 or so for brand
names, so somewhere between 40c
and $1.00 each.
But every now and then (eg, when
I forgot to take a battery pack with me
on holidays!) I had to buy a pack from
siliconchip.com.au
Woolies or Coles to get me through –
and these could be as much as $10-$12
for a 6-pack! $2 each? Ouch!
Incidentally, you can get really
caught out buying hearing aid batteries on-line if you don’t read the “fine
print”: I found a pack of 18 batteries
for $7.57 on ebay – plus $90.14 postage! (That’s only about $5.40 EACH!
Ouch2!).
Zinc-air batteries start discharging
as soon as you remove their sticker,
which allows air to enter and “activate” them. Then they only last a
few days.
Perhaps even worse, the tiny disposable batteries act like a magnet to toddlers – straight into the mouth!
While zinc-air batteries are not supposed to be as dangerous as lithium
cells (which have caused severe injuries and even deaths when swallowed)
I still wouldn’t like to take the chance
of zinc-airs being swallowed.
But back to the Facett: it uses tiny
silver-zinc rechargeable cell modules
which instantly attach, magnetically,
to the hearing aid “core”.
This also causes the tiny contacts
on the cell to mate with the contacts
on the core.
And being magnetic, they will only
attach one way (if you try to put them
on back-to-front they will instantly
“flip” to the right way – driven, of
course, by the strong magnetic field).
You only have to get the cell module close to the core – say 10mm – and
they instantly snap into place.
That same magnet-based connection is used when charging the cells
in the pod. When inserted, LEDs in
the pod flash green as the cells are
being charged, switch to solid green
to show they are charged, or turn red
if there is a problem (eg, cells won’t
take a charge).
There are four charging “ports” in
the pod as well as two “idle ports”
–they (magnetically, again) hold the
cell modules without charging them
– so you can have two charged modules ready for use while charging up
to four modules.
It takes around eight hours to charge
a cell module from flat so overnight is
the go, much like my mobile phone (or
even my electric car!).
The pod is powered, via a portal in
the end, from a 5V source – either a
USB outlet on a PC, tablet or laptop,
or the 5V mains adaptor (supplied).
To connect, a standard USB-to-micro
siliconchip.com.au
Three of the battery modules are shown in charging positions; the left-hand
one is in the “idle port” (for storage). The “core” modules are the hearing aids
themselves – the Red speaker is for the right ear, the bLue speaker for the left.
USB cable is also supplied.
As we mentioned earlier, the pod
also stores, and keeps dry, the two
hearing aid cores themselves, also held
in position magnetically.
To keep the hearing aids dry, a replaceable desiccant clips into the top
of the pod. As with all desiccants, it
warns you not to eat it . . .
Emergency batteries
Having extolled the virtues of the
rechargeable cell modules, what if
you are out the back of Woop Woop
for a few weeks and have no access
to power?
Admittedly, that would be pretty
rare these days, especially with most
cars having 5V USB sockets, or solar
chargers for mobile phones and the
like (which would obviously charge
the Facett hearing aid modules) but
it is possible.
BlameySaunders have foreseen this
situation and will soon have an optional cell module which does accept traditional (size 13) hearing aid batteries.
Celebrating 30 Years
But we have to say this is something
that we wouldn’t be concerned about.
Bluetooth link
Also on the drawing board and
due to go on sale later this year will
be a wireless (Bluetooth) link which,
among other things, transmits audio
from a mobile phone, media player,
etc, direct to the Facett hearing aids.
It will also help in carrying out a
conversation in background noise and
even let you change some of the Facett parameters (volume, for instance)
from a smartphone or similar device.
But as we said, this is in the future.
Physically . . .
The Facett hearing aid, with attached battery, is slightly larger and
heavier than the Opus96: 23 x 7mm
and 2.4g for the Opus96, 31 x 8mm
and 4.0g for the Facett.
While this might sound significant
(particularly the weight), in both cases,
I forget that I’m wearing them within a
few minutes. In fact, that can be a trap
April 2018 71
Straight outa the box . . . or in this case, only the Pod, complete with the Facett
charging dock with hearing aid “cores”, the battery modules (4), the dessicant
(it slots into the circular retainer in the lid) and instructions.
for young players – a few times I’ve
nearly dived into the pool or jumped
under the shower wearing my hearing
aids – fortunately, nearly!
I trialled the gold-coloured Facetts;
they are also available in silver, grey
and charcoal colours. Obviously, the
Facett gets its name from the multifacetted case design.
There is only one control as such on
the Facett but it serves a dual purpose.
It is an up/down volume control when
pressed briefly; hold the toggle button
in and it switches between the normal
(“Everyday”) program and programs
which you enter yourself, such as in
a crowd, or watching sport, or watching TV, for example.
(We’ll look at programming the Facett shortly).
The control reverts to volume when
the Facett is turned off (ie, the battery
is disconnected – there is no on/off
switch as such).
Inside the hearing aid
According to BlameySaunders, the
electronics in the hearing aid are not
overly different to the Opus 96 models released last year.
Those hearing aids were highly
innovative – digital processing (of
course!) with 96 channels, multi-channel adaptive directional microphone
and so on.
I remember saying at the time they
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were a noticeable improvement over
the previous models, which I reviewed
in March 2013.
The main innovation in the new
Facett hearing aids is in the construction and battery connection, and that
IS highly innovative, as mentioned
earlier.
BlameySaunders engineers told
me that given the short window of
opportunity, they’ve used that time
to “up-spec” and tweak the circuitry
and components in the Facetts, making them the best that (current) technology allows.
So the improvements they’ve made
earn the Facetts the title of “flagship”
in the BlameySaunders fleet.
Virtually invisible
One of the advantages of “behind the
ear” hearing aids, with their “speaker in ear” (SIE), is that they are for all
intents and purposes invisible – especially for ladies with longer hair
which may cover the ears (and therefore hearing aid).
Wearing hearing aids is sometimes
equated with “getting old” and many
people are reluctant to admit that, despite what the calendar says!
(The alternative is also true . . . continually saying “eh?” or “waddya say?”
is also a sure sign of deteriorating hearing/ageing!)
From the hearing aid itself, there is
Celebrating 30 Years
a tiny (~1mm) clear tube which goes
from behind the ear to the front and
follows the contour of the ear, with the
miniature (~11mm long x 3mm diameter) speaker at the end.
Some users prefer to simply place
this inside the ear canal; others prefer
to use one of the (supplied) ear tips
which simply slide over the end of
the SIE and lodge the speaker a little
more firmly in the canal.
Personally, I find this has both disadvantages and advantages: I find
the ear tips take a little getting used
to, making me continually think that
there is something in my ear (which,
of course, there is!).
The advantage is that external
sound, which hasn’t been processed
or tailored by the hearing aid, is to
some extent blocked.
This can be a real boon in a noisy
environment/crowd/etc, especially
if you set up a program to tailor the
sound appropriately.
Apart from the half dozen or so
spare tips, in various sizes, supplied
to suit the Facett, different size tips
are available from BlameySaunders.
They recommend fresh ear tips every
4-6 weeks.
Some of the ear tips have holes in
them which allows some “natural”
sound to enter as well as that from
the hearing aids, while other tips are
solid, blocking any sound/noise not
processed by the hearing aid.
The “Everyday” program
Even if you have no intention of
buying hearing aids, you can check
your hearing without obligation using
BlameySaunders’ “Speech Perception
Test”. See the panel “On-line Speech
Perception Test”.
You might be surprised to find that
your “perfect” hearing ain’t necessarily so!
If you do go ahead and purchase
BlameySaunders hearing aids, they
use the results of the Speech Perception Test to program them with the
“Everyday” program your hearing
aids starts with when they are turned
on (you actually hear them say “Everyday”).
Therefore, every “Everyday” program is unique, tailored to your hearing loss. No two people will have exactly the same losses or requirements.
Hearing Loop
By the way, there is a second “prosiliconchip.com.au
gram” automatically loaded into the
Facetts, selected by holding down the
up/down button. That accesses the
“Hearing Loop” or “Telecoil” function.
We covered Hearing Loops in detail
in a DIY series published in September
and October 2010 (siliconchip.com.
au/Series/11) but in a nutshell, a Hearing Loop is a large coil of wire placed
around a meeting room/auditorium/
theatre/church/etc, fed by a relatively
high-powered amplifier.
These loops are designed to allow
the program, service, etc which others are listening to via a PA system to
be directly induced into hearing aids
fitted with the appropriate firmware.
Hearing Loops are now installed in
many, if not most public buildings and
this trend is expected to continue for
the vast majority of new public buildings in the future.
Most hearing loops are installed
in a building hidden in walls, under
floors, etc and where they are present
you will see a blue and white hearing
loop logo.
Often, signs inside the building will
tell you exactly where the hearing
loop is situated – you have to sit inside the loop for it to work with your
hearing aids.
The Telecoil part is slightly different but works much the same way –
this refers to special telephones designed to amplify incoming calls and
This shot gives you
the relative sizes
of the hearing aid
“core” (the right one
in this case with its
red speaker) and
its battery module.
This was about as
close as I could
get them without
them magnetically
“snapping” together.
induce the signal direct to hearing
aids. Again, they are intended for the
hearing impaired.
IHearYou/Incus-M
As we mentioned, the Everyday
program relies on the words you recognised in the on-line test – and while
it’s much better than a tone-based test,
it’s not entirely foolproof.
For example, you might be distracted while listening and miss a word or
two, or your speaker/headphone setup
might not be quite up to scratch.
You only get one bite at the cherry –
or in this case, one listen. And if you
miss it . . .
The analysis software used by
BlameySaunders may well treat this
as a hearing deficiency and adjust the
program parameters accordingly.
In this case, you’ll want to adjust
the Everyday program. Or you might
want to add your own programs to suit
your particular requirements, as we
mentioned earlier. You can add up to
three more programs.
You do this by means of BlameySaunders’ “IHearYou” software (a
free download) in conjunction with
the Incus-M programmer, supplied
with your hearing aids. IHearYou is
available for Windows, Android and
Mac platforms and suits PC, tablets or
smartphones.
The Incus-M is slightly different
from the earlier Incus programmer –
the earlier models have a flexible flat
cable (FFC) which must be inserted
the right way around into the hearing
aids. To be honest, I found this rather
fiddly and despite instructions, managed to insert them back-to-front on
more than one occasion.
The Incus-M has the same magnetic “instant connection” as the battery
modules making instant, positive connection.
Now you just bring the Incus-M cable ends close to the core modules
and they snap into place (red for right
hearing aid, blue for left, just like everything else).
When you’ve done that, you can set
the balance between ears (that’s where
my Everyday program was most deficient) overall volume levels and so on.
Incidentally, we looked at the Incus programmer in some detail in our
September 2014 issue (siliconchip.
com.au/Article/8005). There are a few
updates but overall operation is very
similar.
A few teething problems – or
is it the nut on the keyboard?
The Incus-M programmer with its core connection cables, the USB power cable
above and 230V USB adaptor at right. The Bluetooth module worked perfectly
with my Android phone but so far, steadfastly refuses to talk to my PC!
siliconchip.com.au
Celebrating 30 Years
Even having gone through this procedure last year with the Opus96
hearing aids, I had a lot of difficulty
getting my PC to recognise the Bluetooth “dongle” supplied by BlameySaunders.
Despite spending considerable time
April 2018 73
with Sophie from BlameySaunders
and, indeed, one of their techs actually taking control of my computer remotely from Melbourne (with TeamViewer software), the problem is as
yet unresolved.
I am fairly certain the problem is
at my end, something my computer
doesn’t want to do – even if I sit and
yell at it!
No problem, though, when we tried
the alternative: using my (Android)
mobile phone. It found the Bluetooth
hardware immediately, loaded their
“IHearYou” software and then allowed
me to program the hearing aids easily,
using the Incus-M.
The range of adjustments is quite extensive, ranging from setting the overall volume (using five tones) by sliding
control bars on the phone screen, setting the balance between those tones
in a similar way, adjusting the sensitivity for minimal feedback, changing
the parameters so that certain sounds
wouldn’t be too loud or too soft, and
so on.
This is all quite self-explanatory
once you’re in the software – we’ve
shown a few screen grabs to give you
some idea of what is happening.
Okay, what’s the verdict?
Every time I’ve road-tested a new
model hearing aid from BlameySaunders, I’ve been impressed with the improvement.
Sure, in some cases it’s only little
improvements between models but
those little steps add up to quite a
The home screen on my
Android phone which
gives access to all the other
programming functions.
74
Silicon Chip
significant upgrade – an upgrade well
worth making.
On the Facetts, the first thing I noticed was the feedback (or more to the
point, the lack thereof). I’m not sure
what the engineers have done to make
such an improvement in this area, but
it was really noticeable.
The second was the ease-of-use. I’ve
already covered the battery connection
and charging, and also the single up/
down control – these two things alone
make for a real improvement.
Third is that “pod” – yes, it is the
recharger but it’s also well thought out
for hearing aid storage and drying as
well as recharging.
And the fourth was simply the clarity: they just seemed to make sound
clearer. I’ve commented in the past that
television program voices, particularly female voices and more particularly on UK-originated shows, have
always sounded somewhat muffled
to me. The Facetts have largely overcome that problem.
As far as the improvement of the
Facetts over the Opus96, I’m sure there
was a marginal improvement in the
new model.
Maybe, in the normal course of
events, it might not be enough to convince me to upgrade. After all, even at
the prices BlameySaunders sell their
hearing aids for, hearing aids are certainly not cheap!
But even if it was ONLY that new
rechargeable and so easy-to-use battery system – and the amount of money I would save by not forever buying
Selecting Balance Loudness
reveals these five tone bars
– simply slide them along
until they all sound level.
throw-away batteries – I’d upgrade to
the Facett hearing aids in a heartbeat!
It really is that much of a breakthrough!
And they look pretty fancy, too . . .
What’s in the box?
When you receive your Facett kit,
you’ll not only find the two hearing
aid cores, four rechargeable battery
modules and the charger/storage Pod,
but the Incus-M programmer will also
be included (elsewhere, if such a device is offered at all, it can be several
hundred dollars extra).
Along with this, there is a selection of ear tips, wax-stop plugs and
cleaning equipment plus, of course,
instructions.
And speaking of instructions, if
there is anything that’s not overly clear,
I have to report that the phone assistance is outstanding!
They patiently took me through
some of the less obvious features (eg,
how to virtually eliminate feedback
or how to minimise sudden, sharp
sounds). They were also the ones that
told me about the Telecoil function
which I’d missed completely.
If you go on-line (www.blameysaunders.com.au) in working hours,
the chances are very high that someone will pop up in a chat window and
ask if you need any help (and they do
– help, that is!).
If you’re not sure which hearing
aids you need, they’ll help you with
that decision without applying the sort
of pressure you’d get in a shop-front
hearing aid store to “upsize”, as the
There are some quite
specialised controls under
“Fine Tuning” such as this
“Quieten Sharp Sounds”.
Celebrating 30 Years
Switching programs allows
you to set up (and tailor)
individual programs to suit
your particular needs.
siliconchip.com.au
fast food retailers like to say.
If you just want to browse, or view
information, just ignore the chat.
How much, where from:
If you’ve priced hearing aids lately, you’ll know that many shop-front
hearing “specialists” (and they seem
to be popping up everywhere!) can
quote you around $12,000 per pair for
good digital models – and often more.
The Facett hearing aid package from
BlameySaunders will cost you exactly
half that amount – $5990 per pair – a
not inconsiderable amount of money,
to be sure, but that is for one of the most
advanced hearing aids on the market.
BlameySaunders still have all three
of the hearing aid packages available
which we’ve reviewed over the years
in SILICON CHIP – the “Symphony” 32
Channel, entry level hearing aid at
$1415 each/$2830 per pair (reviewed
in July 2011 [siliconchip.com.au/
Article/1066]); the SIE-Plus 64 Channel mid-range at $2770 each/$5440
per pair (March 2013 [siliconchip.
com.au/Article/3299]); or the (until now!) top-of-the-line 96 Channel
Opus-96 at $2635 each or $5270 per
pair (May 2017 [siliconchip.com.au/
Article/10653]).
And yes, you can buy individual
hearing aids if (a) you don’t need two
– but BlameySaunders will tell you
that if you need one, the odds are you
do need two! Or (b) you’ve managed
to misplace one – or, as I mentioned
when I reviewed the Opus 96 hearing aids, our schnauzer decided one
looked like a little bone and . . .
Don’t forget, too, that private health
insurance funds usually offer rebates
on hearing aids – the better funds about
$1200; others can be quite miserly!
Checking Your Hearing Online
BlameySaunders maintain that there are five key indicators that your hearing is not all
it should be (or once was!).
(1): You find it hard to follow a conversation in a crowded room or restaurant.
(2): You feel that people are always mumbling.
(3): People complain about the volume you set the TV or radio to.
(4): You find it easier to understand men’s voices than those of women and children.
(5): You often experience ringing or whistling in your ears.
If you recognise any (all?!!!) of these, maybe it’s time your hearing was professionally checked.
You can go to a shop-front hearing aid retailer who will, most likely, put you through
a series of tones asking you to push a button when you can either hear, or not hear, the
tones. From this, they produce an “audiogram” which graphs the levels you can hear at
various frequencies.
The problem with this is it is very subjective: eg,“did I really hear that?” And then follows, of course, the pressure to purchase hearing aids that are often way overpriced!
Everyone in audiology and hearing science is aware of the inadequacies of the pure
tone audiogram. All that tells you is how softly you can hear beep sounds. From there,
the tester has to try and explain why you are having trouble hearing.
The pure tone audiogram’s role should be only the first part of trying to find out the
medical cause of your hearing difficulty – it takes a trained professional to determine
the actual cause.
Instead of pure tones, BlameySaunders developed a “Speech Perception Test”. You
listen to a randomised list of 50 phonemically-balanced English words and type what you
hear in the box provided on screen. They measure the words you hear or miss against
the speech features that make up each word (eg, phonation, resonance, intonation, pitch,
sibilants, vowels, hard and soft consonants etc). This is analysed to give the information
needed to set up your hearing aids but also tells you how much difficulty you have with
the different sounds of speech. This clinically-proven test enables them to generate an
accurate report on the real-world speech sounds you are able to hear.
You can do the BlameySaunders Speech Perception Test online, anytime, without obligation. All you need is a relatively quiet room with good speakers or headphones connected to your PC. The test generates a report which will be emailed to you within ten
minutes or so.
Whether you decide to go ahead and invest in hearing aids after receiving this report
is entirely up to you. If you do decide, they’ll guide you all the way.
Simply go to the BlameySaunders.com.au website and you’ll be greeted with a “Test
Your Hearing” splash screen. From there, follow the prompts.
Where to buy
You can buy on-line from the same
website with a 100% money-back guarantee. Or, if you’re in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane, you can book an appointment at any of the BlameySaunders clinics (addresses and even location maps are on the website; all three
are in or near the heart of the cities).
You can also do the Speech Perception Test at those centres and, of
course, have explained to you the different types of hearing aids and their
SC
features.
Acknowledgement: Our thanks to Dr Sophie
Brice from BlameySaunders for her assistance.
siliconchip.com.au
Celebrating 30 Years
April 2018 75
Using Cheap Asian Electronic Modules Part 15: by Jim Rowe
The ESP-01 WiFi
Data Transceiver
The ESP-01 is a very popular WiFi transceiver module based on the
ESP8266 IC; which is designed to allow almost any microcontroller
to connect to a WiFi network. To make this as easy as possible, the
chip is programmed to respond to Hayes AT modem text commands.
As well, the chip can be re-programmed to perform a variety of
different tasks.
W
iFi networking has been around
now for 20 years, after being
adopted as a standard protocol in 1999
– the same year the WiFi Alliance
was formed. Since then it has grown
steadily in popularity, especially in
mobile devices. It’s also quite handy
for wirelessly connecting computers
to routers/modems and peripherals
like printers.
Responding to this growth in WiFi
popularity, in mid-2013, Chinese semiconductor manufacturer Espressif
Systems (based in Shanghai) released
its ESP8266 chip. This is a complete
SOC (system on a chip), combining a
32-bit RISC (reduced instruction set
computer) microcontroller with a full
TCP/IP (internet protocol) stack and all
of the components needed for a WiFi
data transceiver.
But the ESP8266 didn’t really make
an impression in the Western world
until 2014, when another Chinese
firm, AI-Thinker, released its ESP-01
WiFi transceiver module. This was
based on the ESP8266, but what made
it particularly popular was its cost at
less than $4.00.
So the ESP-01 module and the
ESP8266 chip are not new; they’ve
been around for over three years. In
fact, Geoff Graham wrote an article
on using the ESP-01 module in the
December 2014 issue of Silicon Chip,
titled “The $5 WiFi Server”.
76
Silicon Chip
The ESP8266 has since been used in:
■ a WiFi Christmas light controller
(Circuit Notebook, December 2016,
siliconchip.com.au/Article/10486);
■ as a data logger that uploads to the
cloud (September 2017, siliconchip.
com.au/Article/10804);
■ in the Water Tank Level Meter in
the February 2018 issue (siliconchip.
com.au/Article/10963);
■ and most recently, the NTP Time
Adaptor for GPS Clocks that we just
published in this issue.
Those projects actually featured
different modules based around the
ESP8266 chip; there are dozens of
different boards, many of them designed to be compatible with the
Arduino system. Most of the information in this article regarding the
ESP-01 applies equally to those other
ESP8266-based modules.
We are taking a closer look at the
ESP-01 module and ESP8266 chip
here since they have numerous WiFi
Celebrating 30 Years
and “Internet of Things” (IoT) applications.
As an aside, Espressif has recently
released a follow-up to the ESP8266
chip: the ESP32 series, which incorporate WiFi & dual-mode Bluetooth
transceivers and dual-core micros.
Although modules using the ESP32
chips have started to appear, their prices are significantly higher than that of
the ESP-01 at around $9.00. But the
ESP-01 still has some other advantages, such as lower power usage in some
situations. This has renewed interest
in the ESP-01, especially since it’s the
easiest way to get started with WiFi at
the lowest cost.
About WiFi
WiFi is a technology for wireless
local area networking, with devices
complying with the IEEE 802.11 protocol standards. A large part of this is
based on a patent (US5487069) developed at the CSIRO in Australia, by a
siliconchip.com.au
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