Support Services Blog

Welcome to the HearSource Support Services Blog. Through this portal you will find a wealth of information on HearSource products.   Make sure you check back often as the information found here is always growing.   To navigate this blog, find the topics in the sidebar to the right side of your screen.  Content pertaining to specific topics will be continuously added and updated.  If  you have  any thoughts or ideas on topics relative to the personal programming of HearSource hearing aids or how to improve this site, please let us know at supportservice@hearsource.com.

Thanks

Your HearSource Support Team

Hearing Conservation and teaching people to be  aware of the possible damage to their hearing is  a ongoing issue.   In a world where its cool to turn up the music, listen to mp3 players,  and talk on  cell phones  raises the question, whats the effects of theses devices on  a persons hearing.

Its well recognized that exposure to excessive loud noise levels that exceed 80dB can harm a persons hearing.  In the work environment exposure to loud sounds is regulated and limits are set in place to ensure the saftey of workers ears.  The sound loudness  level  and length of time exposure are all contributing factors when it comes to hearing loss.

Common knowledge is  that music played to loud will effect a person hearing overtime.  People who listen to music through their Mp3 players are often listening for hours at a time.  Most Mp3 players can generate sound volume in excess of 80db and some models can generate sound as high as 120dB.   This volume of sound is equivalent to  a jet taking off.   Listening to sounds at this level can  trigger temporary hearing loss and overtime permanent hearing loss.  In September of 2009 the European Union is now taking a look at mandating manufactures to limit the output  of Mp3 players that are manufactured, and sold in Europe.   An EU scientific advisory body says that between 2.5 million and 10 million Europeans could suffer hearing loss from listening to MP3 players at unsafe volumes.  This is important to notice that a huge majority of that group are younger.

Its hard to convince people  especially kids to turn down their music.  Hearing loss can be very slow to notice.  In the hearing aid industry the numbers are growing as the generation of music lovers start to notice their hearing loss.  ”I think we need to see the writing on the wall and just turn down the music.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• EU to set volume limits on MP3 players (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Music player noise limit planned (news.bbc.co.uk)

Got my Telex aids back today.  WOW!  They are as good as brand new! Your professionalism & promptness is much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Sharon, AZ

Thank you for the quick service, I appreciate it.  You have gained a customer for the future.

-Donnalee  , NY

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Overall Gain Slider/ Volume Control

The HearSource hearing aid programming software features a Overall Gain Slider or Volume Control.  This slider adjusts the volume of the selected hearing aid higher (louder) or lower (softer). The number displayed to the left of the slider shows the set volume in a negative number.  This means that the negative number is the decibels lower from full on gain which is O .  The -25  is 25dB softer from full on gain.   Adjust this slider up for louder or down for softer.  When turning sounds softer or louder your applying the changes to all the frequencies equally.  If fine tuning of a specific frequency is needed then adjust the individual frequency in the 12 band equalizer.

hearing aid input selection

The HearSource hearing aid programming software is used with various hearing aid designs.  Through the Input Selection control it allows you to program the hearing to be used in omni microphone, directional microphone, telecoil, or direct audio input modes.   Your HearSource personal programmable hearing aids may come with one or a few of these modes.   It depends on your hearing aid style choice and options.   An example of this is a Completely-in-the-canal hearing aid style only has enough room in its casing  for one microphone called the omni microphone.   Another microphone would allow for directional processing but because of the space limitation in a CIC its not possible.

The diffrent modes are;

Omni Microphone is utilizing one microphone to take in the sound signal 360 degrees equally.  Omni microphones are very common and give very good results in the widest variety of environments.  Since its pick up polarity is 360 degrees focusing sound into the hearing aid is tough to achieve.

Directional microphone uses a second microphone to help sample and stage  the sound signal in a way that shifts the polarity of the incoming signal.  This allows a person using a directional microphone system to focus sound coming towards them at about a 45 degree angle.  Sounds outside of the 45 degrees will not be picked up by the microphone as easily.  The directional microphone system is often for increased understanding in more complex environments like restaurants, shopping marts, or church where you would look at a person whom your trying to communicate with.

The Telecoil is designed to be used as a telephone pick up.  A common problem while trying to use a hearing aid with a telephone is the hearing aid can feedback or whistle.  Switching on a telecoil allows the user to shut down the microphone  eliminating feedback and using the telecoil take in the signal from the telephone.  This is achieved by the telecoil acting like a antenna intercepting the EMF signals radiating from the telephones receiver.

Direct Audio inputs are usually associated with another coupling device that connects to the hearing aid.  Such devices would enable the hearing aid to pick up FM signals, or signals from a wired external auditory source.

This video/power point presentation  shows you how to attach an earmold to your BTE hearing aids.  Please click Attaching BTE Earmolds Video to play the video.

HearSource Fitting Software toolbar

The HearSource hearing aid fitting software features a icon toolbar at the top of the fitting softwares page.  This post will go into the details of this toolbar and the functionality of each icon button.  Notice that each icon on the toolbar is numbered 1 – 23.  We will use the number to identify the post section that correlates to the button from here on out.
1.  Exit Button –  The exit button closes the application without warning.  Please make sure that you program and save your data before clicking on the exit button.

2.  Back Button –  The back button will navigate to the previous screen which is the client information screen.  This information screen part of the software  gathers personal client information such as;  name,  address,  and audiogram information.   The back button is only highlighted for used when your currently in the hearing aid programming side of the software.

3.   Next Button – The next button is only highlighted when your current position is in the client information screen.   Clicking the next button loads the hearing aid programming screen.  If your hearing aids are connected through the eMiniTec the software will will automatically detect and read them.  If no hearing aids are detected the software will generate a error dialog.

4.  New Client Button – The new client button allows for easy creation of a new record.  This button will be used very rarely by HearSource clients only having to manage one record being their own.   Clicking the new client button moves you to a blank client information screen.  Be careful not to click this button while programming your hearing aids.   If done you run the risk of losing any unsaved data because of moving back into the client information screen.

5.  Open Client Button – The open client button will open a dialog displaying an alphabetical list of all the clients in the database.  Through this list you can pull up old data saved from previous hearing aid fitting sessions.   When loading an older  fitting session the Hearsource programming fitting screen will change to reflect the data now selected.  At this point the data can be loaded into the hearing aid.

6.  Save Button –  The save client button when clicked saves the information for the current open client file into the database.  After the initial first save from the hearing aid programming side of the software when clicking the save client button will generate a new dialog box.   When the client save session box pops up its asking how would you like your client session to be saved?
“Add new client session”  or “Update current client session”.
When adding a client session you are generating a new record of the fitting data timestamped from the time of the save.  This is useful when do adjustments over long periods of time.  If you ever lose you settings you can always pull up older fitting data to restore the settings.
When saving by updating current client session your overwriting any data on the current programming record.  This is nice when you come back to the software often to make little changes, but don’t want to create a whole new record.  Too many records can be hard to manage and become confusing.  Unfortunately there is no way to keep notes on the records in the software.  It might be a good idea to make a hard copy of notes that correlates back to the timestamped fitting data.  This may help manage and track this data.

7.  Delete  Client Button –   The delete client button deletes the current client record that your working with.  When this button is clicked a dialog message will pop up making sure you really want to delete the client.

8.  Print Client Button -  The print client button prints the values of the current records programming parameters.  Its always good to have a hard record of your fitting data!

9.  Lock Button –  The lock button is one of the most used buttons on the toolbar.  By clicking the lock button you move the loaded programming information thats currently in the hearing aid temporary memory and lock it into permanent memory.  When locking information this stores all the information for all programs for the  current hearing aid selected being right or left.  My personal experience allows me to believe by clicking the the lock button a couple of times makes sures the data gets set.

10.  Load button –  The load button is used every time to set the adjusted settings into the hearing aids temporary memory.  Remember any adjustment is not set until you load it into the hearing aid.  Most HearSource clients like to hear the changes to their hearing aids while they program them.  By loading the setting it allows for the client to hear those changes instantly.  If you ever get lost and want to start all over you can disconnect the power to the hearing aid.  This will reset the information thats stored in the permanent memory when power is brought back to the hearing aid.

11.  Read Button –  The read button allows you to pull the data thats currently set in the hearing aid.  By clicking the read button all the adjustment sliders available to the HearSource hearing aid programming software will reflect what the hearing aid is outputting.   The read button is particular useful when setting hearing aids with volume controls.  When adjusting the volume control you need to know the current output of the aid.  To find  this information you click the read button.

12.  Toggle Multi-curve View Button –  The multi-curve view button allows you to display the current snapshot of the saved curve into multi-curve buffer.  This is generally is used when trying to compare outputs from one program to another.  By clicking the save curve into multi-curve buffer button it saves the current sound output which is displayed in the output graph on the programming screen.  Now then if you clicked on another program you could display the output of the previous program by clicking this toggle multi-curve button.  This is really only to be used to display comparative output values on the output graph from one program to the other.  I use it a lot to help copy the settings from program to the other.  Since there is no copy and paste the dotted line that is displayed when the toggle multi-curve buffer is clicked it help me maneuver my equalizer sliders to match the output of the program that I’m trying to copy.

13.  Save Curve into Multi-Curve Buffer Button –  Clicking the Save curve into multi -curve buffer takes a snapshot of the current solid blue or red line on the output graph.  Then when clicking the toggle multi-curve button it displays the saved curve as a dotted red or blue line.  This is used to only compare output values on the graph from the solid blue and red line which is the current output of the hearing aid from the saved curves.

14.  Show 50/80 Curves Button –  Clicking the 50/80 curves button toggles the output curves on the output graph.  The 50 dB line represents soft to mormal sounds and the 80 dB curve represents the output for loud sounds.  This is really helpful while trying to set your compression.  The closer the 50/80 curves are the more compression you are using from the hearing aid.  Compression allows for you to set the limits of amplification for loud inputs.

15.  Left Ear Button –  The left ear button when clicked means you are currently adjusting for the left ear only.  Remember when programming your hearing aids your only programming for the right or left ear only.  If you wish to work with the other hearing aid just click the right ear button.

16.  Right Ear Button –  The right ear button when clicked means you are currently adjusting for the right ear only.  Remember when programming your hearing aids your only programming for the right or left ear only.  If you wish to work with the other hearing aid just click the left ear button.

17. Config ID Button –  Clicking the config ID button pops open a the config ID dialog box which displays options for how many programs the hearing aid needs,  frequency tones, and sets the low battery warning.

18. Autofit Active Program Button –  The autofit button uses the audiogram information previously gathered while in the client information screen.  Clicking the autofit button changes all the hearing aid programming sliders to sets a output curve that matches the clients target output based on their hearing loss.  I’ve found by setting this its a good place to start but its hardly right on the money!  From my experience the output tends to be underpowered.  I often times have to increase gain in the 12 band equalizer from 1kHz to 4.2kHz to get the desired effects for my clients.

19. Active Program 1 Button –  Clicking the program 1 button allows you to change the setting for only program 1.    Remember when loading and locking the settings into the hearing aids memory it does this for all programs at the same time.  There is no need to load and lock for every program.

20.  Active Program 2 Button –  Clicking the program 2 button allows you to change the setting for only program 2.   This program is an optional setting available through the config ID.   Remember when loading and locking the settings into the hearing aids memory it does this for all programs at the same time.  There is no need to load and lock for every program.

21.  Active Program 3 Button –  Clicking the program 3 button allows you to change the setting for only program 3.  This program is an optional setting available through the config ID.   Remember when loading and locking the settings into the hearing aids memory it does this for all programs at the same time.  There is no need to load and lock for every program.

22.  Active Program 4 Button –  Clicking the program 4 button allows you to change the setting for only program 4.  This program is an optional setting available through the config ID.  Remember when loading and locking the settings into the hearing aids memory it does this for all programs at the same time.  There is no need to load and lock for every program.

23.  Troubleshooting Guide  Button –  Clicking the troubleshooting guide button will pop up a dialog box that will help describe the issue and give a number of possible corrective adjustments.  Remember when you apply the settings and your adjustment sliders change you still have to load the settings into the hearing aid to hear the the change.

The HearSource hearing aid programming software gives extreme flexibilty in adjusting frequencies.  The FreeStyle OE BTE,  Symphron BTE, and the Jazzy ITC all have a 12 band equalizer associated to their ciruit models.  This allows the user to adjust their hearing aids with their own PC.  The range of frequencies that can be adjusted is  from 250Hz to 8kHz.  This is the range for speech and communication.   If you look at figure 1-A you can see the 12 band equalizer.

Figure 1-A 12 band equalizer

**Note the frequency labels above and below the frequency sliders are not in the HearSource programming software.  In the software if the cursor is hovered over the frequency slider nub it will identify the frequency.

To adjust the frequencies take the mouse cursor and click/hold the frequency slider nub and move up or down.  Also by clicking above or below the frequency slider nub  it will move the nub in the direction clicked by 1 hash mark.

Each hash mark on the frequency sliders is worth 3 dB.  This is important to know because it doesn’t take but a slight adjustment up or down to make a big difference in the sound settings in the hearing aid.

In another post we will go over  how to adjust the 12 band equalizer for desired effects.   Some examples are;
voice sounds hollow
speech not clear
S, CH, sounds to sharp

Dear Friends,

We just received the hearing aid which you repaired and it WORKS WELL!!  I can HEAR from my left ear and I want to THANK YOU SO MUCH!!  I ALWAYS LIKED THIS HEARING AID AND now it is back to working well.  I see that the warranty expires in 2010  – and I will keep that information on file.

Fern S.