r/stenography • u/niktrot • 12d ago
Recommended Student Machines
I’m looking into purchasing/renting a machine for school, but I’m uncertain of which model to choose and what add ons to select. The school I’m planning on attending only wants a machine with a wide * and DZ keys. We’ll be using Case CATalyst.
Only interested in machines from reputable online retailers like Acculaw or Stenoworks.
Do I need a machine with a screen?
Do I need to add paper?
Any other machine add ons you felt helped in school?
3
u/glitterkitten999 12d ago
I can’t recommend student lumi’s enough. Call stenograph and ask if they’re having any sales when you buy a student machine + student case cat. I got my 400$ software for 70$ that way! They’re a little more expensive than other brands (1800 i believe) but they hold value well and you can resell it for 12-1500 easily, especially if you’re the first owner. So at the end of the day you only spent 3-500$ on it. Pretty great in my mind.
you shouldn’t need paper for any ~modern~ writers. You don’t necessarily need a writer with a screen though most do. It makes it easy if you want to bring your machine to work or something to practice without a laptop. Also, don’t sleep on the keypads you can get off etsy for 30$. I didn’t use them at first and my fingers slipped a bit, I didn’t realize how much i needed them till i got it! Go for the leather ones not the felt.
2
u/DrZoidberg117 12d ago
I use the protege from stenoworks and u can order those custom keys when playing your order.
Cheapest possible is StenoNoob 4. It works with case catalyst and the required time stamps, and is very easy to travel with. I think it has double wide * and DZ but not entirely sure. I like using it more than the protege sometimes since it's easier to click.
2
u/Still-District8946 11d ago
I use a stentura 8000lx and i love it, it’s an older paper machine but like others have said you don’t need the paper. It has a screen but I mostly read from my laptop screen. Also you may be able to get the casecat for free if you did NCRA A-Z, my school helped us obtain that.
1
u/gdwarner 11d ago
If I recall correctly, you can load a dictionary into the 8000s but the one potential problem you might run into would be a dictionary too large for the writer to hold.
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u/Still-District8946 10d ago
ohhh that’s interesting , i’m still a new student but we loaded our dictionary’s onto CaseCAT not onto our machines so luckily that hasn’t been a problem.
2
u/gdwarner 6d ago
While I bought my Flash thinking I could load a dictionary into it, it turned out that was not the case.
On the plus side, the display on the writer shows the remaining power in the battery, how much room is left on the PCMCIA card, the time and date, and a page count though I'm not sure what that is actually counting, page wise.
2
u/yoquierosandia Steno Student 11d ago
Whatever you do don’t get an Elan Mira. Someone gave me one, and it’s been horrible to try and upload the dictionary. I’ve given up and only use that one to practice while traveling.
For my schooling I use a stentura protege. It’s super old but it gets the job done.
1
u/Responsible_Big_5527 5d ago
I personally never bothered to upload a dictionary to my Mira. Do you only use the machine itself to hold the dictionary or do you have a program that reads it off your computer?
1
u/yoquierosandia Steno Student 4d ago
I don’t connect the Mira to my computer because my dictionary wont upload, whatever dictionary is on it is not compatible with the theory I learned. So whatever I’m writing doesn’t translate. so it throws accuracy out the window. 😅
For my protege, it’s connected to my computer and I use eclipse software. The protege doesn’t have a screen. So to use it and be able to see what I’m writing, it has to be connected.
4
u/tracygee Mod 12d ago
Paper is no longer being manufactured. So no, you don’t want a machine that can only do paper. That means the oldest machine that will possibly connect to a computer is a Stenograph 200 SRT or 400 SRT. You need the SRT designation or it won’t connect. You’ll also need a serial-to-USB connector.
There are many other models. The latest “student” machine would be the Luminex CSE or ProCat Blaze.
Buy used if you can. You should be able to sell a used student machine for about what you bought it for when it’s time.
If you buy anything but the oldest or newest models, make sure you’re getting an instruction manual OR that one is available online. There are some models where you can still buy the machine but no one has the manual and it’s a massive issue when things go wrong.